With the a wealth of international research extolling the importance of reading for pleasure (see The Reading Agency or BookTrust, for example), with its many academic, social, emotional, societal and health benefits, we believe that supporting our children to maintain and develop healthy lifelong reading habits as they make the transition from Primary into Secondary school is vitally important.
The reading challenges
All of Year 7 and 8 are expected to take up a personalised reading challenge to encourage them to expand their reading habits, whether they are already avid readers or have yet to develop a solid reading habit. On induction day, Mr & Mrs Toerien spoke to Year 7 and 8 both about the importance of reading and of curiosity, supported through our commitment to Heroic Inquiry at Blanchelande.
We then spent an hour with Year 7 (ably assisted by the Maths department - reading isn't just limited to English teachers here!) exploring the seven reading challenges on offer:
This week all Year 7 & 8 children have been setting their own personal challenges, which range from "Read a page a day every day for six weeks" for some who are trying to build a new habit, to "Read 20 books from at least 5 different genres" or "Read 8 classic books" for those who are feeling more confident. You should find your child's challenge on page 119 of their planner - there are just a few left who will need to set theirs next week. All challenges are tailored to the individual child, and not be possible to complete under six weeks (or they haven't set their bar high enough!), but should be achievable over the course of the school year. If you want some more detail on the individual challenges, have a look at this post from last year entitled It's a Challenge! .
Last year over 100 challenges were completed, demonstrating a very high level of engagement across the two year groups.
How can we all support them?
To support them, Year 7 have a reading lesson in our beautiful Senior Library every week, while Year 8 have one once a fortnight. During these lessons they will have the amazing opportunity during a busy school day to relax and read, while their English teacher and a Librarian (Mrs Toerien) have individual conversations with each reader to find out what they are learning from their reading and to help them to grow in their habits and tastes. Pupils may bring books (or e-book readers) from home or borrow a book from our extensive collection of almost 3600 items.
As parents, it would be wonderful if you talked to your child about their challenge, and the books they are reading. Even better, you might choose to share their reading journey by having a family reading time (it doesn't have to be long - we are all busy - but it helps if it is regular) or sharing an audio book together as a family. After all, the benefits are not just limited to children - a 2015 study of adults suggested that readers were less stressed, had higher self-esteem, were better able to cope with difficult situations, found it easier to make plans and prioritise, felt closer to their friends and communities and had a stronger and more engaged awareness of social issues and cultural diversity than non-readers or lapsed readers, so why not take this opportunity to revitalise your own reading habits?
If you want to read more about why we think reading lessons are still important in Senior school, try this post entitled Why does my child need reading lessons?
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P.S. Read the rainbow summer reading challenge We had a fantastic uptake for our summer reading challenge, with nearly 20 students already having given me their bookmarks showing their seven rainbow reads - and collected their seven merits and seven smarties or skittles. If there are any other students who have completed the challenge but not given in their bookmarks yet, they can pop into the Library at any time to collect their well-deserved rewards. For those who did the reading but have lost their bookmarks, I have spares! |
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