Book clubs

Every Monday, we run a lunchtime book club, whereby students are invited to come, relax, eat and hear a member of staff read a book, which in most cases, is chosen by the students who attend. This not only offers a safe space for our students but also helps to develop a shared culture and love of reading between staff and students.

Topic Libraries

Reading also has a key role within our curriculum. Across each department for key stage 3 classes, staff have curated mini topic libraries where they display a selection of key texts which all link to the particular theme we are studying in centre at that time. These libraries contain a mixture of different text types and are differentiated in order to be accessible to our lower attainers and challenging for our more able and independent readers. Teachers typically spend time each week encouraging students to dip in and out of these and if any of them take a students’ fancy, they are allowed to borrow them and read them in their own time at home.

Form Time Reading

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, at the end of the day in form time, all form tutors read a book to their forms. The same text is read across the centre at the same time. Again, this is to help continue to develop a shared culture of reading.

Trips

To help promote the love of reading we think it is very important to expose our students to places which celebrate all that books can offer and take them to spaces which they may not naturally venture to. Therefore, for members of our book club, as a treat we take them to Waterstones where they are given the opportunity to purchase a book of their choosing and also visit the wonderful library of Birmingham. This trip is a popular and well loved one with some of our students and staff!

Staff Engagement

From lots of research we understand how essential it is that in order to really encourage students on their journey with reading, staffs’ role in this is key. Therefore, over the past few years the English department have begun to do things for staff to help broaden their own knowledge of young adult fiction. For example, as a Christmas gift from the English department, last year we individually selected books from our school library for each member of staff, wrapped them up and asked them to read these in their own time. We have also had staff take part in a ‘blind book’ event. We are so fortunate at Albright that we have a staff who as a majority love reading in their own time and see the value in this past time.