Letter sent home with Year 7 students from the English Department

October 2007

Dear Parents/Guardians,

In order to promote literacy in Years 7 and 8, the English Department is pleased to provide your child with a list of recommended books and a leaflet designed to help your child with spelling.

The reading list represents an example of the wealth of children’s literature available; it also includes more demanding texts to develop the skills of more able readers.  The latter have been asterisked and may contain either a more challenging and sensitive theme, or be written in a more demanding style.

The list should be used to provide initial suggestions of reading choice.  Your child may need some guidance when selecting titles.  The main aim of private reading is to develop students’ interest in reading and they should think carefully about their personal preferences before selecting a reading book.  They should also aim to vary their reading in order to develop their appreciation of different styles.  This will also improve their vocabulary and increase the accuracy of their written work.  Students should try to read every day.

One of your child’s English lessons will be devoted to private reading.  Students will be given a “Reading Challenge”: this includes reading a target number of books each term and producing a range of written work, based on their books.

The spelling leaflet highlights what we are doing at Longhill to help students improve their spelling and also shows how you can assist us in helping your child with their spelling.

We thank you for supporting us with the promotion of literacy and hope you will find both the reading list and the spelling leaflet useful.

 Yours sincerely

Stephen Grosvenor

Head of English