Literacy and Reading at STM

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 in our Library Stations around school as well as in our dedicated Literacy Room. 

We provide a wide range of opportunities to read for pleasure and for purpose, which include:

Reading independently, during frequent pastoral sessions and daily opportunities to access our well resourced Library Stations and Learning Hubs. Reading is often set as part of homework by a wide range of curriculum areas, providing opportunities for pupils 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, 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
• Our Reading Canon ‘Books to Read Before you Leave STM’
• Live author events
• National Poetry Day events and competitions
• ‘Poem in my Pocket’ / National Poetry Day
• Book Buzz
• World Book Day events and parade
• Regular competitions 

Literacy is key to academic success across the curriculum. 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

Pastoral Reading sessions are now an embedded and loved part of our school week at St Thomas More. All year groups, from Year 7 to Year 13, have a weekly reading session with their pastoral tutor. Naturally, as students grow older, the content of these stories becomes more mature and this allows us to address many of the usual Personal Development topics that we also cover as part of our Wider Curriculum lessons, such as relationships, crime, loss and conflict. We believe that the classroom is a safe place to explore real- world issues through fiction. Pupils are 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 reads a different text which is then 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.