Much research has been carried out around the long-term benefits of reading and reading for pleasure in particular. These benefits can include mental stimulation; improved well-being and reduced anxiety; greater knowledge; improved memory retention; an increased bank of vocabulary and better articulation; greater focus and concentration as well as improved thinking skills. St Bede’s has been trialling a programme called Reading Plus with our Year 6 children with some amazing results in terms of increased fluency and comprehension. We will be extending this programme to all of Key Stage 2 in the Summer Term. It can be accessed at home and includes a broad collection of both fiction and non-fiction engaging short texts. It gives staff an insight to the reading genres that are popular with our children. Because texts are short, children are more likely to try out genres that they would not normally choose, thereby broadening their reading experiences.
Nicholas Postgate Trust have elected for schools to be part of the Reciprocal Reading Programme. This is a project funded by Opportunity North East and delivered through a partnership between Legacy Learning Trust, Queen’s University Belfast and FFT Literacy. This is is a Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 3 Transition project and therefore it will be our Year 6 children who will be taking part. It is an interactive teaching technique that is suitable for all readers.
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