The 2024 research report which explores children and young people’s reading for pleasure and daily reading habits reveals two in three children and young people don’t enjoy reading.

Tammy Evans is Second in English at St Martins 3-16 School and Trust Improvement Consultant for Literacy, and says reading is at the centre of everything our schools do.  

Here, Tammy shares some of the innovative ways in which our schools consistently promote reading for pleasure:

• Embedding DEAR time (drop everything and read), where children and teachers all read for 30 minutes per week – no matter what lesson they are scheduled to be taking part in.
  
  
• Offering opportunities for parents/carers to come into school and read with the children for 30 minutes at the end of the school day.
  
  
• Promoting recommended reading books which cater to all tastes and ages, with varying levels of challenge.
  
  
• Providing reading challenges for children to demonstrate what they have learnt through their reading.
  
  
• Celebrating World Book Day in innovative and engaging ways such as holding treasure hunts, ‘The Masked Reader’ activity and holding a ‘Booky Bake off.’
  
  
• Enabling children to share their passion through regular book swaps.
  
  
• Curating a selection of relevant and current books – not only in our libraries, but in our English lessons, too.
  
  
• Challenging children to take part in extreme reading challenges, where we ask for them to provide photographic evidence of their reading in the most unusual places.
  
  
• Sharing our favourite books with the children via posters and regular conversations.
  
  
• Using tutor time for children to lose themselves in their latest book.
  
  
• Making our library spaces inviting, comfortable and engaging.
  
  
• Linking everything we do to reading – even weaving the odd poem into a science lesson!
  
  

Tammy is experienced in delivering literacy-based CPD training to secondary staff, and is researching barriers to learning in literacy. Tammy is part of our pool of Trust Improvement Consultants who provide specialist support, guidance and advice across our family of schools.