Literacy - instilling a love of learning

Following on from a successful in-house reading group model, where sixth form students would meet regularly throughout the year, with a teacher, to read and discuss a wide range of literature; prose, poetry, fact, fiction, RGS has developed a similar, scaled-down model, to export to local state Junior Schools.

Background

At first, a pilot project was set up where an RGS teacher would meet with a group of Junior School students from a local state primary, to discuss material that they had prepared at home and in school. The idea is to get students to talk about what they have read, disuss the themes, and develop both a love of literature over time, and a deeper understanding of the world they are growing up in. Since that initial project, two further projects have been devised. Firstly, some of our sixth form students studying English Literature have been trained to deliver a similar programme in other schools as part of the ongoing voluntary service programme run at the school. Secondly, another local senior school is being helped by our own staff to train their sixth form students to deliver a similar programme to students in their own feeder Junior Schools where there is already an established link.