World Book Day provides the perfect opportunity to celebrate a successful year of reading

We have continued over the last year to ensure that a range of initiatives are in place to make sure that students have access to high quality and thought- provoking literature. These include a tutor time reading programme called ‘Sutton Reads’ where students are read to by their tutor; a reading challenge of the sixteen books that students should read by the age of 16 and the six books to read in sixth form. New for this year has been the launch of the staff and sixth form reading group who meet weekly over lunch to share their thoughts on the book being read. So far, we have read as a group; ‘All the Broken Places’ by John Boyne and have just started to read ‘The Picture of Dorian Grey’ by Oscar Wilde.

Alongside this, we also provide one to one intervention to enhance students' reading abilities and to enable them to successfully access the curriculum. Assistant Principal, Anna Paulson stated, ‘it is great to see the progress that students are making with regards to reading and lovely to see students enjoying reading.’

To celebrate the culture of reading, many activities have been organised to celebrate World Book Day, including; a book treasure hunt, a literature quiz, a guess the staff bookshelf competition, story writing competitions and a visit from footballers at Mansfield Town Football Club. Neil Kennedy, teacher of English said, ‘we are pleased to get the wider community involved to celebrate the work we are doing here at Sutton Community Academy to celebrate reading,’ Students also have access to an e-platform allowing them to download books to read or audiobooks to listen to. The site gives students access to thousands of books that they can access at home as well as in school. School librarian, Jack Goodwin explained, ‘the e-platform has had a huge impact on the engagement of students reading. As well as having access to an extensive physical library in school, students now have more options to diversify their love of reading.’