Smitham Primary School

What a fantastic start to World Book Day week! On Monday, Rachel Savage from Croydon Libraries joined us for the day to read with all classes in the KS2 library. The children were so eager and attentive while listening to the stories read by Rachel. They also loved hearing about all the books they could borrow if they joined a local library. Thank you very much Rachel and we are looking forward to seeing you in the Summer term! Here is what some of the children had to say about her visit:

'I really liked it when she read about Tom Gates as it was very funny.' Scarlett, Yr 4

'The book was funny plus I liked seeing photos of the different libraries you can join in Croydon.'- Rupert, Yr 5

On Tuesday, Reception and Year 1 had a fantastic local author visit. Emily Harbrecht of Mind Tools for Kids read her book The Brilliant Brain Friends.​ Here is what some of the Year 1's had to say about her visit:

'She was telling us about super brains and they weren't working together but then they did. My favourite part was when the owl was painting.' - Samuel, Yr 1

'I felt happy listening to her story.' Sophie, Yr 1

Here is some more information about Emily's book: 

The Brilliant Brain Friends is an engaging story to help children understand more about how they experience and process emotions. The story introduces them to their Brilliant Brain Friends, Lenny Lizard, Milo Monkey and Orla Owl. Each character represents a different part of their brain and how they feel feelings in their mind and body. By understanding more about how we experience our thoughts and feelings in our bodies, children can begin to develop more emotional awareness.
The book introduces children to each Brain Friend's unique job in helping us to process our feelings. Lenny Lizard runs the body and helps to keep us safe. Milo Monkey helps us to notice our feelings and Orla Owl helps us to make sense of them with our thinking mind. The Brilliant Brain Friends is the perfect way to introduce children to the power of the mind and body connection.
A copy of the book can be ordered for £5 as a special World Book Week Offer:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/MindToolsforKids/5
Please put your child’s name and class in the ‘add a note section’ and your copy will be delivered to the school.

Every Wednesday, Year 4 and 5 children are invited to a Turn Up and Read session in the KS2 library. This week, the children had blankets, biscuits and their books and around 60 children turned up to read! What a lovely session it was! Here are just two of the children engrossed in their reading: 

 What an amazing World Book Day! There has been a fantastic reading buzz all day long at Smitham with assemblies, bookmarks, reading cafes, reading quizzes and much more. Plus we were all extremely cosy in our PJs! Here are a few quotes from the children in Year 5:

'We went to an amazing assembly ran by Miss Warren where we had to guess which teachers were reading a story about baked beans!'- Louie.

'On World Book Day, we designed our own book marks. Then we read a bunch of Mrs Allens's books. Later we made our own comics. So, that was a pretty fun day, don't you think?'- Philip.   

Below are just a few photos from the day. 

What a wonderful morning of authors! We had Karen Inglis, Ross Montgomery and Marcus Sedgwick reading and talking to all the children at Smitham about their books via zoom. A fantastic end to World Book Day week. If you wish to buy any books from these authors or find out more about them please visit their websites at:

Karen Inglis: https://kareninglisauthor.com/

Ross Montgomery: http://rossmontgomery.co.uk/

Marcus Sedgwick: https://marcussedgwick.com/​