Dear Parents/ Guardians,

At St. Paul’s College, we strive to ensure our students are offered a diverse and stimulating reading programme, which enables them not only to learn to read, but to read to learn. We make every effort to provide our boys with ample opportunity to read wherever possible within language classes and across the curriculum – and beyond. With this in mind, I am pleased to inform you about the reading programme at the College.

To create a vibrant reading community at SPC, our reading programme provides students with access to a wealth of resources.  

The Library

We boast a well-stocked library with over 27000 volumes. For our students, the library is not only a place for reading but also the learning hub of the College. Our teacher librarian (a published author in his own right!) is always on the lookout for suitable and interesting titles to promote a love of reading among Paulines. Additionally, book fairs and exhibitions have been a staple of our library for our students to pick up some good reads!

Reading Award Scheme

We are running a Reading Award Scheme. It aims to promote a diverse reading diet among our budding, as well as seasoned, readers. To obtain an award, students have to read a designated number of books from different categories and disciplines. Students are also expected to write book or movie reviews and participate in reading-related activities such as book clubs and book report competitions. These activities will also help the teachers to keep track of our readers’ needs and expectations, so that a purposeful, personalised reading experience can be created for them.

Book Clubs

To motivate our students to read more and offer them an opportunity to make new friends who share the same interests, our book clubs are planning to meet once a month. The first meeting is scheduled for this December. Teachers will take on the role of facilitators, leading the participants through in-depth discussions and critical enquiry tasks to help them get the most out of their reading.

Reading Day(s)/ Week

To immerse students in the wonderful world of books, a joint-school reading day will be held in July 2022 after the Final Examination. It will be a fun day dedicated to all things creative and ‘bookish’ - from quizzes on famous quotes to dressing up as book characters.

Reading Activities

Variety is the spice of life and so is reading. We are rolling out a series of reading activities and events —e.g. book fairs, fanart and fanfiction competitions, Kahoot! quizzes, polls, vox pops — to make reading fun and enjoyable to even the most reluctant of readers.

The Weekend Read

We are also launching a new reading initiative called ‘The Weekend Read’, starting today. Interesting articles, inspiring speeches and even video clips will be shared with the SPC community. Follow-up reading/ discussion tasks will be sent out weekly, along with the reading/ viewing materials.

We are taking a whole-school approach to implementing these initiatives with all the subject departments collaborating on this school-wide reading programme. We believe that parents play a pivotal role in assisting us. We hope that you will help us by giving your child a little ‘push’ that will make a huge impact on his reading habit. 

With your help and support, we are confident that our students will develop solid reading skills and soon become avid and accomplished readers.

Yours sincerely,

David Chan

Assistant Vice Principal & Head of English Department