DEAR Reading Programme arrives at Salford City Academy
Aiden Lucas
/ Categories: News, General
We have some exciting news about some changes that will be happening at Salford City Academy after February half-term.
At Salford City Academy we are passionate about developing every single student’s reading ability. In an age where literacy levels are declining across the country, we aspire for students to not only become proficient readers, but to foster a lifelong love of reading, as we know this is key to their educational success. Studies have shown that reading for pleasure helps students with vocabulary acquisition, preparation for exams and most importantly: their mental wellbeing.
Subsequently, we are delighted to announce that we are launching a new reading initiative in the form of ‘DEAR’. DEAR as an acronym stands for Drop Everything And Read (or Revise if you are a Year 11 student). At the end of each school day, from 2.20-2.45pm, students will be required to register in their tutor room and then take part in the DEAR programme. This programme will involve research-based reading strategies and teachers modelling reading to students as a starting point. To accommodate this new period, lessons will now be 55 minutes long instead of 60 minutes and the timetable has been adjusted accordingly. Please note – students will still start and finish school at the same time as before – only the lesson timings have been altered.
Each year group will be reading the same novel, at the same time, and every student will have a copy of the text and a bookmark to use whilst reading; the theme for the first novel is ‘Adventure’ for Year 7/8 and ‘Discrimination’ for Year 9/10.
Please find the texts listed below:
Year 7 – ‘The Graveyard Book’ by Neil Gaiman
Year 8 – ‘Northern Lights’ by Phillip Pullman
Year 9 – ‘Noughts and Crosses’ by Malorie Blackman
Year 10 – ‘The Outsiders’ by S.E. Hinton
We hope that students will be discussing these texts during their social times and with you at home, so please feel free to ask your child about DEAR and what happened in the section they read that day!