At Treviglas Academy, we value the power of reading. Research demonstrates that where students improve their reading skills, they will improve their attainment across the curriculum, including in subjects which are not typically literacy based, such as in maths and science. Reading regularly has also been shown to reduce stress, improve concentration and memory, strengthen and expand vocabulary and also increase imagination and creativity.
As part of our ongoing commitment to creating a strong reading culture within our school community, we continue to warmly encourage all our students to read frequently and widely. We provide regular opportunities for your children to read from an exciting array of genres during school hours, both through their English, and other curriculum lessons, and as part of the tutor programme.
Tutor Reading Programme
Our tutor reading programme helps expose our students to ambitious fiction texts, both as part of the literary canon and from modern authors. Form tutors read aloud to students, modelling key aspects of reading such as pace and inflection. Students follow line by line in their own books, using a reading ruler to actively track the text. Not only does the tutor reading programme support students to develop linguistic knowledge, it supports students to acquire cultural capital, allows insights into different worlds, develops vocabulary, as well as fostering empathy and respect for everyone in society.
Our books are chosen carefully to support the implementation of our Personal Development curriculum but also include a high level of challenge.
Year 7
The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe
War Horse
Windrush Child
Pig-Heart Boy
When the Sky Falls
The Unforgotten Coat
Year 8
The Maze Runner
Lark
Northern Lights
Year 9
Noughts and Crosses
The Hunger Games
Year 10
A Change is Gonna Come
The Alchemist
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Book Thief
Students in Year 7 and 8 use the Accelerated Reader program in order to support them to choose reading books within their own range and then take a short quiz on the book to check their understanding. Students really enjoy completing the quizzes and they find it a rewarding and motivating way to increase their reading for pleasure outside of the classroom.
Please click on the link below for a ‘Parents’ Guide to Accelerated Reader’
The Treviglas Academy English department feel so passionately about reading for pleasure and the plethora of benefits to young people's educational as well as emotional and physical well being, that we have created a brilliant list of 16 gritty and challenging books that all students should have read by the age of 16. This is a rich, broad and diverse list of contemporary recommended reading material that we have selected specifically to engage young people and inspire a love of reading that will last them a lifetime. Each book has been carefully selected and personally recommended by each member of the English department, complementing the books studied as part of the English curriculum and tutor reading programme, and will be introduced across KS3 as an introductory chapter every Friday. Students can then decide to either take the book out on a loan, borrow from a library, borrow box, download as an e-reader or purchase the book as they wish. We understand that not everyone enjoys the same reading genre but there really is something for everyone in 16 by 16! If you would like any further information then please do not hesitate to contact your child's English teacher.
We recognise that some students might need additional support to improve their reading. We deliver a reading intervention programme, which is tailored to students’ individual starting points. Support may include focused work upon developing knowledge of phonics, reading fluency, accuracy or comprehension.
Following identification of a particular reading need, students will work with one of our specialised reading team to gain support in their identified area. We regularly check students’ progress so that we can continue to target areas for development and ensure that students are able to quickly close gaps in their reading.