A children’s reading initiative is being supported by Ceratizit UK & Ireland with the donation of one of its cutting tool vending machines.
At Mount Street Academy in Lincoln, under sevens are encouraged to gain the joy of words and literature at an early age by a reading rewards programme.
“Reading is a complex process involving word recognition and language comprehension, so we can quickly get caught up in the mechanics of learning to read and forget the sheer joy of reading a story or having a story read to you,” says Headteacher, Rachael Horn. “So, one of our school priorities this year, as we celebrate the centenary of the school is to raise the profile of reading. Our reading rewards initiative means children earn rewards for reading a certain number of books; 50, 100, 150, 200 and so on.”
While a target of 400 books in three years may seem daunting, the children will change their reading book up to four times per week in class, as well as reading at home. At Mount Street Academy, over the course of Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 when a child reaches a certain reading milestone, they earn rewards such as stickers, pencils, certificates, badges, books and book vouchers.
With the arrival of the TOM 60 vending machine from Ceratizit they have the added incentive of being able to choose, and vend, a book to keep as a reward, when they reach 200 books.
The children can see the books inside the vendor and, as Mrs Horn reports, the number of fingerprints on the screen indicates a high level of interest in the contents.
She says: “We wanted to add a novelty to choosing a new book to keep and we know that all children love a vending machine! They love the buttons and the mechanics of it.”
With the Ceratizit TOM 60 vendors being superseded in the world of cutting tools by the latest TOM 840 machines, the old machines would have ended up being sent for recycling. Seeing this, Ceratizit’s Chris Horn, whose role is to support the company’s vending activities – and just happens to be Rachael’s husband – saw the opportunity to help and asked if one of them could be upcycled to vend books instead of cutting tools. A quick modification of the vending spirals was needed to handle larger books but now the machine is ready to go, with between 250 and 300 books stored in it.
Mrs Horn is anticipating an increase in children's reading habits and as a result improved reading outcomes.
“I am so grateful to Ceratizit for donating the machine and the children are thrilled and are working hard to get to 200 books so that they can use it. In the meantime, we’ll keep wiping off the fingerprints,” she says.
Mount Street Academy is an Infant and Nursery school delivering high quality early years education for pupils between the age of three and seven.
Ceratizit UK & Ireland
