Voice and Vocabulary

One of our key aims at Albright is not just to simply help our students pass their exams. There are so many other values and gifts we want to pass on to your children; one of these is helping them find their own voice and forming their own opinions.

Opinions are more often than not seeds planted and watered by what we watch, see, hear and ultimately read. The more we read, the more thoughts and ideas begin developing within us. But through the act of reading, so too comes vocabulary and words with which to share and voice these thoughts. The two are inextricably linked and one struggles to exist without the other.

A scary but thought provoking fact is that young children who are read to daily (from a very young age) can hear up to a million more words a year than their peers who are not read to by their parents or caregivers.

Reading really does help your child speak for themselves!

Good readers make even better writers

Writing is such an important skill for all students to master whilst at school. Not only is it crucial for life after school but in our current climate, written exams are the passport to transporting students to the next important stage in their education.

Being exposed to what good writing looks like is one of the most powerful ways of helping a child become more confident and accurate writers themselves.

Vision and Motivation

Reading a wide range of both fiction and non-fiction opens up new worlds and experiences. Books can literally transport your child to places they have never been, experienced or dreamed of.

In unveiling new worlds, attitudes, jobs, experiences and hobbies, books are the best answer for those children who are struggling to find a vision or goal for their lives and/or motivation to reach that goal or vision.

Empathy

At Albright, we spend a lot of time trying to help our students try and step into someone else’s shoes, in order to help them show a greater level of respect and understanding for their peers. Empathy, for both children and adults, is a difficult but necessary emotion, needed more than ever in our world today.

Reading fiction has been shown to help develop empathy by increasing one’s knowledge of others’ lives and experiences. Making us more aware and hopefully understanding of what others are feeling or going through.

Entertainment

Finally, but by no means least important, reading really does and can bring so much joy. I truly believe that when children say that they just don’t like books and find it so boring, it’s not true. I believe that it is simply more of a case that they haven’t found the right ‘one’ for them.

We need to try and show our students that the term ‘reading’ is a huge umbrella and that beneath it there are options for everyone. Like music. Just because I don’t particularly enjoy listening to punk or heavy metal, does not then mean I don’t listen to any music at all. I simply choose a more enjoyable option for me that’s waiting there underneath the umbrella.