Reading

Engaging in reading for enjoyment offers numerous advantages in nurturing students’ growth. It  enhances empathy, fosters better interpersonal connections, supports good mental health, and contributes to lifelong well-being.

Research shows the following:

• The significance of reading for pleasure extends beyond personal development to include educational benefits.
• There is a positive correlation between positive attitudes towards reading and achieving high scores on assessments rooted in reading comprehension.
• Reading for pleasure yields emotional and social outcomes.

Reading is at the heart of all we do at Stepney All Saints: the fundamental skill on which success across subject disciplines is built. A love of reading will stay forever once fostered.  

At Stepney All Saints (SASS), our priorities for reading are:  

• reading for pleasure
• high quality literacy intervention

When learning with us, students strive to break through their literacy misconceptions and become confident, resilient, enthusiastic readers. 

 

Reading for pleasure

The SASS CANON

At school we have identified the body of books which we expect every student to read whilst a student in years 7, 8 & 9. This is called the SASS canon. These books are:

Year 7

• Frankie’s World by Aoife Dooley
• When Secrets Set Sail by Sita Brahmachari
• You Are Awesome by Matthew Syed
• When Life Gives you Mangos by Kereen Getten
• Rhythm and Poetry by Karl Nova
• Horrible Histories: The Groovy Greeks by Terry Deary and Martin Brown
• Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
• His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
• Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
• The Stuff of Nightmares by Malorie Blackman

Download a guide to the Year 7 canon here – YEAR 7 CANON.

Year 8

• Arsenic for Tea by Robin Stevens
• Love in Winter Wonderland by Abiola Bello
• Clap when you Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
• She Wore Red Trainers by Na’ima B Robert
• Cane Warriors by Alex Wheatle
• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
• Children of Blood and Bone by TomiAdeyem
• Sawbones by Catherine Johnson
• That Asian Kid by Savita Kalhan
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Download a guide to the Year 8 canon here – YEAR 8 CANON.

Year 9

• This Book Kills by Ravena Guro
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
• Let’s Play Murder by Kesia Lupo
• Thief by Malorie Blackman
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• You Must be Layla by Yassmin Abdel-Magied
• Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah
• I’m the King of the Castle by Susan Hill
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Download a guide to the Year 9 canon here – YEAR 9 CANON.

SASS READS

We also have the SASS READS. The English department has identified three books per year which are read during English curriculum time. This happens once a fortnight during an English lesson.

These books are shared in the documents below:

• City of Stolen Magic – Year 7
• A Monster Calls – Year 8
• Boys Don’t Cry – Year 9

The English teacher reads the text aloud to the class and each student has a copy of the book as well. This is a fabulous opportunity for students to ‘read for pleasure’ and the experience is very stimulating.

Once a student has read the book, they then take a quiz using Accelerated Reader.

The Library

The library is located in what used to be called the VLE. We have plans to link that space with the old library which we will rename the ‘reference library’. These two spaces will be linked via a staircase, making it the biggest school library in London.

Click HERE for a virtual tour of our library.

Students are actively encouraged to borrow books from the Library and once a student has read the book, they then take a quiz using Accelerated Reader.

When a student has read three books and completed the quiz they are awarded a Head Teacher’s Reading Award. This is worth 30 achievement points.

Ensuring progress

It is incredibly important that all students can read at least in line with what is expected of them nationally.

We call this ‘age relate expectation’.  We recognise that as a student gets older their reading age must increase in line. Therefore, students must read for 20 minutes per day as a minimum.

Accelerated Reader

Students can follow the link below to get book recommendations and to complete quizzes on the books you have read.

The tutor group with the highest number of books read wins a prize at the end of the year!

Usernames can be found in your year group’s Google Classroom page.

https://ukhosted38.renlearn.co.uk/1893941

A Parents Guide to Accelerated Reader can be viewed here.

Interventions

We ensure there are additional interventions to enable all students to work at this age related expectations or above.

How can I encourage my child to read?

Reading is an important skill that all parents need to encourage their children to master. A person who can read well is more likely to:

• Succeed in education;
• get a higher paying job or have a wider range of jobs open to them;
• experience the joys of learning new things;
• enjoy the stress-reducing entertainment of a good book.

While it can be harder to turn a teenager on to reading than say a 3-year-old who loves the attention you give when you read them a book, it is not anywhere near impossible. Here are a few tried and tested tactics you can use to turn your child into an avid reader.

Read for enjoyment.

The more you model the behaviour you want your child to do, the more likely they are to pick up the behaviour. If you show your child that reading can be as fun as watching television, instead of just saying it, he/she will be apt to believe it and quite possibly try it.  This is especially important for boys: if they see male role models reading, they are much more likely to read themselves.

Have books that interest your child available.

If there are no books that your child is interested in reading in your home, then your child has no choices available to him/her. Visit the local book fair or second-hand bookshop and stock up.  Start off with books that are a similar genre to the kind of films, TV programmes and games that your child enjoys!

Purchase magazines about his/her interest.

Magazine articles are short and fun to read for children, and yet, this is still reading. Buying a magazine regularly will ensure that your child has something new to read and will encourage them to branch out for more reading fun.

Play audio books at home.

While this isn’t exactly reading – it is enjoying a book. Your child may not know what it’s like to enjoy a story, which is one of the most important reasons to read. Buy an audio book that is part of a series. Then your child can read the rest of the series. Many apps and websites provide access to free books.

Spend some quality time at a good book shop. 

Sometimes young people, even those who are as old as your child, just like having your attention. Visit the bookshop together, and encourage them to choose a book: it doesn’t have to be fiction – autobiographies and other non-fiction books are just as valid for reading as a novel.   Remember that the staff in good bookshops are avid readers themselves and will be able to recommend suitable books.  

Find out from your child’s English teacher what they are reading in class.    

Encourage your child to continue to read the same book independently at home.    

Tower Hamlets School Library Service

We are pleased to announce that students can now access the Tower Hamlets e-book library for all their reading needs.

The website is: https://towerhamlets-sls.wheelers.co/​

Details of how to log in can be found on Google Classroom. 

This is a fantastic resource that gives students access to many brand new books. It has an app for tablets also, so books can be downloaded onto tablets, kindles and computers. 

For students in Years 7, 8 and 9  they can also check the reading age of the books they are reading to help with their Accelerated Reader score. 

101 Books to read before you leave secondary school

This is a list of 101 books compiled by TES, as voted for by teachers, to read before you leave secondary school. How many have you read?

No.	Book Title	Author
1	1984	By George Orwell
2	To Kill A Mockingbird	By Harper Lee
3	Animal Farm	By George Orwell
4	Lord of the Flies	By William Golding
5	Of Mice and Men	By John Steinbeck
6	The Harry Potter Series	By J. K. Rowling
7	A Christmas Carol	By Charles Dickens
8	The Catcher in the Rye	By JD Salinger
9	Great Expectations	By Charles Dickens
10	Pride and Prejudice	By Jane Austen
11	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time	By Mark Haddon
12	The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas	By John Boyne
13	Jane Eyre	By Charlotte Bronte
14	Brave New World	By Aldous Huxley
15	Wuthering Heights	By Emily Bronte
16	Frankenstein	By Mary Shelley
17	Birdsong	By Sebastian Faulks
18	A Kestrel for a Knave	By Barry Hines
19	The Lord of the Rings trilogy	By JRR Tolkien
20	Danny, Champion of the World	By Roald Dahl
21	The Great Gatsby	By F Scott Fitzgerald
22	The Book Thief	By Markus Zusak
23	The Kite Runner	By Khaled Hosseini
24	A Clockwork Orange	By Anthony Burgess
25	A Passage to India	By EM Forster
26	Private Peaceful	By Michael Morpurgo
27	The Hobbit	By J. R. R. Tolkien
28	A Monster Calls	By Patrick Ness
29	Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	By Mark Twain
30	Holes	By Louis Sachar
31	Catch-22	By Joseph Heller
32	The Noughts and Crosses trilogy	By Malorie Blackman
33	The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde	By Robert Louis Stevenson
34	War Horse	By Michael Morpurgo
35	Atonement	By Ian McEwan
36	The Hunger Games trilogy	By Suzanne Collins
37	His Dark Materials	By Philip Pullman
38	Dracula	By Bram Stoker
39	Fahrenheit 451	By Ray Bradbury
40	A Room With a View	By EM Forster
41	Beloved	By Toni Morrison
42	Wonder	By RJ Palacio
43	Emma	By Jane Austen
44	Gulliver’s Travels	By Jonathan Swift
45	Half a Yellow Sun	By Chimamanda Ngoxi Adichie
46	The Color Purple	By Alice Walker
47	Oliver Twist	By Charles Dickens
49	Cider with Rosie	By Laurie Lee
50	One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest	By Ken Kesey
52	The Discworld series	By Terry Pratchett
53	Around the World in Eighty Days	By Jules Verne
54	Skellig	By David Almond
55	Life of Pi	By Yann Martel
56	Tess of the d’Urbervilles	By Thomas Hardy
57	The Artemis Fowl series	By Eoin Colfer
58	A Modest Proposal	By Jonathan Swift
59	My Family and Other Animals	By Gerald Durrell
60	Things Fall Apart	By Chinua Achebe
61	Brighton Rock	By Graham Greene
62	Never Let Me Go	By Kazuo Ishiguro
63	The Fault In Our Stars	By John Green
64	Dubliners	By James Joyce
65	Face	By Benjamin Zephaniah
66	When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit	By Judith Kerr
67	White Teeth	By Zadie Smith
68	Treasure Island	By Robert Louis Stevenson
69	Cry, the Beloved Country	By Alan Paton
70	Little Women	By Louisa May Alcott
71	Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?	By Philip K Dick
72	I am David	By Anne Holm
73	The Bell Jar	By Sylvia Plath
74	The Picture of Dorian Gray	By Oscar Wilde
75	V for Vendetta	By Alan Moore and David Lloyd
76	The Grapes of Wrath	By John Steinbeck
77	A Song of Ice and Fire series	By George RR Martin
78	The Old Man and the Sea	By Ernest Hemingway
79	Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging	By Louise Rennison
80	Empire of the Sun	By JG Ballard
81	On the Road	By Jack Kerouac
82	The Mayor of Casterbridge	By Thomas Hardy
83	A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man	By James Joyce
84	Billy Liar	By Keith Waterhouse
85	The Adventures of Tom Sawyer	By Mark Twain
86	A Gathering Light	By Jennifer Donnelly
87	Heroes	By Robert Cormier
88	Refugee Boy	By Benjamin Zephaniah
89	One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich	By Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
90	Schindler’s Ark	By Thomas Keneally
91	Forever	By Judy Blume
92	Coram Boy	By Jamila Gavin
93	Stone Cold	By Robert Swindells
94	A Time to Dance	By Bernard MacLaverty
95	Cat’s Eye	By Margaret Atwood
96	Cloud Atlas	By David Mitchell
97	The War of the Worlds	By HG Wells
98	The Tracy Beaker series	By Jacqueline Wilson
99	Bridge to Terabithia	By Katherine Paterson
100	Kidnapped	By Robert Louis Stevenson
101	The Time Machine	By HG Wells