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The children's taste in reading material is quite electic. The titles of course vary over times. Children's authors like Roald Dahl are popular with the younger children when we visited in the 1980s. We saw the boys reading The BFG and James and the Giant Peach, but other titles were popular as well. The girls enjoyed the popular series like Nancy Drew. Throughout the schools children can normally perusing a variety of non-fiction books. Boys and girls differewidely on the books chosen. The boys tend to favor books on dinasaours, other animals, adventures, military history, cars, and sports. The girls often choose books on animals (here dinasaours are not such a favorite but horses are), and dance. The older children at about 12-13 years old begin to choose more adult novels. Mysteries seemed to have been especially popular. Most prep school strongly promote free reading. Some schools carefully monitor reading to make sure the children "suitable" books. Usually the children are not allowed to read comic books, but this varied from school to school. The children also read a variety of magazines and often the older boys brgan to show an interest in newspapers. Books are available in the library or the book shops that many schools maintain. At many schools like Taverham Hall, the children help run the book shops. The children purchase paperbacks through the school book shop. Many of these books are shared or traded by the children. Some schools have small libraries for each form suitable to that age group. Most schools ensure that time is set aside every day for the chikdren to persue their personal reading interests. Many schools have rest periods after lunch during which the children are often encouraged to read. Schools also provide quiet time in the evening after the children wash up and return to their dormitories. This time is often used for reading. Schools have a variety of approaches to encourage the children to read. Supervised quiet time is one approach. There are many others approaches. St. Michael's in Surrey requires that each boy have a book checked out at all times and sets books for holiday reading. At other schools the encouragement is less formalized.
The children's taste in books is quite electic. The titles of course vary over times. Children's authors like Roald Dahl are popular with the younger children when we visited in the 1980s. We saw the boys reading The BFG and James and the Giant Peach, but other titles were popular as well. The girls enjoyed the popular series like Nancy Drew. Throughout the schools children can normally perusing a variety of non-fiction books. Boys and girls differewidely on the books chosen. The boys tend to favor books on dinasaours, other animals, adventures, military history, cars, and sports. The girls often choose books on animals (here dinasaours are not such a favorite but horses are), and dance. The older children at about 12-13 years old begin to choose more adult novels. Mysteries seemed to have been especially popular.
Most prep school strongly promote free reading. Schools have a variety of approaches to interest and encourage the children to read. Most schools ensure that time is set aside every day for the children to persue their personal reading interests. Many schools have rest periods after lunch during which the children are encouraged to read. They are not required to read, but there is not a lot of napping that goes on, although some younger children doze off. So many of the children do read. We see children reading a range of books and magazines. Schools also provide quiet time in the evening after the children wash up and return to their dormitories. This time is often used for reading. Supervised quiet time is one approach. There are many others approaches. St. Michael's in Surrey requires that each boy have a book checked out at all times and sets books for holiday reading. At other schools the encouragement is less formalized.
The quiet times are probably the most important times for free reading. This means the rest period after lunch and the period before lights out at night. These are not, however, the only times. There are various times during the day and weekends when there are no scheduled activities. The children have lots of otions at these times. Reading is one of them. Here what the children cjose to do very much depends on their interests.
Some schools carefully monitor reading to make sure the children "suitable" books. Usually this potental problem is resolves withoutany difficulty because the schools through the library and book sales only make suitable books available. And the books offered are normlly of sufficent interest that the chldren have no real motivation to look el;sewhere. Usually the children are not allowed to read comic books, but this varied from school to school. Here some schools are very strict about comics. Others seem more flexible. We did not see the children reading very many comics. Some comics seem more acceptable than others. Asterix seems to be an exception, I think because it was dome in French.
The children also read a variety of periodicals, both magazines and newspapers. Magazines are available in the library. Soe boys may bring magazines from home. Newspapers are also available even in the library or at central locations in the main building. Motorcycle and car magazzines seemed very popular among the boys. Sports magazines were another favorite. Often the older boys brgan to show an interest in newspapers. Some boys were primarily interested in the sports section. Sports are strongly promoted in most prep schools. Thus there is considrable interest in major sports events beyond the football (soccer) leagues that is standard throughout Britain. . , but other boys showed an interest in current affairs, an interest which many schools promote in class discussions and mandatory listening to the TV evening news.
Books are available in the library or the book shops that many schools maintain. At many schools like Taverham Hall, the children help run the book shops. The children purchase paperbacks through the school book shop. Many of these books are shared or traded by the children. Some schools have small libraries for each form suitable to that age group. The schools also use the local public libraries, including book mobile services.
