Why Does Reading Matter?

At Nicholas Chamberlaine School, developing our students’ reading skills is an absolute priority for us for many reasons:

• Reading for pleasure benefits a child’s education, social and cognitive development, their wellbeing, communication skills and mental health.

• Reading helps children become more successful within and beyond the classroom.

• Studies have proven that reading for pleasure enhances the ability to understand one’s own and others’ identities.

Reading Across the Curriculum

As part of our commitment to literacy across the school, all subject areas promote reading, writing and speaking. Students are exposed to a wide range of subject-specific texts, which enhances their understanding of the curriculum and subject-specific vocabulary.

Reading for Pleasure

Reading Intervention

Reading Buddies: To develop some of our year 7 readers, some year 7 students are part of our reading buddies programme. Twice a week during form time, each of these students completes one-to-one reading practice with a VI Form volunteer.

Reading Role Models: For 20 minutes after school each Thursday, a member of staff brings along an extract of a text they have really enjoyed and shares it with the group.

Reading Trips: When the opportunity arises, we aim to get students out of school to see performances of books/plays they have covered in school. This includes trips to theatres in Stratford, London, Coventry and Leicester to see performances such as ‘An Inspector Calls’, ‘A Christmas Carol’, ‘Macbeth’, ‘Othello’, ‘Noughts and Crosses’, and ‘Blood Brothers’’. In addition to this, we invite travelling theatre groups to present live performances of texts such as ‘Macbeth’, ‘An Inspector Calls’

Students complete an online reading assessment twice a year. Students who are significantly below their expected reading age participate in a variety of bespoke intervention programmes:

• Ruth Miskin’s Fresh Start Read Write Inc: Selected students attend phonics sessions during lesson time.
• Precision Teaching is delivered a minimum of three times per week for a period of approximately 10 minutes developing a student’s reading and comprehension high frequency words and subject-specific vocabulary
• IDL intervention is a speaking computer-based multi-sensory system which supports learners with their literacy
• Inference which is a group intervention for students at KS3 who decode adequately but fail to get full meaning and enjoyment from their reading.
• Flash Academy is a programme which accelerates English language acquisition skills for EAL students

Reading at Home

Parents can play a vital role in promoting reading for pleasure at home. Here are some suggestions:

• Create a dedicated reading space at home. This should ideally be somewhere quiet and comfortable, with no visible distractions (i.e: games consoles or mobile phones).

• Establish a set routine for reading time (i.e: 20 minutes before bed).

• Read with your child, taking it in turns to each take a page. Try to discuss what has been read and what your child thinks might happen next.

• Give a book as a birthday or Christmas present (ideally tailored towards your child’s interests).

• Reading doesn’t always have to be about books. If your child has a particular hobby, why not see if there are relevant magazines available?

Useful Apps and Websites

Mobile phones are often seen as the enemy of books. But not necessarily! Here are some great apps and websites for supporting and encouraging reading: