Literacy and reading

The importance of reading and our approach

The ability to read is a fundamental life skill. It is essential to us all if we are to participate fully in society and the workplace. Students with poor reading struggle to read independently, and so read less. As a result, they do not accumulate the background knowledge and vocabulary they need to improve their comprehension. It is therefore harder for them to access the curriculum in secondary school because the required levels of literacy rise rapidly beyond primary school.

At Bishop Ramsey we use a common approach to reading, both during Form time and within lessons. Our aim is to encourage students to become fluent readers and engage more with the material that they are presented with to support their comprehension and enable progress through the curriculum.

The model that we are using at Bishop Ramsey is known as ‘PQRST’. This approach, as outlined below, encourages students to think about what they are about to read as well as summarise what they have read to ensure comprehension. It is followed by a short test to establish that the key learning points are retained, enabling them to move onto the next stage of their learning. Staff will model reading, including the breaking down of key vocabulary and asking questions as they read, followed by whole class reading out loud, paired reading and eventually individual reading. Our aim is to create independent and confident readers.

Pqrst

Reading Intervention at Bishop Ramsey

“Without identification of their reading needs and targeted additional teaching, pupils who arrive in secondary school as poor readers are likely to continue to struggle. As the secondary curriculum places increasing demands on reading comprehension, older pupils who struggle with reading comprehension do not catch up. Each year, only 10% of disadvantaged children who leave primary school with their reading below the expected standard get passes in English and mathematics at GCSE.”
‘Now the whole school is reading: Supporting struggling readers in secondary school.' OFSTED Oct 2022

Identifying students’ needs

We take a data driven approach to reading at Bishop Ramsey. This starts with reading tests in Year 7, to identify students whose reading is significantly below their expected level, affecting their ability to keep up with curriculum demands. Students can then be supported in improving their reading skill and confidence, so they can be successful learners.

At Bishop Ramsey, we use the Access Reading Test (ART) which produces a reading age and standardised score. The standardised score is used to determine the level of intervention students need and is shared with teaching staff more generally, to indicate students’ reading level on entry to the school, grouping them as broadly ‘above’, ‘at’ or ‘below’ their expected reading level.

Helping students to improve their reading

All students are supported in improving their reading and developing their skills to access the secondary curriculum, through vocabulary teaching and the teaching of reading strategies, such as the use of PQRST (preview, question, read, summarise, test). The school also encourages students to continue to read independently for pleasure, through the celebration of World Book Day, our LitFest, during which authors deliver talks and workshops and the use of weekly Form time to read.

Targeted interventions

Tier 1 (English Faculty)

For students who are just below their expected reading age, who are in need of intervention for comprehension or who lack confidence in reading independently, the English Faculty run:

-a weekly 1:1 6^th Form Reading Buddy programme

-a volunteer programme where members of the community listen to students read

Tier 2 (English Faculty)

Students are allocated to a small group intervention where they would benefit from developing their fluency through more targeted instruction by a specialist English teacher. Groups run for 8 weeks and students are retested, at which point they may be moved to the Reading Buddy programme.

Tier 3 (Access and Inclusion Faculty)

For students who are significantly below their expected reading age and as a result, will struggle to access the secondary curriculum, intervention is provided by our Access and Inclusion Faculty.

Students receive weekly 1:1 reading intervention, with a trained Teaching Assistant or HLTA, overseen by our dyslexia specialist. They use a structured intervention to support and improve comprehension.

Tier 4 (Specialist)

The students with significant reading difficulties, or difficulties relating to dyslexia, are given specialist support 1:1 or in a small group, by our dyslexia specialist. At KS3, this is focussed first on reading, including fluency, then as they progress, they move on to other literacy skills.

Bedrock Learning

Students in Year 9 use an online vocabulary programme called Bedrock Learning to help them become word-aware and as a tool to improve their vocabulary to help address the word gap. The programme allows students to access both non-fiction and fiction texts to improve their reading skills and learn new vocabulary that will enhance the way they read, speak and write across all of their subjects.

As students progress through the Bedrock curriculum, they will study hundreds of new words.

Other ways to find suggestions for reading:

Check out the Bishop Ramsey reading lists on www.lovingreading4schools.co.uk. Use the link and password below:
https://www.lovereading4schools.co.uk/school/12251
Password: BRlovesreading
Browse the school library
Join a public library
Check out the Carnegie Medal winners' list
Use the Goodreads App to create your own reading lists
Share books with your friends and family

Key Stage 3 Suggested Reading
LGBTQ+	Sci Fi and Fantasy
Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli	The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta	The Spook’s Apprentice by Joseph Delaney
What is Gender? By Juno Dawson	The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Heartbreak Boys by Simon James Green	The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
The Loves and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan	The Land of Roar by Jenny McLachlan
Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan	The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
Boys Meets Hamster by Birdie Milano	Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
Heartstopper by Alice Oseman	Goblins by Philip Reeve
If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo	Divergent by Veronica Roth
Love Frankie by Jacqueline Wilson	The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein
Sports and Games	Sports and Games Continued
All to Play For by Eva Ainsworth	Fast Break by Mike Lupica
Rebound by Kwame Alexander	The Fix by Sophie McKenzie
Butter-finger by Bob Cattell	Reading the Game by Tom Palmer
So Done by Paula Chase	Grace on the Court by Maddy Proud
Fat Boy Swim by Catherine Fforde	The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma
The Football Spy by Charlie Fry	Ghost by Jason Reynolds
Taking Up Space by Alyson Gerber	After the Shot by Randy Ribay
Splash by Charli Howard	Takedown by Laura Shovan
Break the Fall by Jennifer Iacopelli	Fast Pitch by Nic Stone
Kick by Mitch Johnson	A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman
Black Voices	Classics
Becoming Dinah by Kit de Waal	Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
And the Stars Were Burning Brightly by Danielle Jawando	Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
I am Thunder by Muhammad Khan	Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Orangeboy by Patrice Lawrence	The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley
Fruit of the Lemon by Andrea Levy	Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney by Okechukwu Nzelu	The Railway Children by E. Nesbit
Black and British by David Olusoga	Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
Cane Warriors by Alex Wheatle	Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Dear Martin by Nic Stone	Treasure Island by R. L. Stevenson
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas	Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Historical	Family/Coming of Age
Prisoner if the Inquisition by Teresa Breslin	My Name is Mina by David Almond
Henry VIII by H. M. Castor	Kelp by Linda Aranson
The Silver Pigs by Lindsay Davis	Lucas by Kevin Brooks
Cecily’s Portrait by Adele geras	Horace by Chris d’Lacey
Fallen Grace by Mary Hooper	My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
Fleshmarket by Nicola Morgan	The Frozen Waterfall by Gaye Hicyilmaz
A Parcel of Patters by Jill Patton Walsh	Coming of Age by Valerie Mendes
Raider’s Tale by Maggie Prince	The Great Blue Yonder by Alex Shearer
Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve	The Boy in the Bubble by Ian Strachan
Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli	he Secret Diary of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend
Action Adventure	Humour
The Wanderer by Sharon Creech	The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd	Half My Facebook Friends Are Ferrets by J. A. Buckle
Moonfleet by J. Meade Faulkner	Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner	The Private Blog of Joe Cowley by Ben Davis
The God Beneath the Sea by Leon Garfield	Mars Attacks by Ron Fontes
The Edge by Alan Gibbons	Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
The Kite Rider by Geraldine McCaughrean	Unreal! By Paul Jennings
Black Harvest by Ann Pilling	Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks
Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff	Maggot Pie by Michael Lawrence
The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle by Catherine Webb	A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton
Graphic Novels	Award Nominated
Speak by Laura Halse Anderson	October October by Katya Balen
Through the Woods by Emily Carroll	Guard Your Heart by Sue Divin
The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil by Stephen Collins	Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay
Trinity by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm	The Crossing by Manjeet Mann
Apollo by Matt Finch	Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds
Coraline by Neil Gaiman	Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay
Positively Izzy by Terri Libenson	Tsunami Girl by Julian Sedgwick
The Recruit by Robert Muchamore	The Fountain of Silence by Ruta Sepetys
Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan	Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk
On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden	Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam

Year 7 Wider Reading
Unit 1: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas	Unit 4: Identity and Culture
Carrie’s War by Nina Bawden	Crossover by Kwame Alexander
A Pocketful of Stars by Aisha Busby	Chinglish by Sue Cheung
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank	The Skin I’m In by Sharon G Flake
Once by Morris Gleitzman	The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry	Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin
Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian	When Life Gives You Mangoes by Kereen Getten
The Swallows Flight by Hilary McKay	You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier	The Boy Behind the Wall by Maximillian Jones
The Machine Gunners by Robert Westall	Furia by Yamile Saied Mendez
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak	Anita and Me by Meera Syal
Unit 2: Descriptive Writing: Descriptive Fantasy	Unit 5: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Children of Blood and Bone by Toni Adeyemi	Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
The Potion Diaries by Amy Aylward	The Polar Bear Explorer’s Club by Alex Bell
Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare	The Book of Hidden Things by Francesco Dimitri
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin	A Pinch of Magic by Michelle Harrison
The Girl of Ink and Stars by Karen Millward Hargreaves	Tales from Shakespeare Charles and Mary Lamb
Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafar	Lost in the Imagination by Hiawyn Oram
Eragon by Christopher Paolini	Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack
Bridge to Terebithia by Katherine Paterson	Root Magic by Eden Royce
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeves	The House at the Edge of Magic by Amy Sparkles
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by R. Riggs	Loki by Louie Stowell
Unit 3: The Environment	Unit 6: Narrative Writing: Relationships
Watership Down by Richard Adams	Artichoke Hearts by Sita Brahmachari
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken	Nobody Real by Steve Camden
Welcome to Trashland by Steve Cole	Wink by Rob Harrell
The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge	Saffy’s Angel by Hilary McKay
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen	Wonder by R. J. Palacio
Green Rising by Lauren James	The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh by Helen Rutter
The Call of the Wild by Jack London	The Star Outside My Window by Onjali Q Rauf
Z for Zachariah by Robert O’Brien	The Goldfish Boy by Lisa Thompson
Where the World Turns Wild by Nicola Penfold	Can You See Me? By Libby Scott
Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell	Being Miss Nobody Tamsin Winter

Year 8 Wider Reading
Unit 1: Refugee Boy/The Other Side of Truth	Unit 3: Romeo and Juliet
Surprising Joy by Valerie Bloom	Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros	City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Boy, Everywhere by A. M. Dassu	The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin	To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
I am David by Anne Holm	As Far as the Stars by Virginia McGregor
Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson	Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
Welcome to Nowhere by Elizabeth Laird	Orangeboy by Patrice Lawrence
The Giver by Lois Lowry	Five Feet Apart by Rachel Lippincett
Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah	How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Face by Benjamin Zephaniah	Crongton Knights by Alex Wheatle
Unit 2: War Poetry	Unit 4: Myths and Legends
Stay Where You Are and Then Leave by John Boyne	Lore by Alexandra Bracken
Remembrance by Theresa Breslin	Basilisk by N. M. Browne
The Last Paper Crane by Kerry Drewery	A Thousand Steps into Night by Traci Chee
When the Sky Falls by Phil Earle	The Seeing Stone by Kevin Crossley-Holland
Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Kileen	The Beast Awakens by Joseph Delaney
The Battle of Cable Street by Tanya Landman	The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo	The Trials of Apollo by Rick Riordan
Poems of the First World War ed Gary Morgan	Oh My Gods by Alexandra Sheppard
The Silent Stars Go By by Sally Nicholls	The Cold is in her Bones by Peternelle Van Arsdale
Star by Star by Sheena Wilkinson	Medusa by Jesse Burton
Unit 3: Campaigning for a Cause	Unit 6: 19^th Century Crime Fiction
Bear Boy by Justin Barker	Hacked by Tracy Alexander
Rolling Warrior by Judith Heumann	Cogheart by Peter Bunzl
Green Rising by Lauren James	Artemis Fowl by Eoin Coifer
Youth to Power; Your Voice and How to Use it by Jamie Margolin	Half Moon Investigations by Eoin Coifer
Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu	Framed by Frank Cottrell-Boyce
Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy	The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd
Things a Bright Girl Can Do by Sally Nicholls	Silverfin by Charlie Higson
On The Come Up by Angie Thomas	Death Cloud by Andrew Lane
No One is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg	Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman
Watch Us Rise by Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan	Smart by Kim Slater

Year 9 Wider Reading
Unit 1: Gothic	Unit 4: Description and Narrative
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte	Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevado
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier	Boys Don’t Cry by Malorie Blackman
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill	Looking for JJ by Anne Cassidy
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer	Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Dare
My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick	Noah Can’t Even by Simon James Green
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
The Mirror Image Ghost by Catherine Starr	Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by R. L. Stevenson	The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar
Dracula by Bram Stoker	Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde	Make More Noise - anthology
Unit 2: Of Mice and Men	Unit 5: An Inspector Calls
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou	J. B. Priestley: The Last of the Sages by John Alfred Atkins
Paddy Clarke Ha, Ha, Ha by Roddy Doyle	J. B. Priestley: Portrait of an Author by Susan Cooper
Lord of the Flies by William Golding	J.B. Priestley: An Annotated Bibliography by Alan Edwin Day
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway	J.B. Priestley by A. A. Vitis
A Kestral for a Knave by Barry Hines	The Vision of J.B. Priestley by Roger Fragge
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper lee	J. B. Priestley: An Informal Study of his Work by David Hughes
Animal Farm by George Orwell	J.B. Priestley, the Dramatist by Gareth Lloyd Evans
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger	J.B. Priestley and the Theatre by Rex Pogson
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
Unit 3: The Art of Rhetoric	Unit 6: Poetry
How the World Works by Noam Chomsky	The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
She Speaks by Yvette Cooper	The Dark Lady by Akala
The Teens Guide to Debating and Public Speaking by Claire Duffy	Overheard in a Tower Block by Joseph Coelho
Talking History by Joan Haig	Toffee by Sarah Crossan
Penguin Book of Modern Speeches by Brian MacArthur	A Poem for Everyday of the Year Ed. by Allie Esiris
Why Do We Say That? by Scott Matthew	These are the Words by Nikita Gill
Voices of History by Simon Sebag Montefiore	Collected Poems by Philip Larkin
Great Women’s Speeches by Anna Russell	Rhythm and Poetry by Karl Nova
Lend Me Your Ears by William Safire	Happy Poems chosen by Roger McGough
101 Essays that will Change the Way You Think by Brianna West	She is Fierce ed by Ana Sampson

Key Stage 4 Reading List

At Bishop Ramsey we encourage all our students to read often and widely.

There are many benefits to reading:

It makes you smarter! Reading increases your vocabulary, command of English and communication skills. It increases your knowledge of the world and will support your studies.
It improves your concentration and memory. Immersing yourself in a book can really hold your attention. Remember, your brain is a muscle and needs to be used.
It reduces stress. Studies have shown that just six minutes of reading can reduce stress levels up to 68%. It can also help you sleep better.
It supports your emotional development. Reading books allows you to explore a range of different emotions, either through the characters themselves, or through your response to them. Reading also develops your empathy skills and can introduce you to new ideas and cultures.
Most of all reading is fun! Books are written as entertainment, and you should enjoy them.

This reading list includes suggestions for readers of all abilities and interests, but it is not an exhaustive list. Fantastic new books are being published all the time.

As well as general suggestions there is a wider reading list linked to the units you study in English. These might be linked by genre, themes or settings.

Some of the books on the list are more challenging or have more mature themes.

If you are not enjoying a book it is perfectly fine not to finish it! There are too many great books to read ones you do not like.

Other ways to find suggestions for reading

Check out the Bishop Ramsey reading lists on www.lovingreading4schools.co.uk. Use the link and password below:

https://www.lovereading4schools.co.uk/school/12251

Password: BRlovesreading

Browse the school library and speak to Ms Neal
Join a public library
Check out the Carnegie Medal winners list for new YA fiction

Carnegie Medal Winners – The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Children's Book Awards

Other high profile prizes include:

The Booker Prize The Booker Prizes

The Women’s Prize for Fiction womensprizeforfiction.co.uk

Use the Goodreads App to create your own reading lists
Celebrity book clubs such as Reese Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey and Richard and Judy
Share books with your friends and family

Key Stage 5 Suggested Reading
Achebe, Chinua	Things Fall Apart
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi	Purple Hibiscus; Half a Yellow Sun; The Thing Around Your Neck
Adiga, Aravind	The White Tiger; Last Man in the Tower
Alderman, Naomi	The Power
Ali, Monica	Brick Lane
Allende, Isabel	Daughter of Fortune; The House of Spirits; Eva Luna; A Long Petal of the Sea
Amis, Martin	London Fields; Money; Time’s Arrow
Angelou, Maya	I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Atkinson, Kate	Life After Life; A God in Ruins; Big Sky
Atwood, Margaret	The Handmaid’s Tale; The Blind Assassin; The Testaments
Austen, Jane	Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility; Emma
Auster, Paul	The Book of Illusions; Invisible; The New York Trilogy
Baldwin, James	Go Tell it on the Mountain; The Fire Next Time
Banks, Iain	The Wasp Factory
Barker, Pat	Regeneration Trilogy; Toby’s Room; The Silence of the Girls
Bassani, Giorgio	The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
Bellow, Saul	Herzog
Bennett, Brit	The Vanishing Half
Bernières . Louis de	Birds Without Wings; Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
Bolano, Roberto	The Savage Detectives
Borges, Jorge Luis	Ficcones; Labyrinths
Boyd, William	Waiting for Sunrise; Sweet Caress; Solo
Bronte, Anne	The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Bronte, Charlotte	Villette
Bulgakov, Mikhail	The Master and Margarita
Bunyan, John	The Pilgrim’s Progress
Burns, Anna	the Milkman
Byatt, A. S.	The Children’s Book; Possession
Calvino, Italo	Marcovaldo; Invisible Cities; if on a Winter’s Night a Traveler
Camus, Albert	The Outsider; The Plague
Carey, Peter	True History of the Kelly Gang; Oscar and Lucinda; A Long Way from Home
Carter, Angela	The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories; Nights at the Circus
Cervantes, Miguel de	Don Quixote
Chang, Jung	Wild Swans
Chatwin, Bruce	Songlines; In Patagonia
Chevalier, Tracy	Girl With a Pearl Earring
Clarke, Susanna	Piranesi
Coelho, Paulo	The Alchemist
Coetzee, J. M.	Waiting for the Barbarians; Life and Times of Michael K; Disgrace
Collins, Wilkie	The Moonstone; The Woman in White
Conrad, Joseph	Heart of Darkness
Cruz, Angie	Dominicana
Cunningham, Michael	The Hours
Dangarembga, Tsitsi	Nervous Conditions; The Mournable Body
Darwin, Charles	The Origins of the Species by Means of Natural Selection
Dawkins, Richard	The Selfish Gene; The Blind Watchmaker
Defoe, Daniel	Moll Flanders; Robinson Crusoe
Dickens, Charles	Bleak House; Little Dorrit; Our Mutual Friend
Doerr, Anthony	All the Light We Cannot See
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor	Crime and Punishment
Dumas, Alexandre	The Three Musketeers; The Count of Monte Cristo
Eco, Umberto	The Name of the Rose
Eliot, George	The Mill on the Floss; Middlemarch; Daniel Deronda
Evaristo, Bernardine	Girl, Woman, Other
Erdrich, Louise	The Round House; Love Medicine
Eugenides, Jeffrey	Middlesex; The Virgin Suicides
Faulkner, William	The Sound and the Fury
Faulks, Sebastian	Birdsong; Charlotte Gray; A Possible Life
Ferrante, Elena	Neapolitan Quartet
Fielding, Henry	The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
Fitzgerald, F. Scott	The Great Gatsby; Tender is the Night
Flaubert, Gustave	Sentimental Education; Madame Bovary
Foer, Jonathan Safan	Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close; Everything is Illuminated
Ford, Ford Madox	The Good Soldier; Parade’s End
Forster, E. M.	A Room with a View; Howard’s End; A Passage to India
Fowles, John	The French Lieutenant’s Woman; The Magus
Franzen, Jonathan	The Corrections
Frayn, Michael	Spies
Fuentes, Carlos	The Old Gringo; The Eagle’s Throne
Galgut, Damon	The Good Doctor; The Promise
Garcia Marquez, Gabriel	Love in the Time of Cholera; One Hundred Years of Solitude; Of Love and Other Demons
Gaskell, Elizabeth	North and South
Ghosh, Amitav	The Glass Palace; Gun Island
Gilbert, Elizabeth	City of Girls
Gogal, Nikolai	Dead Souls
Gospodinov, Georgi	Time Shelter
Golding, William	Memoirs of a Geisha
Grass, Gunter	The Tin Drum
Graves, Roberts	Goodbye to All That
Greene, Graham	The Quiet American; The Heart of the Matter
Gunesekera, Romesh	Heaven’s Edge; Suncatcher
Hamid, Moshin	The Reluctant Fundamentalist; Exit West
Harari, Yuval Noah	Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind; Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
Hartley, L. P.	The Go-Between
Hardy, Thomas	Jude the Obscure; The Return of the Native; Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Hasek, Jaroslav	The Good Soldier Svejik and His Fortunes in the World War
Hawthorne,Nathaniel	The Scarlet Letter
Heaney, Seamus	Beowulf
Hemingway, Ernest	For Whom the Bell Tolls; A Moveable Feast
Hesse, ,Hermann	Steppenwolf; Narcissus and Goldmuld
Hosseini, Khaled	A Thousand Splendid Suns; And the Mountains Echoed
Hugo, Victor	The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
Huxley, Aldous	Brave New World
Ishiguro, Kazuo	The Remains of the Day; When We Were Orphans; Klara and the Sun
James, Henry	The Europeans; The Portrait of a Lady
Jones, Tayari	An American Marriage
Joyce, James	The Dubliners; Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Kadare, Ismail	The Siege; The Accident; A Girl in Exile
Kafka, Franza	The Castle; Metamorphosis and Other Stories; The Trial
Kang, Han	The Vegetarian
Kerouac, Jack	On the Road
Kertész Imre	Liquidation; Fateless
Kidd, Sue Monk	The Secret Life of Bees; The Invention of Wings; The Book of Longings
Kingsolver, Barbara	The Poisonwood Bible, Demon Copperhead
Kipling, Rudyard	Collected Stories
Kundera, Milan	The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Kureishi, Hanif	The Buddha of Suburbia
Lampedusa, Giuseppe Tomasi di	The Leopard
Lawrence, D. H.	The Rainbow; Sons and Lovers; Women in Love
Lermotov, ,Mikhail	A Hero of Our Time
Lessing, Doris	The Yellow Notebook
Levi, Carlo	Christ Stopped at Eboli
Levi, Primo	If This is a Man; the Truce
Levy, Andrea	Small Island
McCarthy, Cormac	The Border Trilogy; The Road
McEwan. Ian	Atonement; On Chesil Beach; The Children Act; Enduring Love
Mahfouz, Naguib	The Cairo Trilogy
Malory, Thomas	Le Morte d’Arthur
Mann, Thomas	Death in Venice
Mantel, Hilary	Wolf Hall; Bring Up the Bodies; the Mirror and the Light
Martel, Yan	Life of Pi
McCourt, Frank	Angela’s Ashes
Melville, Herman	Moby Dick
Mishima, Yukio	The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea
Mitchell, David	Cloud Atlas
Morrison, Toni	Beloved; Paradise
Murakami, Haruki	The Elephant Vanishes; the Wind-Up Bird Chronicles; Kafka on the Shore;
Nabokov, Vladimir	Lolita
Naipaul, V. S	A Bend in the River
Ng, Celeste	Little Fires Everywhere
Niffenegger, Audrey	The Time Traveler’s Wife
O’Brien, Flynn	At Swim-Two-Birds
O’Brien, Tim	The Things they Carried
O’Farrell, Maggie	Hamnet; The Marriage Portrait
Okri, Ben	The Famished Road
Ondaatje, Michael	The English Patient
Orwell, George	Nineteen Eighty Four
Pamuk, Orhan	My Name is Red; Snow
Pasternak, Boris	Dr Zhivago
Plath, Sylvia	The Bell Jar
Poe, Edgar Allan	Tales of Mystery and Imagination
Proulx, Annie	The Shipping News
Proust, Marcel	In Search of Lost Time
Reid, Kiley	Such a Fun Age
Rhys, Jean	Wide Sargasso Sea
Rooney, Sally	Normal People; Beautiful World Where Are You
Roth, Philip	Everyman
Roy, Arundhati	The God of Small Things; The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Rushdie, Salman	Midnight’s Children
Sacks, Oliver	The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat
Salih, Tayeb	Season of Migration to the North
Salinger, J. D.	The Catcher in the Rye
Samson, C. J.	Winter in Madrid; Shardlake Mysteries
Saramego, Jose	Blindness: The Double
Schlink, Bernhard	Flights of Love; The Reader
Scott, Walter	Ivanhoe; Waverly
Sebald, W. G.	Austerlitz
Seth, Visram	A Suitable Boy; An Equal Music
Shamsie, Kamila	Broken Verses; Burnt Shadows; Home Fire
Sheilds, Carol	The Stone Diaries
Shriver, Lionel	We Need To Talk About Kevin
Smith, Ali	How to be Both; Autumn; Winter; Spring; Summer
Smith, Zadie	White Teeth; Swing Time
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr	One Day in the Life Ivan Denisovich
Steinbeck, John	The Moon is Down, Cannery Row
Sterne, Laurence	Tristram Shandy: A Sentimental Journey
Stuart, Douglas	Shuggie Bain
Suskind, Patrick	Perfume
Swift, Jonathan	Gulliver’s Travels
Tartt, Donna	The Secret History, The Goldfinch
Thackeray, W. M.	Vanity Fair
Thien, Madeleine	Do Not Say We Have Nothing
Thoreau, Henry David	Walden
Toibin, Colm	Brooklyn; The Testament of Mary
Tolstoy, Leo	Anna Karenina; War and Peace
Trollope, Anthony	Barchester Chronicles; Palliser Novels
Updike, John	Rabbit Redux; Terrorist; the Witches of Eastwick
Vargas Llosa, Mario	The Feast of the Goat
Voltaire	Candide
Walker, Alice	The Color Purple
Waters, Sarah	Fingersmith; The Night Watch; The Paying Guests
Waugh, Evelyn	Brideshead Revisited; Scoop
Winterson, Jeanette	Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Winton, Tim	The Turning; Island Home
Wharton, Edith	The Age of Innocence
Woolf, Virginia	Mrs Dalloway; To the Lighthouse
Yoshimoto, Banana	Kitchen

Document Title	Date	Download
KS3 Recommended Reading List 2024-25	12 Sep 2024	Download
KS4 Recommended Reading List 2024-25	12 Sep 2024	Download
KS5 Recommended Reading List 2024-25	12 Sep 2024	Download

Document Title	Date	Download
BR English Literary Canon	03 Sep 2024	Download

Document Title	Date	Download
Literacy Policy	21 Jun 2023	Download

Reluctant Readers

There are a number of ways to support children who are reluctant or struggle to read at home.

1. Encourage them to use their PQRST reading method which is used in school when doing any reading.

2. Encourage self-monitoring when reading too:

Does what I have read made sense?
Do I need to re-read this or talk it through with someone?
Can I link what I have read to some earlier parts?

3. Key word lists/glossaries are also great, so focus on common words or words they often get wrong. You can have this up in places they will see (the fridge, the back of the bathroom door, if you have a board up in the kitchen etc).

4. Barrington Stokes Publishers have great "high interest, low readability" books.

Your child may not have dyslexia, but these are also great for “reluctant readers”

Dyslexic and Reluctant Readers - Barrington Stoke

5. Encourage mind mapping when your child is researching or making notes.

6. Have subtitles on as you watch TV. Also, if they watch videos on YouTube, you can put the captions on.

7.Read with your child or read to them. If they are reluctant to read, then audiobooks help. Try to link these to subjects or genres they like, or engage with. They can also use the “immersive reader” function on the Bishop Ramsey digital reading E-Platform, which reads the text aloud whilst tracking the words.

8. Ask them questions about things you read together. Often something like an article from the "Metro" newspaper is good for this; you can pick articles they are interested in. They also have access to an online student newspaper called The Day, via the BR Student Portal, on which the reading level can be adjusted.

9. Encourage them, when reading a Word document or PowerPoint, to use the "immersive reader" function, which reads the text aloud, whilst tracking the words.

10. Model positive attitudes to reading with your child – discuss your favourite author or book with your child, or the films that have been made based on books.

Key Stage 4 Suggested Reading
Mental Health	Great YA
Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard	Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Are We All Snowflakes and Lemmings? by Holly Bourne	American Royals by Katharine McGee
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky	A Sing Below Water by Bethany C Morrow
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green	All The Bight Places by Jennifer Niven
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen	My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The Science of Breakable Things by Tae Keller	Wilder Girls by Rory Power
Blame My Brain by Nicola Morgan	Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath	I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell	The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
Classics	Now Read the Book
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott	Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen	Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte	Firefly Lane by Kristen Hannah
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins	One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens	Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
Middlemarch by George Eliot	Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald	Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence	The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh	The Vampire Diaries by L. J. Smith
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by R. L. Stevenson	The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis
Hot on Booktok	Prize Winners
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard	The Power by Naomi Alderman
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid	My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black	Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune	Girl Woman Other by Bernardine Evaristo
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover	The Midnight Library by Matthew Haig
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood	An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart	The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Circe by Madeline Miller	Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue by V. E. Schwab	All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld	The Goldfinch by Donna Tart

Mysteries and Thrillers	Modern Classics
Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide	I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
S.T.A.G.S. by M. A. Bennett	The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Rules by Tracy Darnton	The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
They Wish They Were Us by Jessica Goodman	Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson	The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson	Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
You’ll Be the Death of me by Karen M. McManus	The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Lovely Bones by Alice Seabold	White Teeth by Zadie Smith
The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe	The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein	The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Dystopian Fiction	Interesting Lives
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury	Coming Up for Air by Tom Daley
The Selection by Kiera Cass	Up Close by Jane Goodall
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline	The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins	Endurance by Scott Kelly
The Maze Runner by James Dasher	Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro	Twelve Years a Slave by Soloman Northup
The Road by Cormac McCarthy	Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
1984 by George Orwell	Will by Will Smith
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card	Educated by Tara Westover
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham	Star Child by Ibi Zoboi
Non-fiction	Drama
Bonnie and Clyde by Karen Blumethal	History Boys by Alan Bennett
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson	Hobson’s Choice by Harold Brighouse
Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming	Tales of Honey by Sheelagh Delaney
A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking	The Empress by Tankia Gupta
A Night to Remember by Walter Lord	DNA by Dennis Kelly
The Missing by Michael Rosen	The Crucible by Arthur Miller
The Five by Hallie Rubenhold	Hamlet by William Shakespeare
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot	Othello by William Shakespeare
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly	Journey’s End by R. C. Sheriff
We Are Displaced by Malala Yousafzai	Blood Brothers by Willy Russell

GCSE English Literature Wider Reading
Macbeth	A Christmas Carol
The Invention of the Human by Harold Bloom	Dickens by Peter Ackroyd
Shakespeare’s Macbeth by Harold Bloom	Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin
Shakespearean Tragedy by A. C. Bradbury	The Man Who Invented Christmas by Les Standiford
William Shakespeare; A Reader’s Guide by Alfred Harbage	The World of Charles Dickens by Angus Wilson
Twentieth-Century Interpretations of Macbeth by Terence Hawkes	Charles Dickens and the Making of A Christmas Carol by Michael Norris
Shakespeare’s Tragic Sequence by Kenneth Muir	Chales Dickens’ England by David Nicholas Wilkinson
Shakespearean Tragedy and the Elizabethan Compromise by Paul Siegel	Dickens’ Christmas: A Victorian Celebration by Simon Callow
Power and Conflict Poetry	Unseen Poetry
The Not Dead by Simon Armitage	Collected Poems by W H Auden
Half-Caste by John Agard	Collected Poems by Emily Dickinson
Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake	The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot
Collected Poems by Robert Browning	Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
The Terrorist At my Table by Imtiaz Dharker	Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman
Selected Poems by Carol Ann Duffy	Collected Poems by Langston Hughes
The Hawk in the Rain by Ted Hughes	Ariel by Sylvia Plath
Collected Poems by Wilfred Owen	In a Green Night by Derek Walcott
The Prelude by Alfred, Lord Tennyson	Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Way I Dressed by Jane Weir	Poems, New and Collected by Wislawa Szymborska
Other useful books:	An Inspector Calls
Collins English School Dictionary	J. B. Priestley: The Last of the Sages by John Alfred Atkins
Collins English School Thesaurus	J. B. Priestley: Portrait of an Author by Susan Cooper
There are lots of revision guides for all of the topics in GCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature. Publishers include Collins, CGP and York Notes for GCSE	J.B. Priestley: An Annotated Bibliography by Alan Edwin Day
	J.B. Priestley by A. A. Vitis
	The Vision of J.B. Priestley by Roger Fragge
	J. B. Priestley: An Informal Study of his Work by David Hughes
	J.B. Priestley, the Dramatist by Gareth Lloyd Evans
	J.B. Priestley and the Theatre by Rex Pogson

Literacy and reading

The importance of reading and our approach

Reading Intervention at Bishop Ramsey

Identifying students’ needs

Helping students to improve their reading

Targeted interventions

Tier 1 (English Faculty)

Tier 2 (English Faculty)

Tier 3 (Access and Inclusion Faculty)

Tier 4 (Specialist)

Bedrock Learning

Recommended Reading

Other ways to find suggestions for reading:

Key Stage 3 Suggested Reading

Year 7 Wider Reading

Year 8 Wider Reading

Year 9 Wider Reading

Other ways to find suggestions for reading

Key Stage 4 Suggested Reading

GCSE English Literature Wider Reading

Other ways to find suggestions for reading

Key Stage 5 Suggested Reading

Reluctant Readers

Recommended Useful Reading Websites

In this section