Reading is at the heart of our curriculum intent at West Grantham Secondary Academy. We recognise the role that reading has in enabling students to become life-long learners who lead fulfilling, successful lives. We take a rigorous approach to the teaching of reading across all parts of the curriculum, and aim to develop learners’ confidence and enjoyment in reading.

At West Grantham Secondary Academy we:

  • Explicitly teach vocabulary skills in every area of the curriculum
  • Provide students with an enriching, rigorous and challenging ‘learning journey’ in every part of the curriculum
  • Provide a range of opportunities to promote students’ wider reading and reading for pleasure
  • Give time and value to reading for enjoyment through our whole class reading texts

We are a ‘word rich’ school. Across the curriculum, students are explicitly taught the subject-specific vocabulary that is essential for their development in that domain. Students are taught to ‘read like a scientist’ (or geographer, or linguist, or mathematician and so on). Keywords are shared and displayed across the school each week and students encounter them every single day.

We are a Reading Community. All staff model reading and spend time reading a book with their tutor groups each week. We support students in finding books they will love, run reading challenges and book clubs.

Our KS4 students are developing their knowledge of the wider world and reading reports and articles concerning current affairs and developments in their subject areas. Students are actively encouraged to debate the pros and cons relating to current affairs around the world.

A curated programme of books and resources for secondary schools has been specially developed by BookTrust to encourage young people to get reading.

Bookbuzz gives students the chance to choose and keep a book they’ll love from a collection of 16 titles, newly selected each year by our panel of BookTrust reading experts, practising teachers and school librarians.

This is the second year we have run this initiative and Year 7 have taken great pleasure from choosing their own book and beginning their journey in developing a love for reading for pleasure.