Reading
King James's is a reading school
Why is reading so important?
The ability to read is a fundamental skill and to be able to read with confidence is very important. At KJS we value reading because it has a direct impact on student outcomes, and we want our students ‘To set no limits on what we can achieve’ and get the best results possible. However, reading is also important for many other reasons.
- Reading increases vocabulary and helps to improve communication skills
- Reading makes us better spellers and writers
- Reading improves focus and concentration
- Reading improves imagination
- Reading reduces stress
- Reading improves memory
- Reading increases intellect and leads to academic success
- Reading increases capacity for empathy
- Reading is entertaining
At King James’s your child will be encouraged to read in different ways through the curriculum in lesson time and your child will also be asked to read through homework set by subject teachers. Each subject has chosen 5 important texts for each key stage that we recommend your child reads. Please see the section on ‘Curriculum Reads’ to find out which books we are encouraging students to read to deepen their knowledge in the subjects they learn.
How will we encourage students to read at KJS?
Our reading strategy comprises of four pillars to support reading:
- Reading in subjects across the curriculum
- Reading for pleasure
- Reading intervention
- Reading in English lessons
Reading in subjects across the curriculum
Reading in lessons is reading aloud – that is when the teacher or teaching assistant reads aloud to the class. Pupils may be asked to re-read texts independently, in pairs or in groups, or when undertaking assessments, but generally we won’t ask pupils to engage in “silent reading” during teaching time. This is because this precious time with an expert teacher is not used to full effect when pupils are reading silently. Those pupils that can already read fluently may enjoy this time, but they are also capable of reading independently at home. However, more importantly, struggling readers are left without support during “silent reading” and will likely disengage causing them to fall further behind, and reinforcing that reading is not for them.
Some of the strategies we are using in school to support and develop our readers are:
- Ensure a physical focus which means that students have access to a physical copy of the text
- Set up a mental focus so we explain why we are reading a text and what the text means
- Students should be required to read texts on their own with a ‘directed activity’
- Students should be taught how to skim to get the gist and scan texts to look for key points
- Ensure students are reading actively by reading with a pen and releasing the text slowly
Pupils will be rewarded for reading. In addition to giving positives to encourage reading, we will run competitions to support our reading programme. Students will gain house points for reading in lessons and outside the curriculum. The library also run the Accelerated Reader programme for students in Year 7 and students are rewarded for their effort, achievement and progress in the subject. Students who require additional support with reading get intervention through the Lexia reading programme.
Please click on the links below to find out what reading homework is set at Key Stage 3 and the recommended books that each subject has selected for each key stage. Most of the books can be found in the library or you can ask to borrow them at your local library.
Reading for Pleasure
Curriculum Reads
Here are the recommended books that we encourage our students to read. These can all be found in the library and the books are listed in student planners.
Recommended Reads for Students
Year 7 Recommended Reads
Year 8 and 9 Recommended Reads
Year 10 and 11 Recommended Reads
Recommended Reads for Parents
There is even a reading list for parents which is published in our weekly newsletter. The link to the newsletter is here.
Pageturners
At KJS we value the skill of reading for learning and seek to find ways to enable students to extend their skill and love of reading as well as improving their wider cultural knowledge of the world around them. We are passionate that all students at King James’s are fluent readers who love reading. That is why every student in Year 7 to 9 will spend time reading high quality, challenging books, which their tutor reads aloud to the group. By reading to them, we can supplement the text with valuable context that boosts student knowledge and understanding, drawing links and parallels to content in the wider curriculum.
The aim of Pageturners is to ensure that every student reads a range of carefully selected texts throughout Key Stage 3, so they are instilled with the knowledge to think critically and creatively. We also want our students to enjoy reading and become confident readers who read both at school and at home. All students will read the same books so we are creating a reading community where students and staff can discuss topical issues. We want to create a buzz around reading that will lead to more students reading for pleasure but also being empowered to become better and more confident learners.
Year 7 Pageturners
Cirque du Freak is the first of twelve novels in The Saga of Darren Shan by Darren Shan. The chilling Saga of Darren Shan, the ordinary schoolboy plunged into the vampire world.
Darren goes to a banned freak show with his best mate Steve. It’s the wonderfully gothic Cirque Du Freak where weird, frightening half human/half animals appear who interact terrifyingly with the audience. Darren – a spider freak – ‘falls in love’ with Madam Octa – an enormous tarantala owned by Mr Crepsley. Darren determines to steal the spider so that he can train it to perform amazing deeds. But his daring theft goes horribly wrong and Darren finds himself having to make a bargain with a creature of the night.
Something out of the ordinary is set against the background of children’s normal lives to chilling effect. Atmospheric, funny, realistic, moving and… terrifying.
Alem is on holiday with his father for a few days in London. He has never been out of Ethiopia before and is very excited. They have a great few days togther until one morning when Alem wakes up in the bed and breakfast they are staying at to find the unthinkable. His father has left him. It is only when the owner of the bed and breakfast hands him a letter that Alem is given an explanation. Alem’s father admits that because of the political problems in Ethiopia both he and Alem’s mother felt Alem would be safer in London – even though it is breaking their hearts to do this. Alem is now on his own, in the hands of the social services and the Refugee Council. He lives from letter to letter, waiting to hear from his father, and in particular about his mother, who has now gone missing.
A powerful, gripping novel from the popular Benjamin Zephaniah
Year 8 Pageturners
A memoir by the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace prize.
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.
On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala’s miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she became a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Two bothers, Damian and Anthony, are unwittingly caught up in a train robbery during Britain’s countdown to join the Euro. Suddenly finding themselves with a vast amount of cash, the boys have just one glorious, appalling dilemma — how to spend it in the few days before it becomes worthless. Torn between the vices of buying a million pizzas and the virtues of ending world poverty, the boys soon discover that being rich is a mug’s game. For not only is the clock ticking — the bungling bank robbers are closing in. Pizzas or World Peace, what would you choose?
Year 9 Pageturners
Stone Cold is an exciting and disturbing thriller by Robert Swindells
A tense, exciting thriller combined with a perceptive and harrowing portrait of life on the streets as a serial killer preys on the young and vulnerable homeless. 17-year-old Link is distrustful of people until he pairs up with Deb, homeless like him. But what Deb doesn’t tell him is that she’s an ambitious young journalist on a self-imposed assignment to track down the killer and that she’s prepared to use herself as bait …
Winner of the Carnegie Medal
Winner of the Newbery Medal, National Book Award and selected as one of Time Magazine’s 100 best YA books of all time.
Stanley Yelnats’ family has a history of bad luck, so when a miscarriage of justice sends him to Camp Green Lake Juvenile Detention Centre (which isn’t green and doesn’t have a lake) he is not surprised. Every day he and the other inmates are told to dig a hole, five foot wide by five foot deep, reporting anything they find. The evil warden claims that it is character building, but this is a lie and Stanley must dig up the truth.
BookBuzz
King James’s is a BookBuzz school; Bookbuzz gives Year 7 students the chance to choose and keep a book they’ll love from a collection of 16 titles, newly selected each year by a panel of BookTrust reading experts, practising teachers and school librarians. Pupils can listen to the authors pitch their stories, look at exemplar copies in the library and discuss with friends, family and teachers before making their final decision. Pupils receive their chosen book in time to take home over the Christmas break.
2024 Book Selection
World Book Week
At King James’s, our annual book week is the time of the year when the book takes centre stage and there really is something for everyone to get involved in. Our celebrations begin with Year 9 and 10 students taking part in the Battle of the Books literary competition. There are six intense rounds of challenging questions and, as winners of the 2024 competition, we are delighted to be hosting the event in 2025.
The whole week encompasses special activities for all year groups with input from a wide range of people including visiting speakers and special guests. Every year there is a whole school Big Read in which all students get to listen to their teachers read aloud part of a short story at the beginning of every lesson. This year’s story, The Landlady by Road Dahl kept students on the edge of their seats until the end of the day. Throughout the week, reading for pleasure is celebrated in many different subjects and include activities such as a Harry Potter listening task in music, The Martian Survival Game in Computing and IT, Exploring Dystopian Worlds in the library and sharing quotes from books in Business and Social Science lessons.
As well as a Book Dingbats mega quiz in tutor time, we also promote competitions such as Catch Your Pet Reading and an Extreme Reading competition in which students and staff are asked to take a photo of themselves reading in an unusual place. The week culminates on World Book Day with a Treasure Hunt in which students are challenged to find a teacher and guess the character and book they are dressed as.
Exciting plans are already in place for book week 2025, and we can hardly wait to share the huge array of guest speakers, activities and competitions on offer next year.
Reading in the English Department
As a diverse English team, from a wide range of backgrounds, we naturally bring together a wide repertoire of reading habits, interests and passions which we aim to instil in all our students. We are readers first and teachers second, seeking to inspire young readers to find their voice through a range of imaginative and engaging texts that provoke discussion and challenge their worldviews.
Our exciting reading curriculum is designed to promote a range of texts by writers from all walks of life who capture the essence of humanity within their prose, their poetry and their drama. We seek rich learning experiences from these texts, seeing them as the beating heart of our curriculum, and bring them to life in our classrooms through meaningful and memorable study. Oracy and discussion are at the forefront of our reading strategies, with a high level of value placed upon the importance of students’ opinions and reactions to these texts.
Over time, all our learners will be engaged in a multitude of active reading strategies carefully sequenced to maximise enjoyment, enthusiasm and deep learning. We also support our most reluctant readers at every step of their learning journey, continuing to expose them to memorable reading experiences and rich language choices which help them access and engage with texts.
What can I do at home to support my child’s reading development?
At Key Stage 3 you can ….
- Help your child to find a text that they enjoy. Let your child see you reading and discuss books that you have read.
- Visit local libraries and book shops regularly and look for books that link to your child’s interests, films or hobbies. Choose books that are an appropriate reading level, to avoid frustration.
- News articles, current events, comics and non-fiction books are all good ways of encouraging reading for pleasure.
- It is recommended that 15-30 minutes of reading will have great benefits and will help students to develop a love of reading. If your child is willing, choose sections of the text to discuss and tease out some of the issues that crop up.
At Key Stage 4 & 5 you can ….
- Open a discussion about what your child dislikes, or finds difficult about reading and try to establish a way to make a change.
- Encourage your child to find texts they enjoy; choice and interest is key. This can be non-fiction and extracts rather than a whole text to start. You may find text ideas together, from your own selection, or seek advice from school. Use the school library or English department to access fiction and non-fiction extracts for them to explore. This will establish the right subject matter, before concentrating on an entire text.
- Seek out fiction and/ or non-fiction linked to your child’s interests. Biographies of well- known Scientists, The Enigma Machine for students who enjoy maths for example.
- Model reading by reading yourself and discuss the texts you are reading. This doesn’t have to be a book. It can newspapers, blogs etc.
Useful links for parents
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/advice-for-parents/reading-at-home/helping-struggling-readers/top-tips-for-helping-struggling-readers-at-home/ – This website is with tips to help struggling readers
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/bookfinder/
https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/
