Posted on: 18/04/2023Reading at Babington
At Babington Academy we encourage our students to be readers as we recognise reading has benefits in many aspects of life including academic. We ask each student to bring in a reading book every day to read during Drop Everything and Read sessions, during PC time sessions once a week and at the start of their English lessons.
Why is reading important?
Research shows that reading has benefits in many areas of education and life. In addition to the obvious benefit on reading comprehension and attainment, it also impacts upon:
- Vocabulary
- Understanding of grammar
- Attitudes to reading and writing
- Achievement in other subjects including maths
- Knowledge and understanding of the world and other people
- Spelling skill
- Writing attainment
- Empathy and understanding of emotions
- Reduced stress
- Improved mental wellbeing
Drop Everything and Read - D.E.A.R
Reading and the development of reading skills is crucial to success both within and beyond school.
In order to encourage good reading habits, we have introduced Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) which happens within lessons. It runs once every two weeks for KS3 and once every four weeks for KS4.
This involves each student stopping what they are doing for fifteen minutes in order to read a book of their choosing for pleasure. All pupils will, therefore, need to bring a reading book to school every day.
Please support your child by making sure they have a reading book to bring to school. Books can be brought from home or borrowed from the school library or local library. You can also support your child by talking about books and sharing your favourite reads.
What can you do to support your child?
- Discuss with your child why reading is important in life and work. You could talk about how you’ve needed to read for purpose to help them to see the importance of this skill. Sharing your experiences, whilst being mindful not to add any negative feelings, can help children to see that everyone struggles with certain things but it’s worth persevering.
- Help your child to be proactive in their wider reading. For example, if they are covering The Second World War, explore age-appropriate text on this through poetry, online articles or novels.
- Find a quiet space and time during the day/week where your child can regularly read alone or with you. Many students struggle to plan out their time and to balance studying with ‘down time’ and reading for pleasure can be part of that.
- Take an interest in what they’re reading and studying at school by reading around topics as well so that you can engage in discussion about their texts/areas of learning, whilst modelling an interest in reading.
- Support your child to read 30 minutes each day.
