Reading to Learn
Reading is at the heart of our curriculum intent at Summerhill. 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 Summerhill we:
•Explicitly teach vocabulary skills in every area of the curriculum
•Provide students with an enriching, rigorous and challenging ‘reading 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 DEAR programme
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 display their favourite fiction and non-fiction book (or books) in their classroom. We support students in finding books they will love, run reading challenges, book clubs, participate in reading award events and host author visit events. We are proud participants in the Silver Stories programme and strive to be ambassadors for reading in the wider community.