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Red Kite Learning Trust

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Reading at HGS

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Our aim is for all students to develop a life-long passion for reading and we have a culture where reading is enjoyed and celebrated. 

Reading is a core skill which not only helps to improve spelling, increase vocabulary and written skills but also stimulates the imagination and challenges beliefs and perspectives. Reading for pleasure boosts brain and memory function, reduces stress, promotes relaxation and improves sleep; this is why reading regularly is so important.

All students have access to a vibrant and inspiring library, where fiction and non-fiction texts can be borrowed. Whether these texts are complementary to their wider curricular studies or are simply being read for pleasure, our library has something for every reader.

The library can be accessed by all students before and after school and during every morning break and lunch times. Students in Year 7 and 8 also experience one library lesson per fortnight, in which they are able to browse the library, listen to motivating author talks and book recommendations and participate in engaging reading activities. 

To achieve excellence in reading, we actively promote reading through form time and via home learning. We celebrate our annual Harrogate Grammar School Reading Week and participate in many national activities and competitions.

Suggested Texts

Looking for books to read to support your reading in school.  Click on the links below to access suggest texts:

Key Stage 4 (Years 10 and 11 - also suitable for students in Year 9)



Recommended Reading

To support students and parents, we regularly share reading recommendations.  Our most recent recommended reads are listed below.  To access our recommended reading lists from previous months click on the grey box below.


Get your mitts on a book - January 2025

Dive into a new book in the New Year.

Mitts

Spring Term 2025

Recommended reads for January.

Get your mitts on a new book - select from our recommended reads below:

Key Stage 3 (Years 7, 8 and 9)
Murder at wintertide

Murder at Wintertide by Fleur Hitchcock

George and his family are celebrating Christmas by the sea.

But when a body washes up on the beach, George can't stop thinking about the strange lights he saw on the cliff top...

Neither can his cousin, Isla. Together, they follow the clues, and as they draw nearer to the truth, they step further into danger.

On land, or at sea, someone is desperate to stop them, whatever it takes. And that someone may be closer to home than they realise...

Key Stage 3 and 4 (Years 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11)
Into the white

Into the White by Joanna Grocwowicz

This is the story of Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova expedition and the memorable characters, who with a band of shaggy ponies and savage dogs, followed a man they trusted into the unknown.

Battling storms at sea, impenetrable pack ice, man-eating whales, crevasses, blizzards, bad food, extreme temperatures, and equal measures of hunger, agony and snow blindness, the team pushes on against all odds.

But will the weather hold? Will their rations be adequate? How will they know when they get there? And who invited the Norwegians? Into the White will leave you on the edge of your seat, hoping against hope that Scott and his men just might survive their Antarctic ordeal and live to tell the tale.

The Bear and the Nightingale

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, an elderly servant tells stories of sorcery, folklore and the Winter King to the children of the family, tales of old magic frowned upon by the church. But for the young, wild Vasya these are far more than just stories.

She alone can see the house spirits that guard her home, and sense the growing forces of dark magic in the woods. . .

Key Stage 4 and 5 (Years 10, 11, 12 and 13)
Some like it cold

Some like it cold by Elle McNicoll

After a long absence, 18-year-old Jasper is finally heading home for the holidays – and she's keeping secrets. Arthur, a budding filmmaker, is turning the town of Lake Pristine into a small town story worthy of the big screen.

His plans are disrupted by the arrival of the town's golden girl – the antagonist of his school days; a girl he's never forgotten. Jasper Montgomery is back in Lake Pristine for one reason: to say goodbye.

But before long small-town tensions start to rise, and a certain brooding film buff starts to look like a very big reason to stay . . . The perfect story to get lost in, Some Like it Cold centres Jasper as an autistic heroine in a cosy YA romance that will melt your heart, from the bestselling author of A Kind of Spark.

Key Stage 5 (Years 12 and 13)
Winterkeep

Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore

A new land has been discovered to the east. Winterkeep is a land of miracles, a democratic republic run by people who like each other, where people speak to telepathic sea creatures, adopt telepathic foxes as pets, and fly across the sky in ships attached to balloons.

But when Bitterblue's envoys to Winterkeep drown under suspicious circumstances, she and Giddon and her half-sister, Hava, set off to discover the truth--putting both Bitterblue's life and Giddon's heart to the test when Bitterblue is kidnapped.

Giddon believes she has drowned, leaving him and Hava to solve the mystery of what's wrong in Winterkeep. Lovisa Cavenda is the teenage daughter of a powerful Scholar and Industrialist (the opposing governing parties) with a fire inside her that is always hungry, always just nearly about to make something happen.

She is the key to everything, but only if she can figure out what's going on before anyone else, and only if she's willing to transcend the person she's been all her life.

New Arrivals in the LRC

Where sleeping girls lie Communicate Spy in the family The night in question Dune Nepegs Powerless

Harrogate Grammar School is part of Red Kite Learning Trust, a charitable company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales with company number 7523507, registered office address: Red Kite Office, Pannal Ash Road, Harrogate, HG2 9PH

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