Developing Pupils Love of Reading

To develop a love of reading amongst pupils, each year group will be reading the same novel, at the same time during form time. We want pupils to experience texts that provide a variety of classic culture, fantasy and topical issues.

Below details the novels chosen for the form time reading program;

• Year 7 - Pupils will begin their reading journey at All Hallows by travelling through time and space to experience the power of love as well as the importance of individuality in A Wrinkle in Time. In Term 2 pupils experience a classic story in Oliver Twist of belonging and humanity as well as continuing the themes of the power of love. Pupils end their Year 7 journey with The curious incident of the dog in the night-time which cements the theme of individuality and belonging which hopefully they have also managed to encounter during their first year at All Hallows.

Main Themes: Power of love, individuality, humanity and belonging (links with English curriculum - humanity and love)

• Year 8 - Pupils begin Year 8 in another fantasy land with Northern Lights (His Dark Materials). Pupils will journey with Lyra through worlds that have similarities to our own. Pupils will experience the themes of conflict and love in this fantasy novel. They will then move on to a classic in The Outsiders, where they will encounter themes of self-identity, pain and struggles in the life of a 14 year old boy over a short period. Pupils should be able to draw some comparisons between themselves and the main character as they journey through school. We finish Year 8 with Artichoke Hearts which provides themes of self-identity, growth and love at a time where our own pupils will also be sharing some of these experiences.

Theme: self-identity, society, conflict love (links with English curriculum - conflict and love)

• Year 9 - Pupils start Year 9 with a classic novel from Harper Lee in To Kill a Mockingbird. Pupils will be able to discuss themes such as race, justice and societal issues, making comparisons between then and now. In term 2, pupils will experience a different type of inequality and pain in The Fault in our Stars, where time and genetics provide the main injustice. In the final novel, The Giver, pupils will experience a dystopian society where all pain and inequality has been taken away. This will allow pupils to have discussions about the importance of the bad and good experiences life and individual circumstances may bring and help pupils recognise ways to cope with this.

Theme: Justice, race, society, equality, pain (links with English curriculum - equality, corruption, power)

• Year 10 - Pupils begin the year with another dystopian society in the classic Nineteen eighty-four. Pupils will be able to recognise and discuss George Orwell's totalitarian vision of a futuristic world and recognise how it has an all-too-real and eerie similarity to today's world. Continuing with a dystopian theme, in their second book, pupils will enter a world of systemic racism but with racial roles reversed in which black people have the power and money. Noughts and Crosses will generate deep discussions on racism and social justice but in a different way to previous novels and historical events experienced in previous years. We finish our reading journey with the powerful novel, Grow. This is a modern-day story of how a young boy deals with grief and sorrow. It highlights current issues such as extremism and grooming and how bravery and love can help overcome pressures and hardships experienced by young people.

Theme: Race, social justice, society, bravery (links with English curriculum - justice, society, power)

This program will give pupils an insight into different worlds, beliefs and cultures that they wouldn’t necessarily experience themselves. Form tutors will model good reading as well as ask questions and encourage discussions on the characters and events within the novels.

Our vision is that pupils will be discussing these texts with their peers and with you at home. We also hope that these novels will instill a love of reading with our pupils and inspire them to continue their reading journey once they have left school.