Hartlepool parents invited back to West Park Primary School as part of reading initiative
Families have returned to the classroom at a Hartlepool primary school as part of an initiative to encourage their children to read more.
Around 180 parents attended the reading sessions with their children over two days at West Park Primary School, in the town’s Coniscliffe Road, and further regular events are now planned.
The school recently announced a new leadership team with headteacher Louise Sheffield and deputy headteacher Sam Marino both taking up their new posts at the start of the calendar year.
Ms Sheffield said: “Reading is the gateway to the rest of the curriculum and it was fantastic to see so many parents participating in the sessions.
“This is a new initiative which presented an opportunity for parents and children to spend some quiet time together in school sharing a culture for the love of reading.
“The feedback from parents was very positive and events like this form part of our partnership with parents to ensure we do the very best for West Park children.”
The children who took part in the reading sessions received a Blue Peter book badge.
The school has also recently announced that it will be forging much closer links with its neighbouring secondary school, High Tunstall College of Science.
This will aid West Park’s curriculum development programme by taking advantage of High Tunstall’s “fantastic facilities”.
West Park is one of 10 primary schools across Hartlepool, Teesside and County Durham under the umbrella of Ad Astra Academy Trust.
Andy Brown who is chief executive of the trust, commented: “Reading is a key life skill and it is great to see parents and children working together in this way.
“Reading regularly brings huge benefits for children and it is so important that our schools continue to develop new and innovative approaches to promote it.”
West Park was last fully inspected by Ofsted in April 2024 and was judged to be a “good” school, the second highest of four possible outcomes under the previous grading system, with inspectors noting: “Pupils learn to read quickly.
“Highly-trained adults teach pupils the skills they need to be effective readers.”