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At the Gateway Academy, we are passionate about our pupils developing a genuine love of reading.  We aim to provide a wide range of opportunities which will appeal to our pupils and enable them to take the chance to develop their literacy skills. Here is a list of the exciting offer that we provide for our pupils.   Book Buzz At the academy, we engage with the Book Trust’s Book Buzz campaign yearly.

We ensure that all year 7 and 8 students are provided with an engaging new text in the run up to the end ofthe first term.  Students get the opportunity to select one of 16 titles that are picked by a panel of expert judges. The texts are all selected to ensure that they are of high quality, are suitable for the age range and encourage an enjoyment of reading.

Author Visits

We have a number of special events related to reading over the course of the school year, including regular author visits and opportunities to celebrate students who are reading regularly.

The celebrated author Dan Freedman attends the academy annually to complete an assembly with our year 7s and a writing workshop with our year 8 students.  We also have also hosted virtual Author Meets with Catherine Johnson and Neil Gaiman. 

Literature Lounge

Our pupils have access to our fully stocked Literature Lounge, at break times and lunch times. This space is specifically located in a quiet part of the academy building to ensure our students have a quiet space to enjoy a new book. The cosy setting and expansive range of modern fiction and non-fiction makes it the perfect space for our students to escape the hustle and bustle of school life and venture into a world of literature.

School Library

Our pupils have access to our school library before school, at break times, and after school. This is a study space which has a wide range of texts on offer- both fiction and nonfiction, some aimed at our pupils’ studies, others for the enjoyment of reading. Pupils have full access to all these and are able to take any book home with them.

Reading Club During book club we, as a collective, pick a book that we would all like to read. Every week we then read parts of the book in chronological order and then do activities based on what we have read so far - for example kahoot quizzes, drawing an image of what we imagine characters/scenes to look like etc. The purpose of book club is not only to read books, but to promote a community for creativity and confidence outside the classroom. Book club currently takes place every Thursday at 3pm in Rm 2406.

Creative Writing Club

Creative Writing Club offers our students an opportunity to refine and develop  their writing skills as well as the opportunity to enter a range of writing competitions.

It takes place in the Literature Lounge every Monday from 3:00 to 3:50.

Debate Club

Debate Club gives students an opportunity to build their persuasive and critical thinking skills. They will be given the opportunity to get involved in discussion on a wide range of topics.

It takes place in room 2404 every Thursday 2:45pm - 3:30pm.