We have a comprehensive programme of reading activities at College to encourage and build upon students’ enthusiasm for reading. These activities include:
- Reading Olympiad
The Reading Olympiad is an intervention programme designed for years 7-9 to encourage more frequent reading, and wider reading. As the name suggests it embraces the Olympiad theme, encouraging students to work towards Bronze, Silver, Gold and World Record awards. The programme is followed during fortnightly English lessons in the Information Centre and goes hand in hand with the Accelerated Reader programme, which also encourages and rewards reading. Research shows that the more you read and the more widely you read the greater success you will achieve in College and beyond College, later in life. Letters are sent home to parents/carers of those students signed up to the programme and students are able to complete some of the activities on the programme from home. There is an expectation that at KS3 students read for a minimum of one hour per week outside of College. Students selected for the reading programme should complete their reading log, and this will be checked during English lessons. Students are rewarded through House Points culminating in a fantastic reward for achieving the World Record – 30 House Points, a chocolate reward and vouchers. - Accelerated Reader
Accelerated Reader is a reading intervention programme from Renaissance Learning run through fortnightly lessons in the Information Centre (IC) for KS3 students. Students complete a Star Reading Test four times a year which indicates their reading level and signposts them to the appropriate range of books to read in the IC. Through reading and quizzing, students can make accelerated progress towards improving their reading age. The IC supports the programme through ensuring that a diverse range of new reading books are continually added to the collection. Student and staff recommendations are also encouraged and regularly purchased to enhance the collection. We are finalising a new rewards system including a Millionaire’s Club and a class leader board rewarding those classes who have taken and passed the greatest number of quizzes. Please pop into the Information Centre for more information. - The Ruth Miskin Fresh Start Programme
Students who have been identified as requiring support with their phonetic knowledge undertake specialist intervention during tutor time from the Ruth Miskin Fresh Start Inc programme. Our team have received extensive phonetic training and deliver one to one and group intervention during tutor time each week. This intervention focuses on improving students word accuracy and reading fluency. Parents and carers of all students involved in the programme are invited along to an information evening and provided with anthologies of appropriate reading to complete at home with their child. Teachers are also able to refer students for a phonetic assessment at any time during the academic year which ensures that all students are getting the specialist support that they need.
For more information about Fresh Start please see – https://www.ruthmiskin.com/programmes/fresh-start/
Parental guides for Accelerated Reader:
- Sixth Form Reading (ERIC) Mentors
Sixth form volunteers are trained to support younger students with their reading during their English sessions. This is a valuable and mutually beneficial learning opportunity for younger and older students alike. Younger students on the Fresh Start programme enjoy the opportunity to be read engaging stories from older peers whilst older students can benefit from helping younger students with their literacy. This is a great experience to add onto their CV whether going onto employment or University. - Reciprocal Reader
All students in year 7 -11 take part in the Reciprocal Reader programme during tutor time. Tutors use the four key strategies from Reciprocal Reader with a shared fiction text – Predict, Question, Clarify and Summarise. These key strategies are then employed by students across the curriculum to help them with cross-curricular reading. - Wider Reading Project for Key Stage 4 (KS4) and Key Stage 5 (KS5)
We further enhance the wider reading of students at KS4 and KS5 by providing access to curricular-relevant journal articles on Show My Homework. Fresh articles are identified each term and uploaded to Show my Homework for students to read more widely within their subject. Hard copies of the journals can be found in the Information Centre and are updated quarterly. - Landau Literary Canon
Thank you to the members of our Student Parliament and staff for creating our very own Literary Canon! It contains a range of genres and we would like to encourage as many students as possible to read these and other books available from our fabulous library (library staff will guide you about the appropriate age for reading these):- Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
- The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
- The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy
- Kilo Class by Patrick Robinson
- Divergent by Veronica Roth
- Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg
- Boy in the Tower by Polly Ho-Yen
- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
- The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
- The Company of Ghosts by Berlie Doherty
- The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
- Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
- Other reading activities
- The fiction books in the Information Centre are regularly supplemented with new books for the Accelerated Reader programme and by recommendations from staff and students.
- A Reading Group is held on a Tuesday after College. All year groups are welcome to join. We read pre-published manuscripts from the book publisher Barrington Stoke and provide pre-publication feedback.
- Library activities, displays and themes.
- Reading challenges, celebrations, progress updates and competitions.
- Allocated reading time and activities in Tutor Time (Everyone Reads in College).
- Promotion of reading throughout the school.
- Library induction sessions for Year 7 students.
- Feedback through student voice and Student Parliament.
- Key Stage 4 Reading Challenge incorporating the Landau Literary Canon.
- A wide selection of diverse books and reading materials for readers of all abilities.
- A very welcoming and well-resourced library with friendly staff (including our Reading Champion) who work with your teachers.
- 10 Top tip for parents to support children to read
Landau Literary Canon
Reading Strategies for Learning:
Accelerated Reader:
To take Accelerated Reader quizzes from home please click on the logo below to take you to our College website.
Key Stage 4:
