Just Read is a program that encourages reading for enjoyment amongst our K – 12 students. What students and staff can read is really open; you can choose whatever you like, as long as it is fiction, in English and a hard copy text. Just Read is silent, sustained reading (SSR).

WHEN IS JUST READ?

In the Senior School, Just Read occurs every day except Wednesday from 12:05pm – 12:25pm. Students remain with their Period 3 teacher. Our Junior School students begin every day with their 15 minutes of Just Read. 

WHY DO WE DO JUST READ?

Just Read is an initiative of the QLiteracy Committee that is designed to encourage and build a reading culture within our school, as well as improve the literacy skills of our students. The program is evidence-based, as its design stems from peer-reviewed educational research.

Queenwood is an independent, non-denominational girls’ school located in Mosman, Sydney, that offers a contemporary liberal education from Kindergarten to Year 12. At Queenwood, approximately 14% of students receive additional learning support to address literacy needs.

Research shows that reading impacts the academic, emotional and social development of students. As a school we were observing declining rates of leisure reading amongst the students, particularly in the Senior School setting. This echoed a worrying worldwide trend of declining literacy in young people. In light of this, in 2019 the QLiteracy Committee at Queenwood proposed a sustained silent reading program (SSR) called Just Read to develop a reading culture at Queenwood.  

As the Just Read project became integrated into our school we observed an increase in incidental conversation amongst staff and students about books. This has continued and strengthened throughout the entire project. 

The majority of our students and staff already had some kind of established reading habit prior to Just Read. The project saw an increase in staff and students reading more for enjoyment as reading fiction became a habit and books became less “nerdy”. This has been one of the greatest achievements of the Just Read project. Some staff and students have begun enjoying books of fiction for the first time in their lives and others have rekindled a love of reading.  

The school libraries represented only one source of possible reading materials available to our students. Despite this, in the Junior Library borrowing rates increased by 300% within 6 months of Just Read commencing. Given that many Primary School settings (including Queenwood) have regular Library lessons and often a DEAR program in place, these statistics are significant. Comparing borrowing rates before Just Read (February-March 2019) and early in the program (February-March 2020), the Senior School borrowing rates increased by 30%. 

Quantitative data to measure changes in literacy skills were collected prior to the project starting and after 12 months using PAT-Vocabulary and PAT-Reading Comprehension tests for Years 5 – 12, 2020.  Over the 12 months of Just Read, vocabulary improved on average for students in all grades bar one, with the greatest improvement for students in the lowest quartile. The improvements in vocabulary were greater in the Junior School than the Senior School. 

The results for the Reading Comprehension tests were much more varied with improvements in some year groups but not others. This was to be expected with only a 12 month data capture, and reading comprehension being affected by a number of factors in addition to reading habits.

Before the Just Read project 13.5% of students indicated that they did not like to read silently at school. After intervention this dropped to 9.8%.  In the attitudinal survey of staff, teachers reported that after Just Read students were ‘more relaxed, more settled, more focused’ with an ‘increased interest in the library/interest and engagement in books’ and  ‘a sense of calm around the school’. This indicates that in addition to the literacy benefits there have been wellbeing benefits for both our staff and students.  

Staff recognition of the value of Just Read as a classroom practice increased over the project.

85% of the staff respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their students were benefiting from silent reading. The perceived benefits included increased literacy, wellbeing, engagement in reading and educational skills.  

Watch more about our Junior School Perspective here and Senior School Perspective here.

The QLiteracy Committee consists of passionate educators across a K – 12 continuum. Project Leader, Gabrielle Mace led the team of the QLiteracy Committee (Merrilyn Lean, Vanessa Collins, Catherine Phoon, Isaac Dargan) through the ups and downs of this project.  

This research project has been an incredibly worthwhile investment of time, energy and expertise, as it has changed reading within our school. In the early days of the design and development of the project the QLiteracy committee could not have imagined the sheer impact that Just Read would have in so many facets of our school as the project unfolded. The workload at times was immense and sometimes seemed never ending. Our belief in our shared vision kept us moving forward. We have seen the project blossom in ways that were not expected, and this has brought us all incredible joy.  We all feel very proud of the Just Read project.

FURTHER READING:

Symposium Presentation

• Australian School Library Association 2020 ASLA Virtual Literacy Research Summit – Building Readers for Life: A sustained silent reading program for K – 11, Presenter Gabrielle Mace​
• Just Read: Developing and implementing a K – 12 sustained silent reading program. School Library Association of NSW (SLANSW), Presenter Gabrielle Mace
• Gabrielle Mace, Merrilyn Lean, Vanessa Collins, Isaac Dargan presented at the AIS NSW Educational Research Symposium 2021 on the power of research in schools.
• AIS Networking Day School Based Research Evidence Institute 2022 - 'Just Read' Reflections - Presenter Gabrielle Mace
• Gabrielle Mace & Merrilyn Lean presented at the AISNSW Reading Symposium 2022 on the 'Implementation of a K - 12 School Based Research Project'.
• 'Just Read' - A school based action research project. Research for library and information practice: LARK Symposium 2022 (Library Applied Research Kollective) University of Technology Sydney

• The Time to Read, Connections Magazine Term 2, 2021 (Issue 117) (written by Gabrielle Mace and Merrilyn Lean)
• The Power of Book Talks in Primary Schools, a Primary English Teaching Association 2021 (written by Isaac Dargan)
• The Elements of a successful school silent reading program, Teacher Magazine.com September 2022 (written by Vanessa Collins)

• School-based action research - igniting a love of reading for pleasure in Teacher Magazine, July 7 2021 (written by Vanessa Collins) 
• Building a Reader for Life: A Sustained Silent Reading Program for K - 11 - Just Read, ACCESS Vol. 35, March 2021 (written by Gabrielle Mace & Merrilyn Lean)
• Implementing an inclusive sustained silent reading program across K - 12 to build a culture of reading in our school 2021, Australian Council for Education Research (Catherine Phoon)
• Embracing Change: The Unexpected Benefits to Being on the Bus, Connections Magazine 2021 (Gabrielle Mace and Merrilyn Lean)
• Teachers Perceptions of the Benefits and Challenges of a Whole School reading for pleasure programme 2021  (Vanessa Collins, Isaac Dargan, Dr Rosalind Walsh, Dr Margaret Merga)
• But they can't read!: Implementing a Sustained Silent Reading Program in a Kindergarten Classroom Every Child, 2022 (Dr Rosalind Walsh) Vol. 28, no.2, 2022.
• Evidence of Change – reflections on the ‘Just Read’ project, Connections Magazine 2023 (Gabrielle Mace & Merrilyn Lean)

The funding, guidance and wisdom from the Association of Independent Schools (AIS) particularly Dr Rachel Perry, Tiffany Roos, Crichton Smith and Lesley Wright, have been invaluable throughout the project.

A project of this magnitude would not have been possible without the approval and support of our former Principal, Elizabeth Stone and the Senior Executive at Queenwood. We are also very grateful for the contributions of the members of the QLiteracy Committee who left before the project was completed. Kim Elith (former Director of Curriculum) was instrumental in the development of the early stages of our project. Dr Rosalind Walsh (former Catalyst Coordinator) had an enormous impact on the structure of the project and our understanding of Knowledge Translation requirements. She also co-wrote an academic paper on the Just Read project. Anthony George (former Head of English) contributed particularly to the project through his involvement in the Student Advisory Committee at Senior School. Dr Margaret Merga, as academic mentor, guided us through the enormous challenges of ethics permission and survey development, and was always just an email away for guidance and support. We appreciate the skills of Saiyidi Mat Roni who analysed the data for the project. Thanks to Rosa Morgan (Graphic Designer) for the layout of this report on the website.

Perhaps most importantly, our sincere thanks and gratitude go to the staff, students and broader community of Queenwood for their ongoing support of Just Read and their willingness to be part of this AIS research project. Without their support and generosity Just Read would still be an unrealised idea.