At Drottninghögskolan in Helsingborg, students from grade two up to grade six can learn to read no matter what lesson they are on. This through the project "The whole school reads".
- It goes hand in hand with the convention. Our children are twelve when they leave school and they must be able to read in order to succeed in society, says Cecilia Warntoft, headmaster.
On January 1, 2020, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child became a Swedish team. According to Article 28 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, "a child has the right to education".
- It is a democratic right to be able to read and also understand what you read. That is the most important basic lesson there is, says Tina Persson, special education teacher.
In September 2019, the Queen's College investigated how the students' reading skills from grade two up to grade six were studied.
- It was sad and shocking. Only a third of our students were able to read at the level expected by the specific age. But we grabbed it and just drove, says Tina Persson.
Hundreds of students have learned to read in the gymnasium, for example. "The whole school reads" is active in all subjects at the school.
- It is completely unique to us and I do not know of any other school in the municipality that has done this way, says Cecilia Warntoft.
Three months later - 80 students read betterThe teachers received a specific training at the start of the project in September in order to be able to work across subjects with reading.
- We have a good Swedish teacher who decided to read with the children at a sports lesson at intervals. So it was running for seven minutes, reading for seven minutes and so it went on. Subjects can be combined, says Tina Persson.
“The whole school reads” has no end date and is currently underway at Drottninghögskolan. Just before Christmas, the first results of the project were measured.
- 80 out of 300 students had improved their reading and moved forward - it's incredibly fun, says Cecilia Warntoft.