Group Reading

At The Park School we recognise that reading is a vital life skill that will impact on our student's level of independence in adulthood. It is also a literacy skill that many of our students have struggled with for many years prior to starting at The Park School. It is therefore, a priority for us as a school to provide the best reading experiences possible for our students. 

Staff at The Park ensure that all students have daily reading sessions that are; appropriate, stimulating and based on their particular reading level. Assessment, observation and discussion with students help us to put in place reading programmes designed to motivate engage and build on existing knowledge.

All staff are involved in developing reading. Opportunities to read are in all lessons, Literacy lessons develop key reading skills and every morning reading takes place in tutor groups. Experience has taught us that group and paired reading increases the number of texts a student reads in year and is the most enjoyable, sociable and successful method of improving a student's reading ability. These group reading sessions are an opportunity to start the day enjoying books and stories, engaging with staff and their peers whilst discussing literature. 

Students read a range of texts, many of which are specialist reading books designed for teenagers with literacy difficulties. Staff understand the need to access a range of print from the world around them and do not rely solely only on books. Ipads are successfully used for writing stories, accessing online books and using some of the excellent apps designed to motivate reading.

Here are some comments made by our students about the support they receive in reading: