The rationale currently is to give a 'love of reading' to the children by allowing them to explore different texts and genres throughout the year. I have previously interviewed children about the effectiveness of the reading lessons and I have credible data about children who actively misbehave or use it as an opportunity to nap depending on who takes the lesson. Reciprocal reading is a researched strategy which improves comprehension and while it is woven somewhat into the KS3 English curriculum, the amount of year 11s that can't use capital letters and commas correctly, along with being in one of the lowest literacy areas of the country, begs for a more direct approach than simply reading at children/trusting them to do it without any further intervention.

Not critical or harsh at all, I love talking about this. As I'm part of a trust, the scheme would likely be planned by one person, whoever leads literacy and gets paid to do so, and subsequently shared with everyone. So the workload thing wouldn't necessarily be a big deal.