Ask open-ended questions about their reading, like "What do you think about the main character?" or "How would you change the ending?"
Relate books to real-life experiences or current events.
Support Comprehension Skills
Encourage them to summarise what they’ve read. Discuss tricky vocabulary and help them decode difficult words. Ask them to predict what will happen next or explain a character’s motivation
Use Technology to Support Reading
Introduce audiobooks and podcasts for an alternative way to engage with stories.
Encourage reading apps or online articles on topics they love.
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READING NEWSLETTER
Spring Term 2025
Recommendations
KS5
Becky Belson Lizzie Hedderson Flora Barton
Pachinko
by Min Jin Lee
In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant and that her lover is married she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.
Orbital
by Samantha Harvey
Six astronauts rotate in their spacecraft above the earth They are there to collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body But mostly they observe Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day
Small Things Like These
by Claire Keegan
It is 1985 in a small Irish town During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church
The story has quite a few plot twists that made it interesting, and the art style was lovely (since it’s a comic), but it should definitely be read by a high KS4/ KS5 student
This term we celebrated reading and creativity in our first Literary Festival Week This week was extremely exciting and gave our community a variety or opportunities to connect with Literature and develop literacy skills across a range of activities
Our I and IV Group participated in a fantastic workshop with author, Katy Watson She explored the world of the author, imparting words of wisdom for careers in this area, the challenges she has faced and the celebrations of her work She facilitated a short workshop focusing on great story openings, what they look like and how our students could create their own Students created brilliant openings, engaging in the task with focus and enthusiasm
We welcomed a local independent bookshop, Bow Books, into St Chris The Bookfair was open for the whole community across the day Students and staff purchased a range of books and stationery, fostering the enjoyment of reading
We engaged in a Drop Everything and Read day for I, II and III Group students Across the day each teacher read a short section of a story, developing the story over time By the end of the day, we had read a full story The maturity and enthusiasm our students expressed for the story as it developed was tremendous and we are really proud of them all
On World Book Day we saw some remarkable outfits, costumes and accessories which created lovely conversations about the books we love It was such a special day Companies completed our World Book Day quiz, reflecting on Literature across time, historically and personally
I, II and III Group took part in a creative poetry workshop Students were given time to develop writing skills with a contemporary poet Jade Rose King explored the life of a University lecturer and her role as a poet, enhancing knowledge around her career She delved into poetry with an artistic approach and offered an opportunity for our students to independently embrace innovation and imagination
Our Morning Talks were presented by some of our Reading Ambassadors We are extremely proud of their confidence, diligence, and focus- they are super stars!
I wanted to say a huge well done and thank you to our wonderful St Chris community for a superb, successful week This week allowed us, as a community, to prioritise reading, embrace creativity, expand knowledge, express ourselves, and enjoy the world of Literature
Spring Term 2025
InterviewwithanAuthor
Tova Friedman.
About The Author:
Tova Friedman was born in 1938, just one year before the outbreak of the Second World War She was one of hundreds of Jewish children living in the Polish town of Tomaszów Mazowiecki at the time At just five years old, she and her mother were sent to Auschwitz as Jewish prisoners of war By the war's end, only five children from Tomaszów were still alive Tova is one of the few living survivors to recount her experience of the Holocaust and is a campaigner against antisemitism After teaching at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and living in Israel for a decade, she became the director of a non-profit social service agency in New Jersey for 25 years She is a very proud mother of four and grandmother of eight She is a therapist, and lives in Highland Park in New Jersey, US Recently she has gained a new audience with her family-run TikTok, which has over 500k followers and 9M+ likes, and her videos have attracted 75 million views
About The Book:
The true story of one girl's fight for survival, by Tova Friedman, one of the few living survivors to recount her experience of the Holocaust At just five years old, she and her mother were sent to Auschwitz - this is her bestselling book, The Daughter of Auschwitz, reimagined for younger readers
Scan the QR Code for a series of video interviews with Tova Friedman.
Hear about Tova's life as one of the youngest living survivors of the Holocaust
READING NEWSLETTER
Spring Term 2025
Student Work
CREATIVE WRITING
Penny: V Group
Family
There is a misconception about the word family
Penny from V Group has created a wonderful poem about Family
And although family is blood relation that is only half of the equation
Family is people you are close to People who will value you
People you can be yourself around
People who you have found
People who will look for you when you disappear
People who will comfort you in moments of despair
People who will make you proud of who you are
People who won’t look at you and think you are bizarre
Family can be anyone who makes the dark days bright and make the storm clear in one flash of light
Family isn’t just parents, siblings, aunts, and uncles
It’s people who will be there through all the struggles
AUTHOR : CRESSIDA COWELL
And it’s people who when you are around them your happiness doubles
Lola from II Group has written a brilliant poem about Friendship
Friends
Lola: II Group
Friends are something special, a treasure to not be replaced They help when times are hard, and with things to be faced, They’re to have fun, to play and to run, to give comfort after a bad day, and to help when you’re stuck with what to say They’re there to brighten your smile, even if you haven’t seen them in a while, and although they may not exactly fit, and they may not even have good wit, as long as they care for you, then that’s the best you can do
So, if you have an old friend, it may not be the end
Try to connect once more, it may even be better than it was before because the friendship may be lost, but you can get it back without a cost
Because a friend is a friend, forever and until the end
READING NEWSLETTER
Spring Term 2025
Student Reviews
BOOK REVIEW STUDENT
Jay: Upper Sixth
TITLE : A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
AUTHOR : KHALED HOSSEINI REVIEW
RATE
"It's our lot in life, Mariam Women like us We endure It's all we have "
Set in Afghanistan across many decades, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, also the author of The Kite Runner, is the story of two very different women, whose stories collide against a backdrop of social turmoil and violence Mariam, born into rural poverty in the late 1950s, is forced into an abusive marriage with a much older man Laila, born two decades later in Soviet-occupied Kabul, lives a much more privileged life, until a tragic turn of events leaves her no choice but to accept a marriage proposal from Mariam’s husband Initially mistrustful of each other, the two women form a close bond, finding hope and resilience in one another
AUTHOR : CRESSIDA COWELL
Hosseini crafts an intimate portrait of the lives of two Afghan women, their struggles inextricable from the volatile sociopolitical climate of a country rife with internal division and external upheaval, from the Soviet invasion in 1979 to the 1996 Taliban seizure of power Though a work of fiction, the story Hosseini tells, of hardship, violence and above-all love, is real- and is amplified by his straightforward, yet incredibly impactful writing style, providing direct insight into the lived experiences of his well-developed characters Especially given the current political circumstances in Afghanistan, A Thousand Splendid Suns is an especially important read, allowing readers insight into the lived experiences of countless thousands of people It is important to note that the book deals with some very heavy themes, however it does so in a tentative manner, whilst retaining a message of endurance and hope
I would recommend the book to fans of modern historical fiction and/or to anyone interested in an emotional, fastpaced and hard-hitting novel to get them out of a reading slump
READING NEWSLETTER
Student Reviews
BOOK REVIEW STUDENT
Veronika: V Group
TITLE: 1984
AUTHOR : GEORGE ORWELL
Spring Term 2025 RATE
REVIEW
“Nineteen Eighty-Four” written by George Orwell for me was an introduction to the genre of dystopia as well as the first book by Orwell that I read; dystopian genre should be carefully distinguished from an anti-utopia as while both genres criticize political systems and/or societal norms, the dystopia retains a critical aspiration, sustained by the belief that progress and social change are still possible, unlike the anti-utopia (emphasising this just in case because I did not know the difference between the two when I first started reading it and, I think, this is important to know) The book describes the life of Winston Smith, a man in his early 40s (39 years old in the beginning of the novel), and the story is told from his perspective; the threat of totalitarian society is also shown through Winston, and his eventual complete destruction of character
What amazed me the most was the small moments of beauty woven into the book as if abruptly tearing apart its grey stoicism in order to show the remains of humanity that are left: Winston’s fascination with old architecture, nature etc This all, I think, solidified Orwell’s message that despite of all the gruesomeness, ugliness and cruelty of the world, there is always the beautiful It carried the idea that the world itself doesn’t change, what changes is only one’s perception of it
Overall, I recommend reading this book, and I think you will find a lot of interesting things to think about You will probably have to reread some parts or the entire book more than once in order to try to understand it better as it is very complex, my advice is to write out/mark some places you want to come back to or remember
“Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood” In my opinion, one of the most impressive and deep quotes in the book
Indifference, cruelty that reign in this book, showed the destruction of the human “me”; the unnaturalness of what is happening gradually destroys Winston He is consumed by loneliness, and his blissful dreams on the bright future and hope are muted by human vices, rejection and indifference, but most of all by the primitive thinking of others e g “What are the stars? They are bits of fire a few kilometres away We could reach them if we wanted to Or we could blot them out The earth is the centre of the universe The sun and stars go around it” The feeling of greatness that people can expose when they feel that they have power over others, in this case, particularly, comparing the power of person to something almost god-like
Spring Term 2025
We are proud of all of our students and their reading progress.
We wanted to share some highlights from January-March which our KS3 students achieved...
JOIN AMY EVERY TUESDAY LUNCHTIME IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN CREATING A SCHOOL MAGAZINE
