TS Spotlight
Reading for pleasure
Reading for pleasure: A crucial key to your child’s success at school - Written by Ms Charlton
As an English teacher, it is no surprise that I love reading. I can often be found with my nose buried in the latest ‘must read’ that my friends have recommended or engrossed in my favourite Sunday newspaper supplements. As a child, I loved to visit my local library and would stay up late reading with a torch I had hidden under my pillow. My habits were ingrained - my inquisitive nature drawn to stories of boarding schools, adventures and growing up.
But, without wanting to sound ancient, these were different times. Nowadays, with so many competing influences on young peoples’ attention, it’s not surprising that many of our students are not choosing to pick up a book.
It has been said that reading for pleasure is possibly the single-most important activity your child can do to improve achievement in school. Recent studies show a clear correlation between students’ reading ability and their eventual performance across all GCSE results. But, in a world filled with other distractions such as shiny, interactive phones, endless TikTok videos, the excitement of gaming… books can seem the far less appealing option. So, what can we do to get our students reading? How can we persuade them that reading can be a joyful experience, a pleasure, a form of escapism and good for the soul?
As Literacy Lead, it is my daily challenge to get every student at Twickenham School reading, and not just in their English lessons. Teachers across the curriculum are weaving reading into their lessons, ensuring students develop a deeper understanding of topics, are exposed to high quality texts packed with subject specific vocabulary and develop their reading skills. Perhaps ask your son or daughter, ‘What did you read today?’ and listen to them tell you about diaries in History, case studies in Geography and playscripts in Drama, to name a few. Subjects come alive through reading, knowledge grows and a deeper understanding of the distinct nature of each subject is acquired by our students.
Beyond the classroom, I believe that a well-resourced Library should be at the heart of a school. Like the popular Roald Dahl heroine Matilda discovered, books are an opportunity to escape into magical worlds, discover heroes, explore different perspectives and feel empowered with joy of knowledge.
At Twickenham School, we are investing in our Library and our Librarian, Mrs Wilson, is busy creating a vibrant space, with student book reviews, displays to showcase topics our students care about (such as mental health or Black History Month), weekly magazines and fantastic new books. The success is already evident as students are borrowing more books than ever! Our Library is now the place to be and students are enjoying reading together, helping each other with their studies, using the computers to complete homework and chatting about what to read next. It is proof that investing in our Library is a truly worthwhile endeavour.
So, as we take steps to ensure our school is a place where reading is at the heart of our learning, what can you do with your child to encourage a love of reading? Firstly, get talking about books. Tell them about your own reading, be it for pleasure or work, and let them see you reading and that you value it. Take them to a bookshop or a local library and spend time choosing a book that appeals to them. Perhaps the opening page has an exciting ‘hook’ to grab their attention or the blurb on the back is intriguing or mysterious. Try not to interfere but trust their choices and instincts. Young people often love series fiction - they begin to identify with the characters and want to read everything in that world!
Let them follow their heart. If they are still reluctant, try reading aloud to them. Finally, make reading positive, mention it in passing, talk about it for a few minutes every day and one day, when you least expect it, you might just find them curled up on the sofa with a book that caught their imagination.
