Reading

At Babington, we prioritise reading and are proud to have developed a positive reading culture. Reading is an essential life skill that ensures our young people are able to take a full part in society and can access the pathways they aspire to when they leave us. Strong reading ability enhances employability and allows our students to access the content that they need to know in order to thrive at GCSE in all subjects.

Students are expected to carry a book with them as part of their school uniform and equipment and KS3 English lessons start with class reading of a range of carefully selected novels. Students experience a range of different genres and writers and the collection of stories that we share with our students is growing all the time. Teachers listen to students read and students also have the opportunity to hear their teachers read to them, as models of excellence. Importantly, English teachers question students on what they have read to ensure a strong comprehension of the story.

At Babington, we understand that exposure to quality literature helps to refine and develop our students’ vocabulary and understanding.

Reading is important, because if you can read, you can learn anything about everything and everything about anything. - Tomie dePaola, Writer and Illustrator

In our subjects

Reading is essential in every subject – it’s not just for English lessons! Staff at Babington have researched and refined a range of reading comprehension strategies that are used throughout the curriculum. It is important that our students develop strong disciplinary literacy – that they understand the key vocabulary that will allow them to thrive in each individual subject. From English, to Maths and even in P.E., students are given the opportunity to read subject specific texts and are explicitly taught the vocabulary they need to know to succeed in the lesson.

Reading development

Students in Key Stage 3 are encouraged to develop their reading outside of the classroom and are expected to complete one hour of reading a week, through the online e-reader platform we offer: MyOn. More information regarding this can be obtained through your child’s English teacher.

Not every student has the same amount of confidence when it comes to reading and, at Babington, we recognise that every student learns and develops skills at their own pace. Where a student is less confident with reading independently, we have developed a range of effective interventions, led by expert staff. These interventions take place during school hours and aim to provide additional support to accelerate a students’ ability to read and understand texts. Interventions include the use of Catch Up Literacy, delivered by three specialist staff and also small group intervention work that takes place in the library for ten week rotations, led by our Library Assistants.

All students are encouraged to read regularly and we encourage this with a range of initiatives, including bringing visiting authors into school to meet students and also the provision of free books when students start in year 7 but also as a Christmas gift, chosen from a specially curated catalogue, to all students, so that they have engaging and up to date texts to read at home.

Reading competitions and events

At Babington, we work hard to promote a love of reading. One way we do this is by running a range of successful competitions including themed competitions for our Gifted and Talented cohort, such as our celebration of reading 'Banned Books', or the development of our Reading Without Limits competition, where students are encouraged to read as many books from a selected list (curated by our Library Assistants and Kibworth Books) and to review them. Students who engage the most with the competition will be eligible for reading related prizes.

We also invite local book sellers into school for World Book Day and run a number of themed reading events throughout the school year.

Babington Academy Library

We are proud to have a well stocked, busy library! Students can visit our library before school, at break time, at lunch time and after school. We use the expertise of our two Library Assistants in order to support students with their book choices but also to run a range of reading interventions for students in need of support. We are fantastically lucky to have colleagues in the library who know which books students want to read and can provide genuine advice about which books students might want to try next.

Contact Information

If you have any queries regarding your child’s experience of reading at Babington Academy, please contact our library staff in the first instance via email at library@babington.lwlat.org.uk or Ed Herbert, Assistant Principal at eherbert@babington.lwlat.org.uk