"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

Dr. Seuss

 The gateway to wider learning is underpinned through reading, disciplinary literacy and explicit vocabulary instruction.  Blessed Thomas Holford Catholic College is a school that reads and that journey begins from early childhood.  When students visit us on Open Evening, students complete a questionnaire about their favourite author when they visit our wonderful library where they meet our librarian and reading intervention lead Mrs Rowe. 

Before students arrive at Blessed Thomas Holford, we challenge them with a ‘Summer Reading Challenge.’  We invite every Year 6 child who will be joining our school family to read five books of their choice (or from our recommended reading list) and review them.  On arrival to our school in Year 7, the reviews are submitted to the students’ form teachers and shared with Mrs Rowe.  The best review will win a prize during their Year 7 Assembly!

 To ensure every child thrives within our school family, we support students with reading as they transition into secondary school.  Our feeder primary schools provide us with information about any students who have received and/or may require further support with their reading.  These students engage in reading intervention with our phonics trained intervention leads on arrival in Year 7 in our fabulous reading hubs.