Area featured in Rydal Penrhos Society newsletter
Our incredible staff and Senior Leadership Team are constantly exploring avenues to enhance the provision of Rydal Penrhos pupils.
This is done in accordance with the school’s long-term strategic development plan and is bringing outstanding development across all year groups in addition to exceptional examination results consistently.
One prominent feature that became a priority during recent upgrades across the site is The Watkinson Library, which bears the name of the much-loved Peter Watkinson, Rydal School’s Headmaster from 1968-1991 who sadly passed away in August 2020.
Originally a library, the room was later used as a teaching space, but this year it’s been returned to its roots and is now the library for those pupils in Key Stages 3 and 4.
The Watkinson Library is the hub of the school’s new accelerated reading scheme, Renaissance Accelerated Reader, which aims both to improve ability and to encourage pupils to engage in independent reading.
A key principle of the scheme is that reading ability is most effectively improved when the difficulty of material falls in a happy medium between too challenging and not challenging enough.
Renaissance Accelerated Reader calls this happy medium the “Zone of Proximal Development” and the scheme’s whitepaper describes it as the range of difficulty in which pupils “are challenged and presented with new vocabulary, but are also given enough context to construct meaning without being frustrated”.
The scheme uses two tools to match pupils and texts:
The scheme is part of a wider strategy at Rydal Penrhos that builds reading into pupils’ daily routines.
There are also specified library sessions, and the Watkinson Library now has a dedicated reading room – a calm and cosy space where pupils can sit and read comfortably.
Year 7 pupils stated that they are encouraged to read before lessons begin and to talk about reading in form time, and that every pupil keeps a book in their schoolbag.
When asked if they enjoyed reading, the answer was unanimous…
Yes!