Figure 1.--At virtually all prep schools, there are quiet times set during the day in which the children are incouraged to read. One of the these times is the rest period after lunch. At this time most of the children go back to their dormitoris and comfortably read on their beds. |
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. Some schools carefully monitor reading to make sure the children "suitable" books. Usually the children are not allowed to read comic books. 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 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. Tey are not required to read, but there is not a lot of napping that goes on 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.
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. Here some schools are very strictabout 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.
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.
