READING INTENT
When reading at Tolworth Girls' School, we intend to...
Establish an environment where reading is given importance in all classrooms, with all teachers confidently embedding and taking responsibility for critical reading skills
Expose students to a variety of different text types across the curriculum, from a variety of literary genres, to non-fiction and historical extracts, to current news and non-fiction pieces
Understand the barriers that key students may have to reading, and work with each other and those students to discover strategies to overcome the barriers
We assess all students’ reading age at the start of years 7 and 10 and, with the help of our fantastic inclusion department, put in place interventions to help students that are identified as having a reading age significantly below their chronological age. This could take the form of a paired reading programme, or something more bespoke depending on the level of need.
We endeavour to bring in as many authors as possible to talk to many different year groups, to inspire them to be avid readers, writers and thinkers. Most recently we have been visited by thriller author Sue Wallman, author and founder of the BIBI Foundation, which arranges visits to the Houses of Parliament for children from underprivileged backgrounds, and Nizrana Farook, author of our ReadUp 2022 book.
Outside of the core curriculum, we emphasise the importance of extra-curricular literacy through the large variety of events held by our fantastic librarian in our school library. Some of these events have included: blind date with a book, the big book giveaway, displays for historical events such as remembrance day, and Harry Potter night, in collaboration with the Tolworth Girls’ School Harry Potter club.
We also venture to ensure all staff are confident with teaching to students with a variety of reading ages by providing training for staff, and providing opportunities for staff to model their love of reading through activities such as staff book club.
Take part in the ReadUp scheme, in collaboration with Kingston University. Each year, every student who is starting at TGS in September will receive a free book as a welcome gift. This book is given out during summer transition sessions, and is for students to read and enjoy during the summer holidays. It is called a shared-read as all new students will get the same book, and teachers will be reading the book too.
Year 7 students are also given another free book at the end of the autumn term when we take part in the BookBuzz scheme. BookBuzz is a reading programme from BookTrust that aims to help schools inspire a love of reading. During our fortnightly library lessons we give our students the opportunity to choose their own book to take home, read and love from a list of titles.
Students all across the school take part in literacy tutorial sessions, where they are made to read about and ponder the world around them, whilst having exciting and enlightening conversations. Students read short stories and non-fiction texts form groups, along with their tutor. This allows us to integrate more diverse writing and important social issues into school life, with opportunities for a guided task afterwards, comprehension questions, and either a written task or discussion.
“Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential” – Kofi Annan
At Tolworth Girls’ School & Sixth Form, we are profoundly aware of the importance of literacy for the progress of every young person we encounter. Literacy is the key to the door of success, both academic and otherwise, and as such, is something that is prioritised by teachers of all subjects. To ensure that we are fulfilling our vital role as teachers of literacy, we: