At Bishops we believe in the importance of reading for pleasure and progress. The weekly Forensic Reading tutor sessions aim to develop reading fluency, enjoyment, and comprehension. Across KS3 and KS4 students will encounter and read texts from a variety of cultures and genres, exposing them to a diverse range of themes, global and social issues, and language. All tutors are expected to deliver these sessions and use class discussion and questioning to explore the texts through inferring, evaluating, and comprehending.  Copies of the text are available in form rooms and the library for students to continue to read in their independent time. Students read from a different book linked to the curriculum principles each half term and from Y7 to Y11 will have encountered up to 30 different books.

In Year 7 students engage with the Bookbuzz scheme via their English lessons, choosing their own book and reading it at the start of every English lesson for 10 minutes. This continues throughout Years 8 and 9 as students read a book of their choice and teachers provide opportunities for students to discuss their choice and swap books with others.

All KS3 classes have a fortnightly reading lesson in the library where they will engage in a class read with an English specialist. This aims to develop their fluency, enjoyment of reading and vocabulary through oracy tasks linked to the themes, characters, language and plot of the texts. Students are also given time to explore the books in the library to choose some and take them home to read independently.

To support reluctant or struggling readers we have a variety of programmes of support and intervention. Reading Buddies enables sixth formers to coach and guide Year 7’s with the reading and understanding of a book of their choice. Through assessing reading ages, students who need support use the Lexia programme to identify their areas of weakness which are then addressed in weekly intervention sessions with English specialists. In Year 10 and Year 11 intervention sessions are also provided to develop reading fluency, comprehension, and speed to help across the curriculum.

All subjects at Bishops’ are dedicated to proving disciplinary literacy and focus on teaching tier 2 and 3 vocabulary alongside the common reading comprehension strategies of activating prior knowledge, predicting, summarising, clarifying and questioning.