Pupils at Holy Trinity & St John’s Primary School in Margate have been working hard with their reading and reading for pleasure all year.
This week the pupils were introduced to the newest reward system in their reading efforts – a book vending machine!
The school’s Reading Ambassadors, Chantelle and Braiden, had the pleasure of unveiling the new investment which was delivered a couple of weeks ago and had been kept under-wraps until Thursday (July 20).
Pupils, parents and staff had all been encouraged to try and guess what the huge package contained. Guesses included; a Tardis, a giant statue of the school’s dog Monty, the wardrobe from CS Lewis’ The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and a giant box of sweets for the end of the year to name a few.
The school gives termly rewards for pupils using the reading system and taking quizzes. Pupils have previously received £10 vouchers for reading many books and larger prizes such as a Kindle Fire, theatre tickets and bundles of books for reading a million words over the course of the year. The vending machine will be used with these rewards but will also give staff the opportunity to nominate pupils to earn tokens to spend in the machine to recognise other efforts toward reading as well.
Reading Lead Cate Wall said: “As a school we are so excited to have the opportunity to purchase the book vending machine. Our staff and parents have worked so hard to engage children in books and to instil a love of reading across all ages.
“This has already generated a huge buzz of excitement and hopefully will continue as pupils begin to earn the tokens to exchange for a book they can keep. It is a huge investment which allows our pupils the opportunity to take home a book.”
The first pupil to spend token in the machine was Claude in year 4 who has also been the first pupil to win the one-million-word reward by way of a Kindle Fire. Now as the first pupil to reach two million words, Claude had the honour of spending his tokens in the machine to claim his books.
Claude said: “Wow; I’ve been trying to guess what was under the cover since it arrived; it is super awesome and I love the choice of books – this will really encourage others in the school to take pride in their reading and it is so fun!”