A new year, a new reading challenge.

This Spring and Summer Term, Lower School students will be challenged to read 20 books and complete 20 tasks as part our latest scheme. Activities will fall into one of five categories: the classic book review, artistic, creative writing, philosophical questions and STEM.

The classic book review will allow students to thoughtfully reflect on the book they read and whether they would recommend it to others. Points out of 5 should be awarded to each title.

Artistic challenges will provide an opportunity for readers to explore the places they go and the people they meet through another lens. They will design outfits, book covers, and maps, as well as having the chance to create a comic strip of their favourite scene.

Creative writing tasks will be an opportunity to reinvent the stories they have read, by casting characters in another role or offering an alternative ending. There is also space to write something entirely new inspired by the first line of any book’s chapter.

Philosophical questions such as, “Which character would you throw out of a hot air balloon and why?”, will allow our readers to identify how what they read can affect and grow their own thinking.

STEM challenges will ask readers to look again at the worlds they encounter to investigate the plants and animals, build locations and equations, and think of how the properties of chemicals reflect characteristics.

The challenge will begin in D.E.A.R. Fortnight, when students will be asked to read two books and complete two of the twenty tasks on our checklist instead of their usual homework. It will then continue until Tuesday 4^th July, just in time for the start of the Bookmark Reading Challenge.

The Reading Challenge Checklist can be found here.