Get your head in a ‘classic’ with our Ambition Reading Challenge
Get your head in a 'classic' with our Ambition Reading Challenge
Reading has significant benefits, both academically and for mental health. To give every student the opportunity to read more widely and at a higher level of complexity, we have launched the ‘Ambition Reading Challenge’.
As we are a reading school, our school library has an incredible range of books, but for this challenge we have focused on the ‘classics’ across a wide range of genres including adventure, fantasy, history, mystery and general fiction.
The challenge for students is to read any ten books from our specially curated list for 50 classics that have been chosen for their enjoyment and challenging nature. The list includes books ranging from Enola Holmes to Sherlock Holmes, Mary Poppins to Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Black Beauty to Jurassic Park and 1984 to The Da Vinci Code.
When a student has completed reading their ten books, they can then write a review of their favourite book in the Ambition Reading Challenge booklet, which is available from the school library.
There will be rewards for students who have broadened their literary horizons as they will receive £15 worth of book tokens, 250 achievement points and a special Ambition Reading badge.
To help create the challenge and select the books, we were grateful to Erin Stevens who is a Year 12 Sixth Former at Bourne Academy where she is studying A-level History, Mathematics and Psychology. She said “Being a librarian, I love finding books for people to enjoy, so putting together the list for the reading challenge has been a great pleasure! I was able to sneak in a few of my all-time favourites. I’m so proud of this initiative and I hope it inspires a love of literature in its readers.”
Mrs Bland, Trust Executive Education Director and Trust Communications Lead said “We are absolutely thrilled to launch this ambitious reading challenge to further extend and broaden our students’ horizons. While many of our students are already avid readers, they may not have always embraced the classics or books recognised as particularly challenging or important. We aim to change this by guiding our students towards these enriching materials and celebrating their success upon completing the challenge. I am especially glad to have collaborated with our Sixth Former, Erin to shape this project as she is a passionate reader. Her insights were invaluable in curating the reading list and designing the format, which will undoubtedly inspire other students. I extend my heartfelt thanks to Erin for her hard work. I am genuinely excited to see how many students sign up for the challenge and who will be the first to complete it!”