Welcome back to the 2023 school year. We are now a couple of weeks into Term 1 and it is lovely to be in classrooms seeing students with their heads in books. As I have walked around and visited classes I have seen students eagerly listening to teachers reading class novels, students sitting in pairs or small groups sharing a book, students searching for important information in texts, small groups participating in teacher led reading groups and students excitedly choosing books for borrowing at library sessions.

Home reading has started for the year as families would have seen the new home reading booklet that has been sent home with students. This year we have combined our home reading information booklet with a student reading log to create a simplified document for families to access when participating in reading at home. As with all decisions, the decision to trial this document has been made taking into consideration feedback from students, staff and families. We hope that the change to this document eases the expectations of home reading for students and families when recording nights read, as we aim to increase engagement in reading. As a school who values environmental sustainability, we have also identified that the Kluwell journals involve a lot of paper and we have experienced some wastage of journals that don’t get used and some that need replacement from damage or loss.

This year is a trial, and we will be encouraging families to provide feedback at the end of the year to inform a decision about which format to use moving into 2024. I do thank families for the continued involvement and support of Lindisfarne’s home reading program, as it is the support of families that helps make our home reading program so successful.