Reading at Benton Park | Secondary School and Sixth Form

At Benton Park School we prioritise and promote Reading, recognising its intrinsic value and celebrating the joy of reading for pleasure. As such we have a number of key aims and aspirations for our school:

Across the curriculum students will be introduced and exposed to challenging and inspiring writers and texts
Students are encouraged to develop an appreciation for, and lifelong love of, reading. Students will talk about reading and share their thoughts about texts they have read within and beyond the curriculum 
Reciprocal Reading and Word Revolution strategies are embedded in classrooms, supporting and extending student literacy at all levels
All members of staff should confidently promote a culture of Reading across the school – we are a community of readers

Students are supported and encouraged to form positive and lasting reading habits in their reading at school through our ‘Big Read’ form sessions in Key Stage 3, our non-fiction reading focus in Form time at Key Stage 4 and through our successful Post 16 Reading mentors programme; while whole school Teaching and Learning strategies underpin the teaching of reading during lessons. In Key Stage 3 timetabled fortnightly lessons in the Learning Resource Centre means that students have access to a wide range of books and our experienced Learning Resource co-ordinator and English teachers are able to make well-informed and up-to-date recommendations from a diverse and current selection of both fiction and non-fiction texts.

Research findings: Reading means achieving

Recent research into the reading skills of young people across the world found that children who are more interested in reading do better at school than those who don’t read for pleasure.

The study also found that parents who talk to their children about books, TV programmes and films help to keep their children interested in reading. Having books, newspapers and magazines around at home also made a difference to how interested children were in reading.

One of the best ways you can help your child do well at school is by helping them to enjoy reading for pleasure – whether they like magazines, newspapers, novels or comics. Research shows that parents play a key role in helping to develop this love of reading.

For further information please use the links in the section below:

Reading Tips and Websites

Achuka Barrington Stoke Booktrust British Dyslexia Association Cool-Reads The National Literacy Trust

Reciprocal Reading Strategies in Lessons

Benton Park School encourages a shared reading community across school, which enhances reading ability and promotes a wider access to reading for all students. This includes a primary focus on reading for enjoyment and nurturing a love of reading that extends beyond the school gates.

Our Reciprocal Reading model offers a consistent whole-school approach which scaffolds the reading process. Comprehension, inference and prediction activities, written into progression models, guide students through texts as part of a sequenced design of appropriate and cumulative reading for all students.

Reciprocal Reading at Benton Park

Benton Park 'Word Revolution'

A typical language user needs to know around 15,000 word families meaning it is incredibly important it is to have a wide vocabulary and possess the ability to use the right words at the right times.

At Benton Park School we are committed to ensuring that our students can articulate themselves clearly and confidently, which is why teachers put vocabulary at the heart of their lessons and schemes of learning. Students explore a wide variety of vocabulary in class and beyond. We truly believe that a great command of language is a powerful skill and our aim is for Benton Park School to be a ‘language-rich’ learning environment where students can express themselves precisely.

Teachers and teaching assistants use a variety of teaching and learning strategies including: pre-loading vocabulary tasks, categorisation activities, exploration of word families and etymology and shared definitions of words. This includes scaffolding and modelling high-quality academic language in and beyond classrooms, including language that supports understanding of learning

Please support us in our ‘Word Revolution’ by asking your children about the types of new words that they are learning in school and encouraging them to read widely – another great way to pick up more words.

"Language is the great liberator. The fitting phrase, the precise word – these permit us to be more nearly ourselves." Carol Shields