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The Wells Academy

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:
 

  1. Listen to your child read aloud - Spending just 20 minutes a night listening to your child read aloud will help improve their reading.
     
  2. 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.
     
  3. 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.
     
  4. 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.
     
  5. 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
  1. Watership Down – Richard Adams
  2. The Goldfish Boy- Lisa Thompson
  3. The Island at the Edge of Everything – Kiran Millward
  4. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase – Joan Aiken
  5. Peter Pan – JM Barrie
  6. The Dark is Rising – Susan Cooper
  7. Wolf – Gillian Cross
  8. Some Places More Than Others – Renee Watson
  9. The Seeing Stone – Kevin Crossley -Holland
  10. Boy and Going Solo – Roald Dahl
  11. The Diary of A Young Girl – Anne Frank
  12. War Horse – Michael Morpurgo
  13. Northern Lights – Philip Pullman
  14. Black Beauty – Anna Sewell
  15. The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
  16. Pig Heart Boy- Malorie Blackman
  17. Wonder – R J Palacio
  18. The Book Thief – Marcus Zusak
  19. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief – Rick Riordan
  20. Call of The Wild – Jack London
  21. Private Peaceful – Michael Morpurgo
  22. Holes – Louis Sacher
Year 8
  1. Madame Doubtfire – Anne Fine
  2. Welcome to Nowhere – Elizabeth Laird
  3. The Outsiders – S E Hinton
  4. Animal Farm – George Orwell
  5. Chinese Cinderella – Adeline Yen Mah
  6. The Coral Island – R M Ballantyne
  7. The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
  8. The Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham
  9. Flambards – K M Peyton
  10. The Flame Trees of Thika – Elspheth Huxley
  11. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
  12. How I Live Now – Meg Rosoff
  13. I am David – Anne Holm
  14. Joby- Stan Barstow
  15. Journey to the River Sea- Eva Ibbotson
  16. A Kestrel for A Knave – Barry Hines
  17. Looking for JJ – Anne Cassidy
  18. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
  19. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
  20. The Tulip Touch – Anne Fine
  21. The Dam Busters – Paul Brickhill
  22. The Giver – Lois Lowry
  23. Bridge to Terabithia – Katherine Paterson
  24. Tightrope – Gillian Cross
  25. I’m the King of The Castle – Susan Hill
  26. The Woman in Black – Susan Hill
  27. The Secret Garden- Frances Hodgson Burnett
  28. Treasure Island – R L Stevenson
  29. The Haunting – Margaret Mahy
  30. Z for Zachariah  - Robert O’Brien
  31. Shadowmancer – G P Taylor
Year 9
  1. Monsters of Men – Patrick Ness
  2. Maladapted – Richard Kurti
  3. Hatchet – Gary Paulson
  4. Boy Proof – Cecil Castellucci
  5. The Twilight Saga – Stephanie Meyer
  6. The Amnesia Clinic – James Scudamore
  7. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
  8. Brighton Rock – Graham Green
  9. Catch -22 Joseph Heller
  10. The Catcher in the Rye – J D Salinger
  11. The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
  12. Dracula – Bram Stoker
  13. Empire of the Sun – J G Ballard
  14.  Noah Can’t Even -Simon James Green
  15. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
  16. I Claudius – Robert Graves
  17. The Mosquito Coast – Paul Theroux
  18. The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
  19. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Alexander Solzhenistsyn
  20. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey
  21. Paddy Clarke Ha, Ha, Ha – Roddy Doyle
  22. Scoop – Evelyn Waugh
  23. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
  24. Burning Secret – Stefan Zweig
Year 10
  1. The Fault in Our Stars – John Green
  2. We Are All Made of Molecules – Susin Neilson
  3. 13 minutes: A Novel by Sarah Pinborough
  4. Paper Butterflies – Lisa Heathfield
  5. Every Day – David Levithan
  6. Rose See Red – Cecil Castelucci
  7. A Separate Peace – John Knowles
  8. Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
  9. American Gods – Neil Gaiman
  10. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
  11. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
  12. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
  13. The Grapes of Wrath- John Steinbeck
  14. Atonement – Ian McEwan
  15. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K Dick
  16. Long Walk to Freedom – Nelson Mandela
  17. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
  18. The Road  - Cormac McCarthy
  19. All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque
  20. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – John Le Carrie
  21. I Capture the Castle – Dodie Smith
  22. Cider With Rosie – Laurie Lee
  23. Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
  24. The Fellowship of the Ring – JRR Tolkien
  25. Gulliver’s Travels – Johnathon Swift
  26. Schindler’s Ark – Thomas Keneally
  27. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson
  28. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
Year 11
  1. Looking for Alaska – John Green
  2. The Westing Game – Ellen Raskin
  3. The Time Machine – H G Wells
  4. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
  5. Games of Thrones – George R R Martin
  6. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulkes
  7. On The Road – Jack Kerouac
  8. The Three Musketeers = Aexandre Dumas
  9. The Name of The Rose- Umbero Eco
  10. The Trial – Franz Kafta
  11. The Moonstone – Wikie Collins
  12. War of The Worlds – H G Wells
  13. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
  14. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
  15. Don Quixote – Miguel Cervantes
  16. Carrie – Stephen King
  17. The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch
  18. A Short History of Nearly Everything -Bill Bryson
  19. Cosmos – Carl Sagan
  20. Maus – Art Spiegelman
  21. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriela Garcia Marquez
  22. East of Eden – John Steinbeck
  23. Farenheight 451 – Ray Bradbury
  24. Dune – Frank Herbet
  25. Flowers of Algernon – Daniel Keyes
  26. Out of Shadows – Jason Wallace
  27. #Murdertrending – Gretchen McNeil
  28. Speak – Laurie Halse Anderson
  29. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold