Primary School Book Clubs

[MaryPlain59]

I would like to start a Book Club at my school next year and wondered if anyone could give me any tips or advice please? I already run some lunchtime groups so had originally thought of doing it during the lunch break but would half an hour be enough time?

Hi MaryPlain59 I'm a secondary school teacher so apologies if my thoughts aren't quite right for your students and set up.

I think half an hour is long enough. How many students are you hoping to involve? How will you give them the "set" reading, and what will it be, a section of a book per week, or a short story? How will you choose the books or stories?

Thanks for replying Locked, I am not sure about the set up and numbers yet as I am not sure what thecbest way forward would be and was hoping for any pointers to what works well in running a group. Our school focus for next year is going to be Reading and that is what made me think about starting the Book Club as I already run Lego Clubs etc at lunchtime and thought a Book Club might be new and interesting and something the children might enjoy.

I guess it would be helpful to decide whether it's a Book Club for children who already love reading or a Book Club to try to encourage children to read more? The former would be easier, I expect, to recruit, but the latter might earn you more plaudits especially if the school has a reading focus.

The books themselves would be a cost so I suppose you'd also have to ask the relevant person or people at your school what kind of budget you have. Or maybe your school already has a set of "class readers" of a book that would be suitable and isn't being taught anymore.

Yes I also thought a club for pupils who love reading would be good, the children who usually attend my clubs are the vulnerable children and I did wonder if the books we would use could be bought out of PP money as I know we have a very tight school budget again this year. I think I will have to ask my Head what she would prefer, I would have liked to have been able to take a proposal to her with it all planned out like I usually do! Thanks so much for all your help.

I'm utterly unqualified to answer.

I just wondered whether you could make it a broader 'words' club. In addition to books, you would make wordsearches (including learning new words and their meanings), play scrabble, read poems, etc. It would make it cheaper too.

Ask parents to donate books, but be specific eg Roald Dahl, Harry Potter, Wimpy Kid etc.
I also think ceebie's idea of broadening it from just reading and discussing books is a great one, a club should be different to what is already offered in the curriculum.

Great ideas, thank you so much.