Reading at THS

 

 

Being able to read is a fundamental life skill and it is essential that we develop this skill so that we can participate fully in society and in the workplace.

 

 

Form Time Reading:

All students access form time reading each week for 30 minutes. In these sessions, teachers guide students using reciprocal reading strategies to help students comprehend, summarise and predict effectively. At Key stage 3, the texts are fiction based and we regularly obtain student voice when selecting the texts for students to read. At Key stage four, the texts are nonfiction based and we utilise these sessions to strengthen students' contextual knowledge for Science and English.

 

We are very proud of our library at Tottington and grateful for the fantastic work our librarian, Mrs Santos, does to ensure we have the most up to date and popular novels on the shelves for our students. Miss Santos happily takes student requests if there is a particular book that they would like her to get in and we also stock books from any visiting authors such as Matthew Wainwright.

 

All students can access the library at break and lunch time and all students at key stage three are taken to the library during their English lessons once per fortnight to choose a book to read for pleasure.

 

SPARX is an online programme which we utilise in school to support students to read fluently no matter what their reading age. SPARX is designed to help students practice their reading skills and as such, the English department use this programme as their homework platform. We celebrate students' progress by giving out SPARX certificates in assemblies and prizes at the end of the half terms.

 

We test students' reading age three times a year. Where students have a reading age of below 9, our curriculum support team will intervene and support with the Fresh Start Phonics programme. Fresh Start is an intensive phonics programme and students are regularly assessed to ensure they are making expected progress.

 

We find that visiting authors can be inspirational in encouraging students to see the benefits of reading and this year we have already had the pleasure of a visit from Matthew Wainwright. Matthew spoke to all students about his own journey with reading and writing. He also engaged a number of our Year 7 students in a reading and writing workshop. 

 

We also celebrate and encourage reading by running reading challenges such as the '9 books in 9  weeks' challenge and the World Book Day 'bring your own book' incentives. 

 

Later this year, we are looking forward to having our own Scholastic book fair as well as our own Book Exchange project in the local community.