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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