At Nova Hreod we are passionate about developing our students’ reading ability. We run a programme of reading during form time, as we know that if our students are to become proficient readers and foster a lifelong love of reading, we must provide them with as much opportunity as we can to read and enjoy a range of challenging texts.
Reading has been proven to improve memory, the ability to focus and overall mental health. We believe that reading a range of diverse and thought-provoking texts regularly will enable our students to become not only more fluent readers, but better writers, thinkers and increases their chances of academic success.
We read with our students three mornings per week and have selected a range of stimulating texts to spark our students' imaginations; each year group read the same novel, at the same time, to encourage discussion about the novel they are reading. Form tutors read to their students, whilst students follow with a copy of the text and their bookmark. During this time, we also practise reciprocal reading strategies which include: activating prior knowledge, predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarising. Research has proven that this enables students to improve their reading skills, and begin to think more critically about texts.
Our reading curriculum allows our students to experience texts in which they recognise themselves, but also provides them with cultural capital, as they are taken beyond their own world through exposure to people, places, values and beliefs which they might not otherwise encounter. This provides them with an understanding of diversity, and enables them to develop and discover their own interests.