Harrow College has successfully completed a national reading initiative called ‘Reading Ahead’ which encourages students to engage in more reading.
Reading Ahead is a national programme run by The Reading Agency which challenges everyone over the age of 16 to choose six reads of anything they choose – newspapers, poems, plays, websites, books and more. Upon completion, the reader should then submit a review and rate each item with the added incentive of the chance to enter a prize draw when 6 items have been completed.
The scheme was embedded into tutorial classes at Harrow College meaning staff played an active role in promoting the scheme and encouraging their students to get involved. Science students showed a particularly keen interest with seven different courses within this subject area alone taking part, ranging from Entry Level 1 through to Higher Education Level 4.
Student and staff feedback has been very positive with the scheme significantly helping students with their reading and writing skills – a timely benefit with student exams currently taking place.
Chris Evans, Student Progression Advisor at Harrow College, has been spearheading the programme internally. He said:
‘The Reading Ahead challenge has been an astounding success this year! Harrow College will receive the Reading Agency’s Gold Award, with a record 200+ learners, spanning across 4 academic levels taking part.’
The programme took place nationally this year in public libraries, colleges, workplaces and prisons across the UK and has reached 58,000 people so far.
Interested in joining Harrow College? Click here to view courses starting in September 2018.