At St Julie’s Catholic High School we are committed to supporting your daughter to enhance her reading skills. There is a significant correlation between student reading ability and eventual performance across all subjects at which is just as strong in Maths and Sciences as it is in arts subject. We believe that a strong supportive home-school partnership is vital in ensuring that all students are encouraged to read widely, regularly and for pleasure.

To support this, we want all of our students to read as much as possible and that includes reading at home. All year groups have access to the school library. This can be accessed before school, during break and lunch time and after school.

Form-time Reading

 

Every student from Year 7 to 10 has a 10-minute form-time reading session twice per week. Students spend time reading a high-quality text which their form tutor reads aloud. The purpose of this is to ensure that all students are engaging in reading and exposed to high-quality vocabulary. We want our students to develop a love of reading and become confident readers both in school and at home.

Reading for Pleasure

 

There is a huge amount of evidence that students who read regularly for pleasure make better progress in school than those who don’t. To support reading for pleasure St. Julie’s has a ‘Recommended Reads’ for each Key Stage.

Recommended Reads for Key Stage 3

 

Northern Lights – Philip Pullman

Pig Heart Boy – Malorie Blackman

The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas – John Boyne

Swallows & Amazons – Arthur Ransome

Wonder – RJ Palacio

Holes – Louis Sachar

Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

Refugee Boy – Benjamin Zephaniah

Recommended Reads for Key Stage 4

 

I am Malala – Malala Yousafzai

Lord of the Flies – William Golding

The Book Thief – Markus Zusak

To Kill a Mockingbird – Susan Hill

Labyrinth Lost – Zoraida Cordova

Divergent – Veronica Roth

Atonement – Ian McEwan

The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas

Recommended Reads for Key Stage 5

 

Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens

Hidden Figures – Margot Lee Shetterley

Becoming – Michelle Obama

Atomic Habits – James Clear

Fake Law: The Truth About Justice in the Age of lies – The Secret Barrister

American Dirt – Jeanine Cummings

In Order to Live – Yeonmi Park

Prisoners of Geography – Tim Marshall

A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini

Reading at home

 

Shared reading at home can be invaluable in supporting your daughter to develop a love of reading.

To encourage your daughter to read at home try the following strategies.

• Make time to read together – ten minutes a day is a good start
• Let your daughter choose what to read
• Encourage your daughter to read comics, newspapers and the internet as well as books
• Buy books as presents
• Support your daughter to find out the meaning of unfamiliar words
• Talk to your daughter about books you have read

Reading support

 

The Amber Reading Programme is designed to support our readers to develop fluency and comprehension skills. Students will practice high frequency words, be exposed to a wide range of graphemes and new vocabulary. Students will be supported to read a short text designed to include the range of grapheme and new vocabulary explored during each session.

Lexonik Leap is a phonics intervention programme which rapidly supports our readers progress in phonics, reading, spelling and oracy. Our Lexonik Programme is targeted at students who find literacy particularly challenging.

Reading tests

 

Year 7 to 11 are tested using the NGRT (New Group Reading Test). This is a standardised assessment used to measure reading skills against the national average. It is used to identify intervention as well as monitor impact and progress. Reading ages will be included in student reports at each data point collection. The assessment is widely used in Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) reading intervention projects and is standardised on over 11,700 pupils with its national benchmarks verified each year based on data from half a million students. Testing year-on-year enables us to track individual and group progress.

Reading Plus

 

Reading Plus is an online platform designed to support and develop students reading and literacy skills. Your daughter should be accessing Reading Plus regularly at home. All pupils have been provided with login details. Pupils are set weekly assignment that include reading, comprehension and vocabulary. Pupils also have a choice regarding the articles/text they read. Completing Reading Plus assignments will have a significant impact on your daughter’s Reading Age and her access to the curriculum.

School Library

 

Our school library is open everyday, students are able to access this before school, breaktime and lunchtime. We have a wide range of titles available to check out. Have you started a series and need the next book? Have you had a book in mind for a while now, but not sure whether to buy it? Speak to one of Reading ambassadors and we can order this in.

Please find links below to libraries in both Liverpool and Knowsley

Liverpool Libraries:

Libraries and archives - Liverpool City Council

Knowsley Libraries:

Knowsley Libraries