Reading for Pleasure - Part 2

The 'why', the 'how' and the 'what' of developing and embedding an authentic RfP culture.

Photo by Nong on Unsplash

Thoughts and musings

As shared in ‘Reading for Pleasure - Part 1’¹, this is an area of education which is not only much-publicised and discussed but also exceptionally important, as supported by an abundance of research. My first post delved into the worrying statistics shared by the National Literacy Trust² , with some of the main findings including:

• Only 1 in 3 8-18-year-olds enjoy reading in their free time, the lowest level since their surveys began nearly 20 years ago.

• 2 in 3 children and young people don’t enjoy reading.

• Only 1 in 5 8- to 18-year-olds read something daily in their free time in 2024, again, the lowest levels recorded since 2005.

There is no denying that the need for creating, instilling and growing a love for reading in our pupils needs to be a priority. However, how can we protect our aims to embed this culture from becoming merely a gimmick? Simply a phrase emblazoned across School Development Plans. A banner at the bottom of a newsletter or a poster in the school reception foyer. What does it truly mean to be a ‘school that reads’ and a ‘reading teacher’? Also, perhaps most importantly, how do we keep the idea of Reading for Pleasure (RfP) as something positive, rather than a concept for busy educators and pressured leaders to feel guilty about not achieving? Because, I don’t believe there is a straight-forward answer or a criteria for success. What I do have faith in is the opportunity for authenticity and the wealth of expert guidance which can be accessed, to support this process.

Within this post, I will be heavily referencing and signposting The Open University and UK Literacy Association’s exceptional body of research and resources as my offering of suggestions. Not only do they seek to ‘support a vibrant professional community of teachers, student teachers, librarians and English leaders in order to nurture lifelong readers’³ but this is done in a way that simultaneously upskills professionals.

Ideas and practical suggestions

So, what steps can be taken to auditing, reflecting and developing a Reading for Pleasure culture? Below are two suggestions which I hope can be actioned with minimal time spent preparing. Think of these more as a shift towards acknowledging and engaging with the practicalities which form the nuances of a much wider-reaching movement.

1. Understand your school community.

This may seem like such an obvious suggestion. However, it can be all too easy to engage with the declining levels of enjoyment for reading, take to social media/education platforms or hear what a friend’s school is doing and stride right into actioning these ideas without necessarily considering if they are right for your setting.

So, how can action planning ensure that it is taking into account the needs, and successes, of an individual school community?

• Start with an audit. Like any effective school development cycle, identifying the true (rather than the perceived) need is the starting point. This is exactly what is required when auditing your school’s RfP needs. What works for one setting will not necessarily work for another. This is not a blanket approach.

• One of my favourite sets of resources on the OU/UKLA Reading for Pleasure website, are their examples of ‘reading surveys’. We can’t guess what the issues are, for children, their families and the teachers. We can’t really identify any barriers until we have asked the questions. On the OU/UKLA site, there are a number of ‘Teachers’ Reading Group’ projects (more on this below) where you can read, learn from and take inspiration for your own implementation of best practice.

For useful examples to support your information gathering, I would recommend:

1. Reading Surveys by Jon Biddle

In this ‘Example of Practice’, Jon identifies the importance of getting to know the individual children in a class as readers to support your school in understanding how the children view reading for pleasure.

I would highly recommend taking a look at the outcomes of the project, but it also contains a very generous, free reading survey sample, which is available to adapt to make this more specific to your cohort/setting/year group.

2. Teachers’ knowledge of children’s literature and other texts - Review your practice

As well as understanding the experience of your pupils, it is exceptionally important to gather information from your staff. I would argue that this goes beyond the classroom teachers and stretches to your whole-school team. All adults that work with children. The office staff, the lunchtime supervisors, site managers, governors. For your Reading for Pleasure cultivation, input and participation from all is where you will find strength. Children need to see that these important conversations are reaching further than the classroom book corner.

Within this resource, there are a ready-made set of questions which you may want all staff to complete. Equally, this could be a starting point for adaptation. The main outcome is to understand where staff members are in their own journeys (away from any feelings of shame or doubt) so that any training, resourcing and conversation prompting is authentic and bespoke. Ultimately, it is relevant for your team.

• Ensure the wider school community is also involved. Once you have got to grips with the needs of your pupils and staff, it is important to gain the views and experiences of the children’s families. A similar survey to the above two suggestions could be shared. This is also an important opportunity to consider ways in which training and drop-in sessions can be arranged to educate and support RfP at home (more explored below).

• In all of this information gathering, it is important that there is no feeling of embarrassment or guilt. Asking families how often they hear their children read or questioning staff about the range of children’s authors who they are aware of, needs to be done with sensitivity. This comes from the knowledge you have about the adults within your school community and instilling the understanding that these questions are being posed from a place of honesty and trust to promote an authentic developmental journey.

2. Invest in the development of the whole-school community.

Once you have gained a clear understanding of the children’s, staff’s and wider-school community’s knowledge, understanding and experience of the term ‘Reading for Pleasure’, you have your ‘why’. You will feel more confident in understanding the motivating factors for making changes, additions and building on the strengths that are already in place.

Now for ‘the how’ and ‘the what’.

How can a Reading for Pleasure culture be developed in your setting and what can you put in place to support the implementation of this?

• For the staff:

  • It is the age-old answer. Time. Once access to high-quality resources is in place, time needs to be given for staff to explore these. Make it important. The resources I share within this post are what I believe provide aspirational professional development opportunities. However, if these are introduced and no time is given to explore them, very likely they will fall off the radar.

  • Once again, we return to the importance of intentional and pragmatic professional development practices⁴. If staff are being asked to extend their knowledge of children’s literature, they need the time to read it. To evaluate it. To discuss with colleagues how they can share this new author or book series with their classes. There needs to be a positive buzz around this development of experience, knowledge and best practice so that it doesn’t feel like another ‘ask’, another task to be completed.

  • Consider ways in which we can involve the whole-school team. After auditing their knowledge and experience of RfP practice, can we offer our non-teaching staff members a suggestion of a new author to read? Could we share with them some recommended suggestions of new books and authors who we ask them to discuss with children around school? If we are creating displays to celebrate a love of reading, can we include the faces of a range of adults in school, either recommending a book or asking the children for recommendations? There are SO many creative ideas in existence for elevating the profile of RfP but what you choose, and how you personalise it, really is the key.

  • I briefly mentioned the OU/UKLA Teachers’ Reading Groups⁵ in my previous post. I could not recommend these highly enough. I have had the privilege of attending TRGs in Dubai and in the UK. They are a free, evidence-based resource with the aim of supporting ‘the profession by building a community around RfP’. The groups start at the beginning of an academic year, as they revolve around creating an ‘Example of Practice’ over 5 sessions. To find out more about joining a TRG, complete the form, linked here. It would also be exceptionally beneficial to delve into the website to explore existing Examples of Practice from a number of education professionals and to find out about TRG updates (links shared below).

    Areas of interest on the OU/UKLA website for developing and enriching RfP best practice with staff include:

• For the pupils:

  • Once you have gained an understanding of your pupil’s perception of RfP, using the areas of ‘Research and Practice’ on the OU/UKLA website⁶ is an excellent place to delve a little deeper into forming your next steps.

  • Staying as far away from the gimmicks as possible, you and your fellow team members have the opportunity to decide what to put into place to cultivate a genuine RfP culture which has longevity. The sections recommended below provide a framework to develop ideas beyond posters in the book area, reward-driven reading incentives or worse still, convoluted strategies which are time-consuming, impossible to maintain and the first to be cut off the ‘to do list’.

  Recommended areas to explore include:

• For the families:

  • I am a huge believer in the power of forging and cultivating open and positive links with children’s families. Empowering the wider-community with a comprehensive knowledge of the fundamental meaning of RfP, its proven benefits and how these translate into actions in your particular educational setting is incredibly important. Couple this with the data gathered from your initial family survey and you have the opportunity to create a bespoke experience which is relevant and purposeful.

  • Inviting families to information-sharing sessions, increases the possibility of gaining further support with, and understanding of, projects and initiatives that you are developing within the school environment. This is also an opportunity to dispel the stresses and inconsequential competitive element of ‘having to’ sign the reading diary x amount of times a week and the numerical nature of how many times the reading book makes it out of the bag to be listened to or read independently. That is not to say that this framework is not important but the ‘why’ around this needs to be clear so this does not become just an administrative task. It is the hope that the children are gaining joy from reading their books at home, with an intrinsic motivation rather than an enforced one.

The OU/UKLA site has an extensive list of resources to support the ingraining of a positive love of reading habit, where research concludes that there are 3 core strategies which best support readers:

1. Reading aloud

2. Time to read as a family

3. Book chat

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Further recommended OU/UKLA Reading for Pleasure pages:

• Teachers’ Reading Groups

• Publications

Support your school community in gaining a knowledge of high-quality children’s literature:

Suggested further reading:

• The Book Trust

1.

2. Reading For Pleasure Research | National Literacy Trust

3. OU/UKLA - Reading for Pleasure

4.

5. OU/UKLA Teachers' Reading Groups - Reading for Pleasure

6. Findings - Reading for Pleasure