Reading's Our Thing

Behind the Study Door

'Remember hiding a book on your lap to get yourself through breakfast? Remember getting hit on the head by footballs in the playground because a game had sprung up around you while you were off in Cair Paravel? Remember taking yourself off to the furthest corner or the furthest sofa in the furthest room of the house with a stack of Enid Blytons and praying that everyone would forget about you until bedtime? Come bedtime do you remember waiting four nanoseconds after the door closed before whipping out your torch and carrying on where parental stricture had required you leave off until tomorrow? Do you still get the urge to tap the back of the wardrobe if you find yourself alone in a strange bedroom, or keep half an ear out at midnight for the sound of Hatty in the garden?'

In her book, ‘Bookworm; a memoir of childhood reading’, Lucy Mangan recalls the joy of reading when she was young.

It’s been one of those weeks where it feels like the children have been cooped up all day, with some of our break times having to be inside due to the weather, and PE and Games taking place in the Sports Hall. As winter sets in, my frustration for the children – who all need fresh air everyday – at times like this is tempered by the sight of so many enjoying immersing themselves in their fiction and non-fiction reading books. It is such a joy to see them all engrossed in reading, with many diving into their new purchases following our Book Fair, kindly facilitated by our parent volunteers.

There have been three items of interest in the press over the past 7 days related to reading, all of which produce salient points which I wish to share with you.

The first article that grabbed my attention was featured in The Sunday Times last weekend. It reported that Silicon Valley executives, including senior employees of Apple, Google and other tech giants, have sent their own children to tech-free schools, such as The Waldorf School, renowned for its practical, iPad (and textbook) free methods, with a focus on the outdoors and books. There is a great sense of irony here that these are the companies leading seismic advances with devices, gaming and social media – now a major part of the lives of young people – and they have made the conscious decision to educate their children away from screens. Along these lines, research has been produced (in contrary to similar research conducted five years ago) that suggests reading from books can now advance progress more than screens.

The second article I have read, this time in The Times Educational Supplement, promotes the reading of non-fiction text as very important in developing a broad knowledge base. It has been suggested that children with this broad knowledge base become a more successful reader, as do those who can develop an conceptual understanding of what they read, and are able to extrapolate key points and replicate this in a different format.

The third article in Attain, the magazine for parents of prep school children, stresses the role parents can play in supporting a child’s reading by creating a positive environment.

The following advice stands out:

- Allow your child to develop their own interests through reading and discussion, and allow time for you all to explore these interests.

- Introduce your children to a rich and varied vocabulary through discussing everyday events as well as imaginary scenarios together. Extending their vocab will help a child understand texts more fully.

- Banish all electronic devices from the bedroom. Enjoy the end of the day reading to children (this doesn’t have to stop when they are ten years old!)

- Discuss what is happening in stories – help your child become a ‘text detective’.

- Visit local libraries and explore audio books.

- Read some books yourself, then recommend them to your child.

What can we take from these three articles without launching into a debate about screen usage? From all I have seen this week, I am delighted that children love books just as we did growing up. As our ‘Units of Inquiry’ reach their final stages of the term and much research has been conducted, I think there is a place in every household and classroom for an encyclopedia. The art of ‘old fashioned’ research is so stimulating and truly develops vocabulary, contextual understanding and a bank of useful knowledge (that we know in turn supports the development of reading). As a pupil discovered this week, research doesn’t consist of a page on Wikipedia – select all – copy – paste! In covering a Year 7 lesson this week, much enjoyment (and learning) was had by a race to get the dictionaries to look up an obscure word beginning with ‘v’. Subsequent to this, we now have the ‘Shorts Latin Dictionary’ in our Year 7 base!

Finally, if you are reading this worried that your child might be too much of a book worm, I hope you can seek reassurance from Lucy Mangan:

'Be glad of all the benefits it will bring, rather than lamenting what [we] are missing out on. Leave us be. We’re fine. More than fine. Reading’s our thing.'

Wishing all St Leonards families a happy weekend, perhaps even some time cosy at home immersed in some adventures from a good book

William Goldsmith

Year 1 Clay Models

YEAR 1 CLAY MODELS | Year 1 have been lucky enough to benefit from the expertise of former St Leonards parent Leonie McMillan, who has been coming in to give the boys and girls experience of working with clay on a fortnightly basis.

The class are building their own nativity scene and pictured above are some of the animal creations they made on Monday. Year 1 cannot wait for the painting and glazing stage in two weeks' time!

There are plans for Year 2 to benefit from this next term, and we are currently firming up dates for their own hands-on clay experience!

Gymnastics Success