Reading is Succeeding

As we come towards the end of the first half term of the year, and with students getting some more time to themselves next week, I wanted to highlight the importance of reading and just one way that we as a school are trying to promote reading amongst students.

Research into education and children’s progress is very clear on the benefits of reading, including reading for pleasure. Students gain a greater breadth of knowledge, they learn to use more words in their writing, they can take in more information independently and can become more confident and articulate speakers. I’ve been teaching History to GCSE and previously A-Level standard for over 22 years, and I can always tell which students are keen readers just by looking at their written work. Reading literally broadens a child’s outlook and boosts their future potential, as well as being fantastic for their wellbeing and general happiness. What’s not to love?!

At school we’ve always encouraged a love of reading and have developed a great resource for students who want to pick up a great e-book for free. Our ‘Hub Online’ has almost 2,500 titles for students and staff to choose from, including hundreds of audio books which can be a great way for people to ‘get back into reading’. This week we emailed home to parents and carers a reminder of how the Hub can be accessed. I know that to many teenagers the appeal of social media or games consoles can be much stronger than that of a book, but when parents/carers and school can get a young person reading then great things can happen.

Happy reading, and have a great half term!

Joe Barker

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