Tutor Reading Programme

Our Tutor Reading Programme, launched in 2020-21, runs for 4 days a week during morning registration. This programme is for all students in Years 7-10, enabling them to access a broad range of reading material, irrespective of their own reading level.

We believe it is important for our students to engage with the work of a range of authors to glimpse the times they were writing in, and about, and to experience the depth and complexity of our language.

The initial title selection was based on the Coombeshead Literary Canon, a total of 40 titles, chosen by the English team, to cover a balanced range of genres. The list is reviewed annually, in light of student and teacher feedback, and changes made to ensure the programme is refreshed and relevant. In some year groups this means a title is simply replaced, in others additional titles may be included. There are currently 47 books available across the programme.

The programme has the following key principles that are based on the latest research into reading strategies:

• There are at least 10 titles allocated to each year group (see the lists and overviews of each book below) and tutors will aim to read as many as possible over the course of the year. A student joining in Year 7 should have read over 2 million words by the end of year 10.
• Reading takes place during registration/tutor time on four days of the week, lasting approximately 15 minutes each day.
• The tutor always reads to the students. This means that students have access to texts which they may have been prevented from attempting due to concerns about their accessibility. Tutors are able to model key aspects of reading, such as pace, pausing, tone and expression.
• All students are expected to follow the reading, line by line. Bookmarks are provided with each title, and students may retain them if they wish to build a record of their reading experience.
• An innovation for 2022-23 is to ask students for brief written feedback about the texts to inform the direction of the programme in the years ahead.

The titles offered have been carefully selected to ensure that the range of narratives available address age-appropriate themes, but offer a high degree of challenge both in the language used and the topics discussed. The tutor is able to explain meaning and explore any issues arising from the text.

We are dedicated to ensuring that progress is made at every stage of your child’s learning journey, and are confident that the Tutor Reading Programme provides ample opportunities to support every student as they travel that road.

We suggest that parents regularly engage with their child about the books they are reading – there are some strategies suggested in the Learning Resource Centre section of the website which may be helpful.

The Year 7 list can be found here

The Year 8 list can be found here

The Year 9 list can be found here

The Year 10 list can be found here