Throughout school, from Nursery to Year 6, a love of reading is fostered. Teachers choose books to share with their classes to inspire and excite them, to develop vocabulary and a love of stories. Staff are well trained in the teaching of phonics and reading. Click the link below to find out more about how we teach and support reading at Hollin Primary. 

Please click the link below to access a presentation that explains our approach to the teaching and learning of phonics and early reading skills at Hollin Primary. 

At Hollin Primary School, we are passionate about promoting a love of reading and encouraging active book talk. We strive for our school to be a place where children are read to, enjoy, discuss and work with high quality books. These ‘essential reads’ are to become a store of classics, creating a living library inside a child’s mind. They are made up of 12 carefully selected texts for each class.

On Monday 3rd February 2025 and Tuesday 4th February 2025, we were thrilled to offer every pupil the opportunity to select a book to take home - completely free of charge. Click here to see a short video of our Pop-up Bookshop all ready and waiting. 

This was an exciting initiative to promote the love of reading and provide access to high-quality texts for our students to enjoy at home. The Reading Ambassador team have played a key role in selecting the books for our Pop-up Bookshop, ensuring that a wide range of interesting and engaging texts were available for all interests and ages.

Over the two days, pupils were invited to visit the Pop-up Bookshop and have the opportunity to choose a book that sparks their interest. We hope that this experience encourages a love of reading for pleasure and supports children in building their own personal library at home. This would not have been possible if it was not due to a very generous donation of brand new books from Business in the Community. We would again like to extend our warmest thanks and gratitude to them.

Click here to view photographs from the Pop-up Bookshop event. 

Throughout the year, we set Reading challenges for our pupils. You can see more about our Reading Challenges, for the last twelve months, below. 

Our staff have created some fabulous Reading Areas for children to enjoy in their classrooms. Our reading areas have a vast selection of quality texts that the pupils can read for pleasure. 

At Hollin, we recruit two Reading Ambassadors from each class, in Years 1-6. Reading Ambassadors are chosen for their love of reading, their willingness to share this passion with others and enthusiasm to promote reading throughout our school. 

You can learn more about our Reading Ambassadors by clicking here.

We have hosted many 'Share a story' events across school, where parents and family members have been invited to share a story with their child. These events have been popular and we are looking forward to hosting more, to actively work together, to promote reading across school. Information about upcoming 'Share a story' events will be communicated to you via Text and on our class Twitter pages. 

Middleton Library

Poetry X-Factor

On Wednesday 22nd October 2025, pupils in Year 1-Year 5 got together to share and perform a variety of class poems. What a fantastic morning we had. 

Once we had watched all of the performances, every pupil and staff member involved, got the opportunity to vote for their favourite. The votes were counted and verified and the winning class was announced in the afternoon. A huge well done to everybody for getting involved.

1st place - Year 5S

2nd place - Year 2B

3rd place - Year 3H

 Some pupils in Year 5S are invited to perform at the PiraMidd Poetry X Factor final on Tuesday 11h November, at St Anne's academy. During this event, Year 5S will perform for seven other local schools, in the hope of securing first place in the final.