‘Each year, around one quarter of 11-year olds do not meet the expected standard in reading at the end of primary school… Evidence suggests that fewer that 1 in 5 out of these pupils can expect to get a GCSE grade 4.’ 2022 Ofsted Research.

It is well documented that students’ reading habits are changing. Some may even argue that students are not reading less; they are just reading differently. But as teachers, we know how important it is to carry out sustained reading over time.  ‘Drop Everything and Read’ is used to support our students in achieving the recommended 20 minutes of daily reading.

DEAR is a regular time set aside in the classroom schedule for both students and teachers to simply ‘drop everything and read’. DEAR is designed to help students hone their concentration, widen their cultural capital and nurture reading for pleasure. Reading avidly and strengthening associated literacy skills has been highlighted as the ‘gateway’ to unlock students’ potential to achieve their aspirations in every academic subject.

Reading aloud to children has a profound effect on their reading ability. With the spoken word, we hear the expression and intonation that is essential for language learning and vocabulary acquisition. The emphasis and inflection implicit in the spoken language communicates a large amount of additional information about a word. All the books on the DEAR programme have been carefully selected to develop students’ range of vocabulary, but also, to provide them with important cultural capital. In short, not just knowledge of words, but knowledge of the world.