Everyone a Reader

Everyone a Reader

At St Thomas More we are deeply committed to promoting a love of reading amongst students. Many of our students read for pleasure and participate in the range of activities available to them within the school library. Our EAR [Everyone a Reader] is used across Key Stage 3 to ignite this passion for reading and to introduce the key concepts associated with reading for meaning. Students focus on developing their comprehension & sharing reading recommendations so that they’re reading texts that they really enjoy. It also supports those that are more reluctant to begin their reading for pleasure journey. 

We provide a wide range of opportunities to read, which include:

Reading independently, such as regular time spent reading in our pastoral sessions and daily opportunities to access our ever popular and well resourced school library. Reading is often set as part of homework by a wide range of curriculum areas, providing opportunities to read around and extend their love of their subjects, as well as reading.

Reading as a group, which is facilitated through a wide range of book clubs on offer each week, as well as our reading in pastoral and some of our intervention groups.

Reading with a teacher, which is a feature of our timetabled EAR [Everyone a Reader] lessons, but we also use a range of class readers both within the curriculum and with our pastoral reading sessions.

Our focus on promoting a love of reading includes:

• Wider reading recommendations displayed in & linked to each curriculum department
• Live author events
• National Poetry Day events and competitions
• ‘Poem in my Pocket’ 
• Book Buzz
• World Book Day events and parade
• Regular competitions 

For those students that require support with their reading we have a targeted approach to intervention that ensures they are prioritised for support.  Support is tiered and linked to the diagnosed areas of need.

Pastoral Reading Sessions

We are launching Pastoral reading sessions for Year 7 , 8 and 9. Naturally, as students grow older, the content of these stories becomes more mature and will allow us to address many of the usual PHSE topics that we also cover as part of our Wider Curriculum lessons, such as relationships, crime, loss and conflict. All of our staff have been briefed regarding these topics and are experienced in delivering lessons on such topics. We believe that the classroom is a safe place to explore real- world issues through fiction. Pupils will also be prepared for such topics and pastoral staff are ready to support in the unlikely event that we decide a student has been or will be particularly affected.

So that all students have the opportunity to read as many books as possible, each pastoral class will read a different text which will then be rotated around classes.

If you would like to find out more about the books we will be exploring please click on the book and it will provide you more information on the book and author as well as recommendations on what your child might like to read next.

Year 7

Year 8

Year 9

Year 10

Year 11