Tutor Reading Programme
The Tutor Reading Programme aims to promote the enjoyment of reading as well as having proven results in increasing students’ reading age.
The books chosen for the programme have been selected to allow students access to a rich variety of literature, both fiction and non-fiction.
Books have been carefully selected to be age appropriate, challenging, and enjoyable. They cover a vast range of topics that will engage and inspire our students and further promote a love of reading.
The books have also been chosen with the school’s values and #EducationwithCharacter campaign in mind. For example:
- ‘I am Malala’ by Malala Yousafzai (Year 10) links with Respect, Determination, Ambition, Tolerance and Integrity. Her autobiography exemplifies her resilience and courage to stand up for women’s rights to education. It shows how she overcame her injuries to achieve outstanding exam results and to become the youngest Nobel Prize laureate.
- ‘Wonder’ by R.J. Palacio (Year 7) links with Respect, Determination, Ambition, and Tolerance as we see the main character struggle to fit in at school with a facial disfigurement.
- The Hate U Give’ (T.H.U.G) by Angie Thomas (Year 10) links with Tolerance and Integrity as it follows the events of a black 16-year-old girl who becomes an activist after she witnesses the police shooting of a childhood friend.
- ‘The Island at the End of Everything’ by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Year 7) links with Determination, Tolerance and Integrity when a girl fights to find a way back to her island home, and her mother, when a new government official bans anyone without leprosy from living there.
- ‘Unstoppable’ by Dan Freedman (Year 8) links with Respect, Determination, Ambition, and Tolerance. Mixed-race twins strive to succeed in their chosen sports of football and tennis but need to battle their local social environment to do so.
- ‘Read Between the Li[n]es’ by Malcolm Duffy (Year 9) links with Respect, Determination, Ambition, and Tolerance as two very different boys both with dyslexia end up sharing a home when their respective parents get engaged.
- ‘The Week at World's End’ by Emma Carroll (Year 8) links with Determination, Tolerance and Integrity.During the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, two children discover a runaway girl in the coal shed, who tells them she's fleeing from people who are trying to poison her.
- ‘The Door of No Return’ by Kwame Alexander (Year 9) links with Respect, Determination, Ambition, Tolerance and Integrity. Set in 19th century Ghana, this novel set in verse follows a boy who is sold into slavery.
Many of the books chosen for the programme have won various awards and are regarded as modern literary classics – some of which our students wouldn’t normally choose to read. The programme aims to expose students to this rich variety of literature to not only promote the enjoyment of reading, but also to gain ‘cultural capital’ and to help shape their character.