'Just Reading' Approach
‘Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary’
Since 2024, St Mary’s College students in Years 7-11 enjoy an afternoon tutor time reading session every day.
Reading is the most significant factor in supporting student outcomes so, at St Mary's College, every child engages in a daily reading session in which the child's form tutor reads to the students for 25 minutes. This addition to our curriculum is designed to not only accelerate student progress, but also help to develop our students’ character, by building their cultural capital, so that they can make a positive difference in the world.
All of the books have been carefully selected, ensuring the list is diverse in terms of representation and genre.
We have had a working group of staff from across all subject areas who have collaborated to select texts which we feel are both appropriate for our students, but also highly engaging – lots of the books chosen are award-winning and have been written by authors that excel in their field - we even have local authors who have worked at our very school on our list! We listen to staff and students' feedback, purchasing books from series students are engrossed in and reviewing all chosen texts at appropriate points.
Our biggest successes from 2024/25!
- An amazing 400 books read collectively during form time across the academic year - this means every form group read approximately 7 novels/non-fiction reads each last year.
- Students at SMC made over 12 months' additional progress in terms of their reading progress compared to the national average.
This approach is also backed by the evidence from the 'Faster Reading' research trial conducted by The University of Sussex, more information can be found here: https://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/centres/centre-for-international-education/projects/fasterread).
