At St. Sampson’s reading is a fundamental part of school life. Students are given the opportunity to read in many areas, and we ensure that all students leave us with the critical reading skills they will need for successful, happy lives.
Reading in lessons:
Students are taught new content in their lessons using frequent exposure to high quality texts in all their academic subjects. They are taught to read, speak and write using academic vocabulary (tier 2 words) – students regularly ‘read like’ historians, geographers and literary scholars. They are guided to summarise, question, clarify and predict in their reading of appropriate academic texts.
Reading for pleasure
Reading for pleasure opens up new worlds for children. It gives them the opportunity to use their imagination to explore new ideas, visit new places and meet new characters. Interestingly, reading for pleasure also improves children’s well-being and empathy. It helps them to understand their own identity, and gives them an insight into the world and the views of others.
Reading Support
We want to ensure that no child ever leaves St Sampson’s without the critical reading skills they need to navigate the wider world. Any student who is struggling with literacy is given targeted support. Sometimes this is through small group interventions, encouragement from the library and peer reading pairs using reading ambassadors from Key Stage Four to support fluency in Key Stage 3. Sometimes support is available through a range of one-to-one reading intervention sessions with staff trained in Literacy support Programmes. We work closely with external partners, such as GL Assessment , Bedrock and Direct Instruction (industry leading reading programmes), in order to ensure that our students get the absolute best experience possible.
TTRP (Tutor Time Reading Programme)
Our Tutor Reading Programme, launched in the summer 2023 term. It runs for 3 days a week during morning registration. This programme is for all students in Years 7-10, enabling them to access a broad range of reading material, irrespective of their own reading level. The Tutor reads to the class as students listen and follow with a book mark.
