Reading

Intervention

Some of our students require some additional support with reading. The table below details all of the interventions that we provide at De La Salle:

      Encourage Reading At Home

For advice on how to encourage your child to enjoy reading at home, please see our reading booklet.

      Pass It On

De La Salle has its own 'Take One, Pass it On’ bookcase - a little bookcase in the library, stocked with second-hand books. Anyone can take a book, read it, keep it or pass it on. Students are also welcome to donate any unwanted books to the library. It was officially opened last year and attracts interest from students all year round.

      World Book Day

Every year as part of our celebration of our love of reading, our staff dress up as book characters. Students love watching staff turning up to lessons and walking around the corridors dressed as literary characters. This event is also marked with a wide range of competitions to enter with achievement points available for every entry received and prizes available for the very best entries. World Book Day is also celebrated with a visit from the Scholastic Book Fair which enables students to visit a pop-up book shop and purchase a book of their own.

Banned Books Week

At De La Salle, we celebrate our freedom to read every year at the end of September by recognising Banned Books Week. This event is marked by a range of competitions with prizes and achievement points available for all entries and culminates in a visit from the Scholastic Book Fair which provides students with the opportunity to visit a pop-up book shop and purchase a book of their own.

Form Time Reading

Reading is also encouraged and promoted during our weekly form time reading session. This provides all students with an opportunity to develop their cultural capital and their knowledge of the world around them by participating in a shared read of a short non-fiction article with their form teacher. Each article has a word of the week with a definition, an example of the word in a sentence, a list of synonyms and a brief explanation of the word’s etymology. Students are encouraged to use this word in their conversations and written work each week. Each article also contains common prefixes and suffixes to help develop students’ knowledge and understanding of how our language works and to equip them with the skill of transferring knowledge when they encounter new vocabulary.

 Library Events

The library hosts many activities centered around books and reading. We recently participated in a live author event in which students were able to listen to a story being read to them by the author (and space scientist) Dr Maggie Aderin Pocock MBE and ask her questions. We have also developed links with The Book Stop community book shop in St Helens and we will be organising a trip to meet with a local author of teenage fiction and give budding artists the opportunity to chat to illustrators.

       Book of the Half Term

Every term the school chooses a different book and this is promoted via posters around school and in form rooms. These books are stocked in our library so that our students can borrow them and take them home to enjoy at their leisure.

       Library Lessons

The literacy co-ordinator works with the Heads of Department to deliver lessons in the library so that students can find books on subject-specific interests rather than going straight to Google.