Sign In
Sign In
Register for Free
PrimaryEnglish

How Schools Can Get Children And Parents Excited About Reading

Golden tickets, canny advertising and peer power. There are countless ways to get children and parents excited about reading – even if it means offering a babysitting service, says James Clements…

James Clements
by James Clements
Paddington Bear whole school resource pack
DOWNLOAD A FREE RESOURCE! Paddington Bear – Whole-school lesson plans & activity sheets
PrimaryEnglish

Over the last few years, I’ve been travelling to meet teachers from right across the country, seeing what ideas they’ve come up with to make sure learning to read goes hand in hand with developing a love of books.

What did I discover? Well, it may not surprise you that many of the heads, English subject leaders and teachers I met were keen to stress that it was an everyday focus on reading – not special events – that helped the children to see books in a more positive light. But that said, many of the schools had developed creative approaches to raise the profile of reading, often in response to a particular problem. These events helped to create a sense that reading was something special, raising its profile and making it exciting. Curious? Here are what were, for me, some of the more memorable ideas.

Look to rebrand

One school had a problem with ‘silent reading’, the independent reading slot that was timetabled for straight after lunch. The children didn’t particularly enjoy this and so the literacy coordinator decided to take a leaf from an advertising department and rebrand it SQUIRT time – Super-Quiet Uninterrupted Independent Reading Time. The same children who were decidedly unexcited by silent reading skipped into SQUIRT time because it sounded fun.

Find a golden ticket

One librarian noticed that children were very keen to borrow new books that arrived in the library, but were sometimes unwilling to borrow some of the older books, even if they were great stories. She solved this by hiding Willy Wonka-style golden tickets in a selection of the older book stock. If a child found a golden ticket she would read the book, take it to the librarian (who would ask her some questions about the book to see if she had read it) and then she’d swap her golden ticket for a football bookmark or a jazzy pencil.

Reading buddies – from KS2 to nursery

Lots of the schools featured in the project used a system of reading buddies, where older children would meet to read with a younger child to share a book or hear him read. One deputy head spoke about the positive impact she’d seen from weekly reading sessions between Y5 and Y2 pupils. The Y2 children loved their reading buddy coming to read with them and benefited from the opportunity to read aloud to someone who they looked up to. But she also noticed a positive change in the Y5 children: they thrived on the responsibility of being a reading buddy, being the expert and supporting someone else’s reading. It also helped them to be conscious about what made a good reader and this had an impact on their own reading. So she decided to extend the programme.

As well as Y2 reading with Y5, she asked the KS1 children to go and read with a Reception reading buddy once per week. Again, she saw the growing sense of responsibility and understanding of what makes a good reader in Y2. So she decided to pair each Reception child with a child from the Nursery and give them a weekly slot to read together. Although the Reception child didn’t necessarily have the best-developed reading skills, he could usually use the book to tell a story to his buddy, and the experience of being the expert at reading was priceless.`

We dedicate this book to…

In one school, children were invited to write the titles of books they’d enjoyed reading onto slips and post them into a letterbox in the school library. If the school used a recommendation and bought the book, a nameplate would be put in the front of the book with the name of the child who suggested buying it. This served two purposes. Firstly, it got the children talking about books and recognised the keen readers who went to the trouble of recommending books to others. Secondly, it allowed the children to see who had recommended a book and sometimes this was enough to get a child to read it. The headteacher told a story about the time he was sharing some of the recommended books in assembly and he got to a book suggested by the captain of the Y6 football team; he said he could see the ripple of excitement through KS2 as groups of boys thought, ‘That’s the book I’m reading next!’

Free babysitting (or reading camp)

The final initiative goes well beyond the call of duty. One school from the project ran a reading competition each term. Every teacher nominated his or her ‘Reader of the Term’ all of whom won the following prize: they could camp out in the school hall overnight at reading camp. Reading camp featured stories, games and hot chocolate before sleeping in a pop-up tent in the school hall. It was held on a Friday night and if a child won, it wasn’t just him that could attend, it extended to any other sibling he had at the school. So the parents got Friday night out with free babysitting!

Not surprisingly, the headteacher told us that the school had never had such a positive response to a reading initiative from parents – they chased him across the playground to tell him how often their children read and how much they loved reading. Like I say, well beyond the call of duty…

What made each of these initiatives stand out was that the school had thought carefully about a specific problem or issue with reading and then set about solving it in a creative way. So, what might work to promote and celebrate reading in your school?.

Do it by the book

Think you have a good idea for a reading initiative? Ask they five key questions first…

What issue is it addressing? Does it solve a problem or help children to see reading in a new or positive way?

Is it about reading? Will it help children to become better readers or enjoy books?

Is it equitable? Can all children access the initiative to the same degree? Events that involve dressing up or contributing money can be difficult for some children.

Does it help children to see the intrinsic value and enjoyment in reading? Collecting stickers, rewards and points can be very motivating, but they’re only valuable if children still read when they are aren’t on offer.

Is there any lasting effect on reading at the school beyond the actual initiative? Is the amount of effort expended on the event worth it in terms of its impact on children’s reading habits?

You might also be interested in...