Reading List
Reading for parents/families and school students
We take reading for pleasure very seriously at Royal Docks Academy. We have an excellent fully staffed library which contains fiction books from all genres, including sci fi, fantasy, manga, graphic novels, social realism and many more. All students may borrow books and return them two weeks later.
Our books are carefully selected and labelled. Some books are restricted to students who are 13+ years old. This is because many young adult fiction books are written for older students. We ask parents of younger students to sign a permission letter if they are happy for their children to read works with slightly more mature themes.
All students in year 7 and 8 have a reading lesson once a fortnight in the library with the library staff on hand to help students find the right book for them. In order to help in this process, we test students reading ages throughout the year using the accelerated reader programme.
Accelerated reader is an internationally trusted programme which tests student’s ability to read and understand what they have read. The results we get show a level for the student which means they can pick a book with that level. Most fiction books are labelled in the library with accelerated reader levels.
We expect and ask all students in the Academy to read a book for pleasure every day. We tell the students in addition to any homework they have they should read for 20 minutes. But all reading is good so many students choose to read for far longer.
As well as books from our library we recommend that students join their local public library. In this way they have access on ebooks and audio books. The benefits of reading are the same whether you listen to a book being read to you or your physically read it yourself.
If parents or other family members wish to buy books we can recommend the online retailer Bookshop.org which donates part of the price you pay to independent bookshops. Also the online retailer ABE sells reduced price books either because they are second hand or old stock.
Books can also be read for free legally online on internet sites like Guttenberg Press and BooksCool.
Please click here to access the recommended reading list.