CHILDREN are not reading enough books, says Education Secretary Michael Gove. Teachers and pupils at Rastrick High School disagree. JOANNE DOUGLAS reports.
CLASSIC literature is at risk of dying out in schools, the Education Secretary warns.
He believes that fewer than one in 100 teenagers who sat one exam board’s English literature GCSE last year had studied novels published before the 20th Century.
And he says that even when they do pick up classic books, the exam system doesn’t encourage them to do so.
Research, he says, shows that only 1,236 out of 300,000 students read Pride and Prejudice, 285 read Far From The Madding Crowd and 187 studied Wuthering Heights.
More than 90% of exam papers were based on three books alone – Of Mice and Men, Lord of the Flies, and To Kill a Mockingbird – all of which were published after 1930.
And he wants children to be challenged to read at least 50 books a year.
But Rastrick High School has a message for Mr Gove: “We’re ahead of you”.
Staff at the Field Top Road school say it is encouraging that Mr Gove is talking about reading in secondary schools and emphasising its importance, not only for children’s successful learning, enjoyment and development, but also as a necessary life skill.
And efforts the school has made over the last few years has seen incredible results.
Literacy Co-ordinator Deborah Adamson said: “At Rastrick High School reading has always been an essential part of the curriculum but this year there has been even greater emphasis on both reading development and reading for enjoyment.”
Pupils in year seven are taking part in a structured Accelerated Reading programme designed to help continue to develop pupils’ skills and enthusiasm for reading.
In September each student’s reading ability was assessed so that the reader could be matched with the right books.
And it has had a positive impact on the students – collectively year seven students have read over three and a half thousand books in the last six months.
In the same period the school library has more than doubled the number of books issued – to more than 14,000 titles.