Pedagogy and Academics
From the Assistant Principal: Pedagogy and Academic Leadership
Why Reading Still Matters
Recently, I have been speaking with our teaching staff about a shared desire to see our girls developing stronger reading habits. We know from our own experiences the impact reading has on improving literacy, spelling and grammar, but its value extends far beyond academic outcomes.
Reading offers young people a rare opportunity to slow down. In a world shaped by constant notifications, short-form content and endless scrolling, a book asks students to sit with ideas, imagine deeply and remain present for longer than a few seconds at a time.
Importantly, reading can also act as a creative outlet and a form of mindfulness. It provides space for reflection, escapism and quiet thinking. For many students, reading can become an antidote to the pace and noise of screen-based life, while also strengthening empathy, emotional literacy and social awareness.
As a school, we want our students reading widely and often, not simply because it supports academic growth, but because it helps shape thoughtful, articulate and imaginative young people. Whether it is fiction, memoir, poetry or journalism, reading opens doors to other perspectives and experiences, while also helping students better understand themselves. Even just 10 minutes of reading each day can expose a young person to more than 300,000 words across a year.
May is National Family Reading Month, and the perfect time to start building new habits that will support our girls’ concentration, curiosity and empathy in ways that are increasingly important.
We encourage families to join us in nurturing this habit at home: making space for reading, talking about books, modelling reading themselves and reminding our girls that reading is not simply another school task, but one of the richest ways our Loreto community can support learning, wellbeing and social growth through a single daily habit.
Mel Pedavoli
Assistant Principal: Pedagogy and Academic Leadership