The Reading Nook

Here at Mortimer, we prioritise reading from day one with our students by providing a reading-based summer transition project and gifting every student who joins us in year 7 a book, via the Bookbuzz programme.

Students are encouraged to read independently and are invited to spend social time, after school, in the ILC.

The ILC is a welcoming and inclusive space which houses a great range of YA fiction, classics, and non-fiction texts. Our Librarian ensures that there are themed displays to capture students’ attention and that events, such as readathons, bookfairs and literary occasions, are celebrated.

Reading lessons in English are timetabled weekly for students in Years 7 and 8. Students engage with texts, which are carefully chosen by the English Team, who use our whole school reading strategy (Reciprocal Reading) to plan lessons which develop students’ fluency and comprehension skills.

Reading is further cultivated through a programme of weekly reading in form time. It promotes the use of The Literacy Engine resources and seeks to increase the reading of non-fiction at KS3 and KS4, with students sharing and discussing the texts with their form tutor.  These reading sessions equate to students encountering over 24,000 rich academic words per year and they cover a range of culturally significant topics.

Additionally, more non-fiction texts, from The Literacy Engine, are also uploaded to ClassCharts as an optional resource for students to access at home, further supporting the development of students’ wider knowledge.

Our all-through school approach to reading is based on the fact every student can, and will, learn to read, regardless of their background or ability, and that every child needs to read fluently, and with confidence, to access the curriculum. Additional support is given to ensure every student can accurately decode.

Reading for pleasure is only possible once a student has competency and, so, we strive to encourage students to have ‘reactions to reading’, sharing their views on the texts they encounter and developing their wider communication skills.

Staff support reading within their areas of the curriculum by providing explicit vocabulary instruction, as well as promoting their subject’s discrete disciplinary literacy. Staff also enjoy engaging students in book talk and hearing about what students are reading, as well as recommending key texts, linked to subjects, which are stocked in our ILC.