Bedtime Stories

We here at Our Lady of Hartley are advocates of Pam Ally’s simile that reading is like breathing in, and writing is like breathing out. As a school that prides itself on our high literacy standards, we understand the importance of reading in terms of both decoding and comprehension and its direct impact on writing.

However, there is something that, in our opinion, is more important when it comes to reading than ability and progress – and that is reading for enjoyment. Picking up a book and being transported into another world. Seeing words and laughing, smiling, crying along with the characters. Finding out new things by mistake. Re-reading a sentences again and again because of its sheer brilliance. Staying up a tiny bit later than your bedtime because you just couldn’t put a book down. Walking into a bookshop and smelling the new books. Going to the library and searching for new treasures.

If reading is like breathing in, then discovering new books is like taking in a breath of fresh. With this in mind, we try to read whenever we can. Staff and children alike – we just love books!

We know that one if the most important and anticipated time of the day for children is the bedtime story - with this thought in mind, we thought that we could read some stories that you could share with your children.

On this page, you will find recordings of us reading some of our favourite books – we hope that you enjoy them as much as we do!

Dave Pigeon by Swapna Haddow available at: https://youtu.be/K7kHcH_BuuA

One Snowy Night by Nick Butterworth available at: https://youtu.be/T9IyW5uI6TM

The Crocodile Who Didn't Like Water by Gemma Marino available at: https://youtu.be/xaZYJOw5O2M