The college encourages reading; reading for pleasure, reading to gain information, reading to simply broaden your horizons.

We take every opportunity to promote reading across all of our subjects so please take a careful look at our encouraged subject reading lists where you can make your own selections and continue your studies, at any location and at any time you choose.

Reach for more through independent reading and in the process become a better, if not excellent, communicator.

Encouraged subject reading list: English

Year 10 and 11

  • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

  • I’m the King of the Castle by Susan Hill

  • Lord of the Flies by William Golding

  • Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

  • Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

  • The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

  • Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

  • 1984 by George Orwell

  • Animal Farm by George Orwell

  • The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

  • The Outsiders by S E Hinton

  • The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

  • The War of the Worlds by H G Wells

  • Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Year 12 and 13

  • Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

  • The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

  • The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

  •  Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

  • The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

  • Enduring Love by Ian McEwan

  • The Color Purple by Alice Walker

  • The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

  • Strange Meeting by Susan Hill

  • Perfume by Patrick Suskind

  • Dracula by Bram Stoker

  • The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

  • A Secret History by Donna Tartt

  • Hard Times by Charles Dickens 

  • Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Encouraged subject reading list: Maths

Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 (All Years)

  • Why do buses come in threes? by Rob Eastaway and Jeremy Wyndham

  • 1089 and All That: A Journey into Mathematics by David Acheson

  • Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension by Matt Parker

  • The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets by Simon Singh

  • Alex's Adventures in Numberland by Alex Bellos

Encouraged subject reading list: Biology

Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 (All Years)

  • The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins 

  • The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins 

  • Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins 

  • Climbing Mount Improbable by Richard Dawkins 

  • The Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins 

  • The Descent of Men by Steve Jones 

  • In the Blood: God, Genes and Destiny by Steve Jones 

  • Almost Like a Whale: The 'Origin of Species' Updated by Steve Jones 

  • The Language of the Genes by Steve Jones 

  • Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley 

  • The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Matt Ridley 

  • The Language of Genes Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code by Matt Ridley

  • Nature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience and What Makes Us Human by Matt Ridley

  • DNA: The Secret of Life by James Watson 

  • The Double Helix: Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA 

  • The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher by Lewis Thomas 

  • The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher by Lewis Thomas 

  • The Rough Guide to the Brain (Rough Guides Reference Titles) by Barry Gibb 

  • The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin 

  • Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body by Armand Marie Leroi 

  • The Machinery of Life by David S. Goodsell 

  • This Is Biology: The Science of the Living World by Ernst Mayr 

  • Plan and Purpose in Nature by George C. Williams 

  • The Language Instinct by Steve Pinker 

  • The Diversity of Life by Edward O Wilson 

  • The Origin of Humankind by Richard Leaky 

  • A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson 

  • The Man Who Mistook His Wife for A Hat by Oliver Sachs 

  • What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz Bad Science by Ben Goldacre 

  • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot 

  • Genome by Matt Ridley 

  • The Spark of Life by Frances Ashcroft

Encouraged subject reading list: Chemistry

Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 (All Years)

  • The Pleasure of Finding Things Out - Richard Feynman (red font signals top 5)

  • Periodic Tales - Hugh Aldersey Williams 

  • Uncle Tungsten - Oliver Sachs 

  • The Periodic Table by Eric Scerri

  • The Shocking History of Phosphorus: A Biography of the Devil’s Element by John Emsley 

  • Calculations in Chemistry by Jim Clark 

  • Chemistry in Context by Graham Hill 

  • Why Chemical Reactions Happen by James Keeler & Peter Wothers 

  • The Disappearing Spoon - Sam Kean 

Years 12 and 13

  • H2O – a biography of water - Philip Ball

  • Four laws that drive the universe - Peter Atkins

  • Better looking, better living, better loving : how chemistry can help you achieve life’s goals - Emsley, John  

  • Bad Science - Ben Goldacre

  • The chemistry of explosives - Jacqueline Akhavan

  • Magic molecules – how drugs work - Susan Aldrich

  • The periodic kingdom – a journey into the land of the chemical elements - Peter Atkins

  • Elegant solutions : ten beautiful experiments in chemistry - Philip Ball

  • The ingredients – a guided tour of the elements - Philip Ball

  • Stories of the invisible – a guided tour of the molecules - Philip Ball

  • The science of chocolate - Beckett, S. T.  

  • Chemical creativity: ideas from the work of Woodward, Huckel, Meerwein and others - Berson, Jerome A.  

  • The Fontana history of chemistry - Brock, W. H.  

  • Food – the chemistry of its components - Coultate, T. P.  

  • The Consumer’s Good Chemical Guide: Separating Facts from Fiction about Everyday Products - Emsley, John  

  • The elements of murder - Emsley, John  

  • On food and cooking – the science and lore of the kitchen - McGee, Harold  

  • Prometheans in the lab – chemistry and the making of the modern world - McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch  

  • The truth about hormones - Parry, Vivienne  

  • The fats of life (sic) - Pond, Caroline M.  

  • The chemistry of fragrances - Pybus, David & Sell, Charles  

  • The making of the atomic bomb - Rhodes, Richard  

  • Chemical curiosities: spectacular experiments and inspired quotes - Roesky, Herbert W. & Möckel, Klaus

  • The chemistry of fireworks - Russell, Michael S.  

  • Chemistry in the market place - Selinger, Ben  

Electronic Journals, Magazines and Websites

  • Catalyst, a science magazine for students aged 14-19  

  • Resources for students collated by Royal Society of Chemistry  

  • Chemistry World magazine from the RSC  

  • ChemNet (also from the RSC)  

  • New Scientist  

  • The Periodic Table videos from the University of Nottingham  

  • A level resources from the University of Liverpool  

  • Animations of organic reactions mechanisms from ChemTube3d  

  • Chemguides A level chemistry notes (these are really good)  

  • A level resources from Knockhardy Publishing

Encouraged subject reading list: Physics

Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 (All Years)

  • A short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson 

  • The Quantum Universe: Everything that can happen does happen by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw 

  • In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat by John Gribbin 

  • Just Six Numbers by Martin Rees

  • A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

  • Why don’t penguins’ feet freeze? by New Scientist 

  • The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow 

  • Newton by Peter Ackroyd 

  • The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene 

Encouraged subject reading list: Geography

Year 10 and 11

Year 12 and 13

  • Geography Review

  • National Geographic

  • Topic Eye (magazine series)

  • https://www.rgs.org/geography/news/ - Royal Geographical Society news section

  • Global Issues: An Introduction - Kristen A. Hite

  • Prisoners of Geography: Ten maps that tell you everything you need to know about global politics - Tim Marshall


Encouraged subject reading list: Computer Science

Year 10 and 11

Year 12 and 13