Headteacher's Blog Post - Saturday 28th June 2025

This month, we’re excited to share an area of our work that was highlighted by Estyn during our recent inspection: the development of a strong and vibrant reading culture across the school. The report, published at the end of March following the Spring term inspection, recognised the comprehensive and creative approach we’ve taken to promoting literacy—not just as a skill, but as a key to wellbeing, achievement and personal growth.

As a school community, we know that reading lies at the heart of unlocking potential. With this in mind, as parents, carers and members of our school community, you may be interested in the following brief summary of some of the key elements of our whole school approach to reading, the ‘ingredients’ that, when combined, create the conditions for our pupils to develop a love of reading. Our strategy is rooted in a belief that reading is for everyone—and that it can, and should, be joyful, purposeful and empowering.

Reading-Focused Assemblies

We use assemblies to shine a light on reading for academic, emotional and spiritual growth. These assemblies have, for example, explored how reading supports the development of values such as compassion, eloquence and wisdom (as outlined in the Catholic Pupil Profile), and also the values aligned with the Curriculum for Wales’s four purposes.

Assemblies explore the benefits of accessing specific texts, such as those that promote empathy or offer our pupils insights into other societies, eras and landscapes.  Staff endeavour to model reading behaviours and assemblies that also incorporate storytelling traditions that are proving especially popular with pupils. We are seeing increased interest in genres like myths and ancient history thanks to the assembly programme.

Writers-in-Residence and Author Visits

Meeting authors such as Eloise Williams (‘The Mab’) and Sam Stewart (‘Fireblood’ has certainly inspired our pupils. These visits, often as part of our wider Festival of Culture, show pupils that writing is a living, breathing career—and that it’s something they can aspire to.

Thanks to strong links with Waterstones and our local independent bookseller Cover to Cover, pupils have opportunities to take home signed, personally chosen books after these events, with the school supporting access through funding and tokens.

Book Vending Machines

Our book vending machines (now in every year base) have become firm favourites! Customised with our school values and restocked based on pupil input about their preferred texts, these machines are both a reward system and a celebration of reading for pleasure. Pupils may be given tokens for a free book as a reward, particularly for exemplifying the school’s values through their actions, and they may also purchase a token for the machine at a very considerably subsidised rate, meaning that there is daily access to brand-new books from their favourite genres, authors and series!

Reading as Reward

Whether through tokens earned for effort or living our school’s values, or as a ‘thank you’ to our Book Club members for writing for reviews and recommendations to benefit others, we intentionally position books as exciting, desirable and personal gifts. We are proud to see that our pupils see books not just as educational tools, but as something to enjoy and treasure.

Headteacher’s Book Group

Our BVS Book Group is a lively, weekly session where pupils meet with me to share what they’re reading, make recommendations, and take on creative projects—from recording festive audiobooks to designing a school-wide reading challenge. The passion and independence these pupils show is inspiring!

Literature and Culture Events

With annual funding from the Arts Council of Wales, we take around 50 pupils to the Hay Festival each year—free of charge. Places are earned through writing competitions, and pupils leave these events brimming with ideas and inspiration. These events now form part of our broader Festival of Culture, where literature holds a central place alongside music, drama and the arts.

Reading Newsletters

Our pupil-led reading newsletters are sent out via ClassCharts and shared in tutorial rooms and termly mailings to our wider community. These include book recommendations from pupils and reading as a shared experience across all roles and year groups.

Whole-Staff Training

Thanks to training from the National Literacy Trust, every staff member now plays a role in promoting reading within their subject—supporting our focus on disciplinary literacy and the explicit teaching of vocabulary that enables deeper understanding and success.

Audiobooks Created by Staff

To support all learners, staff have recorded full-length audiobooks—most notably ‘The Hobbit’, introduced by Michael Sheen, and Dylan Thomas’s ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’. These allow pupils to experience rich texts read aloud by familiar voices, making reading more accessible and engaging.

Community Support

Our Bishop Vaughan Society continues to be instrumental in supporting literacy through fundraising for new library resources. Their recognition of books as essential to wellbeing and development speaks volumes about our community’s values and we are incredibly grateful for their support!

BVS Reading Challenge

This initiative, to be launched next term by our Book Group, is a ‘Read Your Way Across the Curriculum’ challenge which encourages pupils to explore subject-specific reading across all departments. Designed by pupils, for pupils, it combines academic enrichment with friendly competition.

Our whole-school approach to reading has grown over time, shaped by listening to pupils, staff and our wider community. Being recognised by Estyn was a proud moment, but even more importantly, we see every day the difference that reading is making to our pupils’ confidence, curiosity and ambition.

We thank everyone in our school community for supporting this work—and we look forward to continuing the journey together.

Mrs Pole