How The Manthan School Makes Reading a Daily Habit Through DEAR Time
If you’ve come across the term “DEAR time” while researching schools and aren’t sure what it actually means, you’re not alone. It’s not a marketing phrase. DEAR stands for Drop Everything And Read, and it’s a specific classroom practice where, at a set point in the school day, students and often teachers stop whatever else they’re doing and read silently for a fixed stretch of time. No assignment attached, no comprehension quiz waiting at the end. Just reading, for the sake of reading.
The question worth asking is simple: does having a named time slot for this actually help children read more, or is it just a label? At The Manthan School in Greater Noida West, DEAR time is built directly into the primary timetable, and it sits alongside a few other pieces that, together, make it more than a one-off activity.
Why a Named Slot Changes the Habit
Most schools would say they “encourage reading.” Very few name a specific block of time for it. That difference matters more than it seems.
When reading only happens as homework or as something squeezed in whenever there’s a free period, it competes with everything else on a child’s plate. It’s the first thing to get dropped when there’s an assignment due or a test coming up. A dedicated slot removes that competition. It tells a child, without needing to say it out loud, that this time belongs to reading and nothing else.
At The Manthan School, this is exactly how DEAR time functions for Grade 1 and 2 students. It’s introduced as a distinct classroom practice, not folded into a library period or treated as a filler activity between subjects. The habit gets built the same way any other habit does: through repetition at a fixed, predictable time.
What Sits Alongside DEAR Time
DEAR time doesn’t stand alone at The Manthan School. In the primary curriculum, it’s introduced together with a weekly library period and a maintained class library, so children have more than one point of contact with books throughout the week. Library period gives structured, supervised access to a wider collection. The class library keeps a smaller set of books within arm’s reach in the classroom itself, for days when a child wants something to read without a special trip.
This layering matters because reading habits rarely form from a single intervention. A child who only encounters books once a week in a library period is different from one who has books nearby every day, plus a protected chunk of time set aside just for reading them.
The Books Behind the Habit
A reading slot only works as well as what’s available to read, and this is where The Manthan School’s library resources come in. The school’s physical library holds close to eight thousand books, chosen to expose children to material worth getting curious about, alongside reference and research resources for older students.
On top of that, The Manthan School runs a digital library with more than seven thousand books, organised by Lexile level so children can find titles matched to where they currently are as readers rather than a generic age bracket. Since it’s digital, students can read from outside the school building too, which means the reading habit built during DEAR time in class has somewhere to continue after the school day ends.
Why This Detail Is Worth Looking For
For a parent comparing primary schools in Greater Noida West, “focus on reading” is the kind of phrase that shows up on almost every school’s website. What’s harder to find, and more useful when you do, is a named, specific practice you can actually picture happening in a classroom.
DEAR time gives you exactly that. It’s not a vague claim about instilling a love of books. It’s a defined slot in the timetable, backed by a weekly library period, a class library, and both a physical and digital book collection sized to support it. If your child comes home able to describe what DEAR time was like that day, that’s usually a good sign the practice is real rather than just written down somewhere on a curriculum page.
Want to See How It Works Day to Day?
The best way to understand whether a reading practice like DEAR time will suit your child is to see a classroom during it, or ask a teacher how it’s run in practice. You can learn more about The Manthan School’s primary curriculum and library resources at themanthanschool.co.in, or reach out through the school’s admission page to arrange a visit.