Reading & Writing at RWS

 
At Ravens Wood, we are proud to present our Trust’s Charter on Reading, which highlights our commitment to fostering a lifelong love of reading and promoting high standards of literacy. We equip students with a strong command of written language while encouraging knowledge, understanding, and enjoyment of reading and writing in various contexts.

Quality Teaching

·         Reading and writing skills are developed through quality teaching across the curriculum.

·         Students have opportunities for focused writing in every lesson.

·         Teachers regularly model reading strategies and expressive reading to students.

Encouraging Reading

·         Weekly Reading Lessons: in the library for all Years 7 & 8.

·         Class Readers: Shared reading during form time for Years 7-10.

·         Reading Posters: Teachers share what they are currently reading via posters to encourage conversations about books.

·         Reading Displays: Designed to encourage students to explore a range of new books and genres.

·         World Book Day: Every year, we celebrate world book day with a range of activities that highlight the benefits of reading.

·         School trips: every year we organise trips and events which bring the texts to live. Past trips have included, visiting the library for Q&A session with Malorie Blackman, Visiting the Unicorn Theatre to watch a performance of the year 8 class reader, Pig Heart Boy

Celebrating Writing

·         We encourage participation in writing competitions at the school, local, and national levels.

Class Readers

We believe in fostering a love of reading for both pleasure and purpose. Our form tutors read with students in Years 7 to 10 every week, guiding them through challenging and rewarding texts, covering a wide range of themes such as family relationships, health, war and migration, dystopian society, and perseverance in difficult situations.

An overview of the Class Reader for each year group can be found in the attachments below.

Please click the relevant year group below to download a copy.

Our School Library

Our library is filled with popular contemporary and classic texts suitable for all reading ages, designed to inspire and challenge our young readers.

Meet Miss Adams
Miss Adams, our school librarian, continuously updates our collection. You can browse the catalogue here (login with your child’s school account).

Library Access

·         Year 7 & 8: Regular access as part of their weekly Reading lesson.

·         Homework Club: Open every day after school.

·         Break & Lunchtime: Available for all year groups.

Reading Recommendations

To help students navigate the extensive selection, we have created tailored book recommendations for each year group, organised by genre. Check the attachments below for more details. Miss Adams also regularly updates topical book displays in the library that point students towards popular books.

Year 7       Year 8       Year 9      Key Stage 4     Key Stage 5

Suggestions Welcome

We are always looking to expand our collection. If you have suggestions for books you would like to see in our school or virtual library, please email Miss Adams at library@rws.uk.net.

Support

We recognise that some students find reading challenging and require additional support to have the necessary reading skills and knowledge to succeed academically. If you have any concerns about your child’s reading, please see the link below for advice on how you can support your child’s reading at home. If you have any additional questions regarding reading, you can contact Miss Hemetsberger at ahe@rws.uk.net.

 Tips for supporting reading at home 

Year 7 and 8 Writing Challenge

The annual RWS500 competition is completed by Year 7 and 8 students. The task is to consider something topical that they have enjoyed reading (it could be anything from a newspaper, magazine, book – fiction or non-fiction or on the internet).

Students then explain what they have discovered that they did not know, would be interesting to their friends, and would be valuable for society at large (parents, teachers, employers, politicians, etc.) to be aware of and why?

Students write 500 words and submit their entry to Ms Lester, Headteacher. The entries are then shortlisted to 8 students, who join Ms Lester for a Seminar lunch with one of the School governors to discuss their writing.

The winning entries from 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022 can be read and listened to using the links below.