DEAR
What is DEAR time?
As part of our #MissionToGreatness all year 7 - 10 students at The Wells Academy take part in DEAR (Drop, Everything And Read) time each day. This 25 minute session is delivered by tutors in their tutor groups and consists of pupils reading a book, appropriate for their reading age, silently for 25 minutes.
Students are able to borrow up to two reading books from the academy's well stocked library and will be expected to carry this with them as part of their essential equipment. Students will regularly complete a reading log to make sure they keep track of their progress.
How can I support my child with DEAR?
Parents/Carers have a vital role to play in the development of student's reading and vocabulary. By doing the following things it will support your child with improving their reading, which is a skill that is critical to their academic success and life chances:
- Listen to your child read aloud - Spending just 20 minutes a night listening to your child read aloud will help improve their reading.
- Take in interest in the book they are reading - By discussing the content and themes of the book they are reading it will help not only them be able to explain what they have read but also help support their love of reading.
- Ensure your child always brings their DEAR book to school - Being 'Ready to Learn' is one of our learning habits and making sure your child has their DEAR book for each day is key to not only displaying this habit but also supporting their reading.
- Ask to see their reading log - Students will record their reading progress in their reading log. Asking to see this and making sure they are doing enough reading each week will support your child.
- Ask for any support - We are here to help and support wherever we can. If you feel you would like some support for your child's reading, advice or want to raise any concerns please do not hesitate to get in contact with the academy.
Suggested reading list
Year 7
- Watership Down – Richard Adams
- The Goldfish Boy- Lisa Thompson
- The Island at the Edge of Everything – Kiran Millward
- The Wolves of Willoughby Chase – Joan Aiken
- Peter Pan – JM Barrie
- The Dark is Rising – Susan Cooper
- Wolf – Gillian Cross
- Some Places More Than Others – Renee Watson
- The Seeing Stone – Kevin Crossley -Holland
- Boy and Going Solo – Roald Dahl
- The Diary of A Young Girl – Anne Frank
- War Horse – Michael Morpurgo
- Northern Lights – Philip Pullman
- Black Beauty – Anna Sewell
- The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
- Pig Heart Boy- Malorie Blackman
- Wonder – R J Palacio
- The Book Thief – Marcus Zusak
- Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief – Rick Riordan
- Call of The Wild – Jack London
- Private Peaceful – Michael Morpurgo
- Holes – Louis Sacher
Year 8
- Madame Doubtfire – Anne Fine
- Welcome to Nowhere – Elizabeth Laird
- The Outsiders – S E Hinton
- Animal Farm – George Orwell
- Chinese Cinderella – Adeline Yen Mah
- The Coral Island – R M Ballantyne
- The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
- The Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham
- Flambards – K M Peyton
- The Flame Trees of Thika – Elspheth Huxley
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
- How I Live Now – Meg Rosoff
- I am David – Anne Holm
- Joby- Stan Barstow
- Journey to the River Sea- Eva Ibbotson
- A Kestrel for A Knave – Barry Hines
- Looking for JJ – Anne Cassidy
- Lord of the Flies – William Golding
- Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
- The Tulip Touch – Anne Fine
- The Dam Busters – Paul Brickhill
- The Giver – Lois Lowry
- Bridge to Terabithia – Katherine Paterson
- Tightrope – Gillian Cross
- I’m the King of The Castle – Susan Hill
- The Woman in Black – Susan Hill
- The Secret Garden- Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Treasure Island – R L Stevenson
- The Haunting – Margaret Mahy
- Z for Zachariah - Robert O’Brien
- Shadowmancer – G P Taylor
Year 9
- Monsters of Men – Patrick Ness
- Maladapted – Richard Kurti
- Hatchet – Gary Paulson
- Boy Proof – Cecil Castellucci
- The Twilight Saga – Stephanie Meyer
- The Amnesia Clinic – James Scudamore
- Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
- Brighton Rock – Graham Green
- Catch -22 Joseph Heller
- The Catcher in the Rye – J D Salinger
- The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
- Dracula – Bram Stoker
- Empire of the Sun – J G Ballard
- Noah Can’t Even -Simon James Green
- Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
- I Claudius – Robert Graves
- The Mosquito Coast – Paul Theroux
- The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Alexander Solzhenistsyn
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey
- Paddy Clarke Ha, Ha, Ha – Roddy Doyle
- Scoop – Evelyn Waugh
- To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
- Burning Secret – Stefan Zweig
Year 10
- The Fault in Our Stars – John Green
- We Are All Made of Molecules – Susin Neilson
- 13 minutes: A Novel by Sarah Pinborough
- Paper Butterflies – Lisa Heathfield
- Every Day – David Levithan
- Rose See Red – Cecil Castelucci
- A Separate Peace – John Knowles
- Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
- American Gods – Neil Gaiman
- Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
- Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
- Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
- The Grapes of Wrath- John Steinbeck
- Atonement – Ian McEwan
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K Dick
- Long Walk to Freedom – Nelson Mandela
- The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
- The Road - Cormac McCarthy
- All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque
- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – John Le Carrie
- I Capture the Castle – Dodie Smith
- Cider With Rosie – Laurie Lee
- Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
- The Fellowship of the Ring – JRR Tolkien
- Gulliver’s Travels – Johnathon Swift
- Schindler’s Ark – Thomas Keneally
- Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson
- Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
Year 11
- Looking for Alaska – John Green
- The Westing Game – Ellen Raskin
- The Time Machine – H G Wells
- The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
- Games of Thrones – George R R Martin
- Birdsong – Sebastian Faulkes
- On The Road – Jack Kerouac
- The Three Musketeers = Aexandre Dumas
- The Name of The Rose- Umbero Eco
- The Trial – Franz Kafta
- The Moonstone – Wikie Collins
- War of The Worlds – H G Wells
- David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
- Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
- Don Quixote – Miguel Cervantes
- Carrie – Stephen King
- The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch
- A Short History of Nearly Everything -Bill Bryson
- Cosmos – Carl Sagan
- Maus – Art Spiegelman
- One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriela Garcia Marquez
- East of Eden – John Steinbeck
- Farenheight 451 – Ray Bradbury
- Dune – Frank Herbet
- Flowers of Algernon – Daniel Keyes
- Out of Shadows – Jason Wallace
- #Murdertrending – Gretchen McNeil
- Speak – Laurie Halse Anderson
- The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold