We place huge value on the place of reading and we encourage all students in every year group to read daily, both academically and for pleasure. Reading regularly will help support students’ progress in all areas of their school studies and beyond. Here is what some of our teachers have to say about reading:
Mr J Lynch – Art Graphics Teacher
“Engagement with stories and novels form the hallmark of most childhood memories – children are more than passive learners. By nature, they are curious, inquisitive and are naturally creative thinkers. The strength of their imagination can turn a cardboard box into a dragon’s cave, a bubble bath into a monster’s swamp, or a twig into a magic wand. Through this type of creative engagement, children are able to turn the ordinary into the extra-ordinary. By encouraging and sharing these experiences with children, we may help to foster a future generation of creative thinkers and innovative problem solvers, who might even one day change the world.”
Miss R Camsell – English Teacher and Literacy Lead
“Reading is powerful with a multitude of benefits. It is pivotal to achievement in all subjects and all areas of life. It provides escape whilst enabling us to access knowledge and information which broadens horizons and increases opportunities.”
Student recommended reads
As well as reading for academic purposes, we want students to develop a love of reading in general, it is really important to us that they find books that they enjoy and find engaging. Our LRC (Learning Resource Centre/library) houses many books which students can borrow. Students have compiled a list of 100 books to read to help foster this love of reading.
- The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
- Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
- Slaughterhouse 5 – Kurt Vonnegut
- Casino Royale – Ian Fleming
- Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
- Animal Farm – George Orwell
- 1984 – George Orwell
- The Winter of Our Discontent – John Steinbeck
- The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
- Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
- To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
- Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
- Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
- Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
- The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
- For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
- Brave New World- Adolus Huxley
- Atonement – Ian McEwan
- The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
- A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
- Beloved – Toni Morrison
- Brighton Rock – Graham Greene
- The Woman in Black – Susan Hill
- The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky
- Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
- Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
- The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
- A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
- Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
- Lord of the Flies – William Golden
- The Fault in Our Stars – John Greene
- Noughts and Crosses – Malorie Blackman
- The Curious Incident – Mark Haddon
