Dear Deer Class

Dear Deer Class,

So Year Six, your time as a pupil at Moorlands is coming to an end. I normally write a letter to my class at the end of the summer term to reflect back on our year of reading together, but this one feels very strange as our journey was cut short halfway through. I know you'll agree that we’d already been lucky enough to enjoy several wonderful novels, including Floodland, Ella On The Outside and Seven Ghosts, some hilarious short stories by Paul Jennings and loads of incredible picturebooks and poetry. Is there a better book to read during the cold, dark months of November than Seven Ghosts? I honestly can’t think of one. And then, there we were, about four chapters into The Light Jar, when our school suddenly closed for many of you.

There were so many books that we’d already discussed reading together in the second half of the year. I can’t believe I won’t get to read you Boy In The Tower by Polly Ho-Yen. I know you’d absolutely love it, so please, please make the effort to read it in Year 7. It really is outstanding! The books we talked about are still all out there, on the shelves of libraries and bookshops, so read them anyway and then, when I bump into you a few years from now, I'll expect you tell me all about them - and you know I’m not joking!

Even though we don’t get to finish the year as we'd hoped and read everything that we'd planned to, I know that you've all become hugely passionate readers. I know because you’ve showed me every single day.

Because you have the confidence to read books by a wide range of authors. Because you were all desperate for the chance to have your turn organising the Reading Recommendations shelf. Because you understand that reading is far more than books, and that magazines, newspapers, riddles and jokes all count.  Because you ran Poem Of The Day and made sure it happened, even when I forgot. Because you always got excited if a brown parcel was delivered to the classroom, just in case it was books (and yes, it always was). Because I could hear you talking about books and making recommendations on the way to assembly, even though I pretended I couldn't. Because one of you hid our class book when I was away as you didn’t want me to miss out - thank you! Because the first conversation I had with most of you each morning was about what you’d read the previous evening. Because whenever I walked past the library on the way to lunch, I'd see you reading stories to younger children. Because a whole group of you started your own comic that became more and more popular as the year went on. Because you were all happy to end the afternoon with a story, every single day.

In fact, now that I’ve started, let me break it down even further…

Hannah C, you’re a reader because you’ve recommended more books to me this year than I have to you! I love that you’re so passionate about Emma Carroll’s stories and that everyone in the class always listens when you talk about books.

Charlotte, you’re a reader because you stood up in class and shared your Poem Of The Day with everyone. I know how hard it was and I’m so proud of you for doing it.

Seb, you’re a reader because I can confidently state that nobody else in the country has ever made a David Attenborough bookmark! You were the driving force behind our class comic, Baby Fish and Octo Fairy, which eventually ran to about eight issues, and I loved reading it as much as the rest of the class.

     

Harley, you’re a reader because you still talk with excitement about our visit from SF Said. You passionately told people about how good Ghost Stadium by Tom Palmer is and encouraged so many of the class to read it. You also loved the book about the world's best footballers which, for some strange reason, didn't contain any Ipswich players.

Max, you’re a reader because you reminded me virtually every day for about six weeks to get hold of the last two books in the Who Let The Gods Out? series. I’m so glad that they lived up to your expectations.

Tyler, you’re a reader because you read the Mr Wolf’s Class graphic novel series and you loved them. And then you read them again. And then you read them again. And that’s absolutely fine.

Hannah H, you’re a reader because whenever it was time to read What’s That In Dog Years?, you’d be one of the first people to grab a cushion and move to the carpet. I was always impressed with how carefully you selected the books to read to the younger children at lunchtime.

Alfie, you’re a reader because you have the confidence to read what you know you’re going to enjoy and don’t mind if other people disagree with your choices. You're often one of the first to try out new books and you’re open enough to give your honest opinion on them.

Jack, you’re a reader because you know everything there is to know about our class collection of graphic novels. You enjoyed New Kid, Smile, Glitch and many more over the year. Just as impressively, you always seemed to know who else was reading them, how far they’d got and what their opinions were.

I could go on for longer but I won't, as I think I’ve made my point. I have wonderful memories of you all as readers and I want to thank you for being such a passionate and enthusiastic class. You always wanted to broaden your reading, you always wanted to talk about books and you always wanted to share your recommendations.

Anyway, the summer holidays will soon be upon us and we've all got a lot of reading to be getting on with; my pile of unread books seems to have become three piles of unread books over the past few weeks. Have a wonderful summer break and make the most of every single minute at secondary school. Find the library, make friends with the librarian and, most importantly, keep reading.

I’ll miss you all.

Mr Biddle

School reading culture...breakthrough moments

Last Thursday, I was absolutely delighted and extremely humbled to have been awarded the Egmont 2018 Reading for Pleasure Teacher Award. I travelled to London with my headteacher to attend the BERA/UKLA/OU Reading for Pleasure research symposium, and was presented with the award by Michael Rosen.

Being part of a school with reading at its heart is absolutely fundamental to what I believe in as a teacher. I'm fortunate to work in an environment where I'm supported, trusted and actively encouraged by my headteacher to take risks and try new ideas, as well as alongside an amazing group of teachers and support staff who understand the importance of creating a deep, genuine and firmly embedded reading for pleasure culture. They know that it can't be achieved with quick fix solutions and short term interventions. They know that adult knowledge of children's literature is essential, and that independent reading time must be protected against the pressures of the timetable. They know that reading aloud, in all its various forms, is crucial, and that encouraging spontaneous and informal book talk at every opportunity is an important way for children to truly engage with their reading. They know all this, and much more, and they do their best to make sure it happens.

After three years of extremely hard work from everyone in our school community, it's noticeable that over the past few months, there's been a significant cultural shift in the attitude towards reading. Conversations and interactions are happening between pupils, staff and parents that are making it a very exciting place to be.

For example, just before Christmas we introduced pupil-staff reading buddies (visit the Open University Reading for Pleasure site for more details). I'd been working with my buddy from Year 2 for several weeks. He wasn't a keen reader at home, showed little interest in reading at school and was one of those children who, if not picked up, could easily slip through the net. He'd always dutifully come along to our meetings and listen politely to whichever book I'd selected, but didn't really engage with the stories. In fact, most of his time would be spent looking out of the window or rearranging the cushions he was sitting on. After a couple of weeks, he started to show more interest, making an effort to listen to the story and even asking the occasional question. One lunchtime, just before half-term, he sauntered into the classroom (to be honest, he saunters everywhere), with his hands hidden behind his back...

"Hello, lovely to see you. How are you?"

"Mmmm, yeah, alright."

"Have you come to talk to me? Is everything OK?"

"Mmmm, yeah."

Slightly awkward pause...

"So, did you want to show me something?"

"Mmmm, yeah."

Slightly more awkward pause...

"Right then...what is it? Are you holding something exciting in your hands?"

At this point, he gave an enormous grin, and whipped out a copy of Harry And The Dinosaurs Go To School from behind his back.

"I found this book in my classroom and I brought it. I think it's going to be really good and we should read it."

"Well, I'd be delighted to, absolutely delighted."

It felt like a massive breakthrough. He'd found and chosen a book that he thought he'd enjoy, and had wanted to share that experience with someone. It was another tiny, but significant, step on his journey to becoming a genuine reader and I was thrilled to have been there for it. Moments like those can't easily be measured or quantified (apart from by the size of a smile!), but they're the moments that genuinely matter, the moments that can have an impact on a child's attitude to reading forever.

A second example, several weeks ago I was heading along the corridor to make (yet another) coffee when I walked past three teachers, all from different year groups, discussing the wonderful Letters From The Lighthouse by Emma Carroll. About ten minutes later, having made my drink, I came back and they were still there, but this time comparing the book and film versions of Wonder by RJ Palacio. Teachers, who had a thousand other things that they could be doing, were standing around and talking about children's books! Reading is increasingly becoming an essential part of the daily conversation across the school and it's very, very exciting.

Similar breakthroughs are happening across the school community. There are staff giving up five minutes of their break to seek out books that their reading buddies will enjoy. There are Year 6 children wanting to read stories to children from Year 1 and 2 in the library at lunchtime. There are parents working with their children to create book characters from potatoes. There are classes spontaneously starting informal book groups based on shared interests (the Amulet group is growing by the hour!). There are pupils cheering when new deliveries of books arrive in the post. There are about half of our teaching staff attending a local Teachers' Reading Group. There is a real book buzz, a reading buzz, a feeling of gathering momentum and a sense that the school reading community is beginning to take on a life of its own. We're not yet a reading for pleasure school, there's still a lot that we need to improve and develop further, but we believe we're heading in the right direction and we're very proud.

Reading aloud in class

'Reading aloud with children is known to be the single most important activity for building the knowledge and skills they will eventually require for learning to read.' Marilyn Jager Adams

Reading aloud to a class of any age can be a wonderful experience and is absolutely essential in helping to create a class reading community. To find out more about the numerous benefits, have a read of this great blog post by Nikki Gamble.

However, choosing the 'correct' book is never easy. It needs to tick several boxes: it has to capture their imagination in the first few pages, it should provide opportunities for them to reflect and think about the world, it should entertain them and make them want to read more and, equally importantly, it should be a book that the teacher also enjoys. I've occasionally started books before with classes without reading them first, got about three chapters in and realised that if I'm totally bored by the book, then there's a pretty good chance that the kids are too. I'm now well into my second year of teaching the same class and we've read some absolutely incredible books together, many of which I intend to revisit in the future.

A story I often read with a new class (Year 5/6) is The Busker by Paul Jennings. Paul has written a huge number of short stories, most of which are thoroughly enjoyable with a clever twist at the end. However, out of them all, The Busker is the one that always has the biggest emotional impact. It's a story about a busker who wins several million dollars in the Australian lottery and the incredible loyalty of his dog. Gasps of shock and outraged faces are guaranteed.

One of the most popular novels that we read in Year 5 last year was One Dog And His Boy by Eva Ibbotson. It's not my favourite book of hers (that would Journey To The River Sea, which I adore) but it is my favourite one to read aloud. It's about a young boy, Hal, whose parents are far too busy and far too important to spend any quality time with him, so they try and make up for it by buying him expensive gifts. All Hal wants for his birthday is a dog and he's absolutely delighted when he is given Fleck as a present. Unfortunately, Hal doesn't realise that his parents have only hired Fleck for the weekend. He comes home from school on Monday, finds Fleck missing and decides that his only option is to run away to find him. It's a simple story, beautifully written, and always causes lots of discussion (and quite a few tears) in class. It has a lovely ending, where Hal's parents finally discover the error of their ways and realise what is actually important in life.

Another Year 5 classic is The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, the story of Nobody (Bod) Owens, a small boy raised in a graveyard. Bod came to the graveyard as a toddler, escaping after the murder of the rest of his family by the man Jack. It's full of action and slightly scary in places, with a wonderful range of characters for the children to enjoy.

Last year, I also read Boy Overboard by Morris Gleitzman with a class for the first time. It's one of my favourite books but I wasn't sure how it would be received, as it's about two child refugees from Afghanistan who are trying to flee to Australia. It was actually the most popular book of the whole year! I think because we'd done a fair amount of work about the refugee situation around the world, the children were able to empathise with Jamal and Bibi, the two main characters. There are some highly emotional chapters, especially when the children get separated from their parents, but every child in the class was desperate to hear how the story turned out. Several of them have asked if we can read the follow-up, Girl Underground, later this year and some of them have already read it independently.

We also read some more light-hearted books across the year. The ones we most enjoyed were a couple in the Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face series by John Dougherty, and The Spy Who Loved School Dinners and Baby Aliens Got My Teacher by Pamela Butchart. Both series are enjoyably written, with ridiculous plots, and are an absolute treat to read aloud.

In Year 6, the highlight so far has definitely been Wonder by RJ Palacio. It's already regarded as a classic and, in my opinion, should be read to (or by) every child in Year 6. It tells the story of Auggie, a ten-year-old with a rare facial deformity, and his experiences when starting middle school. It's written in the first person from a variety of character viewpoints and, as well as being a heartwarming story, teaches valuable lessons about empathy and understanding. When we finished the book, several parents asked if they could borrow it to read, as their children had gone home every day telling them about how amazing it is!

We're currently enjoying Welcome To Nowhere by Elizabeth Laird. It's a fantastic book, although I've had to selectively edit a couple of the more graphic passages. It's led to a lot of questions and further reading about refugees by the children, although it's possibly more suited to Year 7 upwards.

Below are some of the class stories we've read, or are planning to read over the next few months. We also try and share picture books together as often as we can. This year we've read Isn't It Great by Gerard Greverand,  My Big Shouting Day by Rebecca Patterson, Azzi In Between by Sarah Garland and Mr Wuffles by David Wiesner as well as several others. All of them can be enjoyed on more than one level and be used as a basis for some interesting debate.

Several of these books will definitely make the cut for next year (assuming that I'm teaching in Year 6), but it's also exciting to read new books with a class. Next year, I'm very tempted to give The Nowhere Emporium by Ross MacKenzie a try, as well as Once by Morris Gleitzman. I'd be really interested to know which books other teachers enjoy reading to their class and try to revisit regularly.

'You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.' Dr Seuss

A letter to my class

Dear Deer,

Today I realised something very exciting! Did you know that you’re all readers now, every single one of you? I don’t mean that you all can read, because you’ve been able to do that since you were in Reception and Year One. That’s a different kind of reading, working out what all the sounds are and how to put them together. I mean that you’re readers; real, genuine, passionate readers. I spent a lot of time thinking about it on my way to school this morning (there was bad fog so I had to drive very slowly), and I’m going to try and show you that I’m right.

You’re readers because you remind me every single time when I forget about you sharing our Poem of the Day. You’re readers because you work brilliantly together to tidy up before story time, which means that you can squeeze every last minute out of it. You’re readers because you all get excited whenever a new book arrives in the classroom. You’re readers because you work so hard to keep the school library up and running. You’re readers because you love talking about your favourite books at every possible opportunity. You’re readers because you want to share the books you enjoy with children lower down the school.

In fact, now that I’ve started, let me be even more specific…

Lauren, you’re a reader because as soon as you found out that there was another book written by Katherine Rundell, you marched straight down to the school library to find it.

Troy, you’re a reader because you think very carefully about which picture book you’re going to share with the children in Reception at story time.

Liam, you’re a reader because you love looking at books with beautiful illustrations and trying to recreate them.

Charley, you’re a reader because you got so emotionally involved when we read One Dog and His Boy together and sat there with tears streaming down your face.

Isobel, you’re a reader because you squealed with joy when you found out that there might be a third Varjak Paw book one day.

Nico, you’re a reader because you insisted that your mum read Wonder straight after you did, so that she could see what you were so excited about.

Gracie, you’re a reader because you spend every spare minute talking about how amazing you think Lyra Belacqua and Katniss Everdeen are.

Rubie, you’re a reader because you read the books that you enjoy and you don’t care what anyone else thinks about them.

Hollie, you’re a reader because you spend your playtimes reading the Eddie poems by Michael Rosen to anyone who'll listen.

Jack, you’re a reader because you love sending the class photos on Twitter of the purchases you make at the different bookshops you visit.

Andrew, you’re a reader because you can recall almost every record from Guinness World Records 2017 and you know straight away where to find any that you’re not sure of.

Alfie, you’re a reader because you can remember exactly what happened on page 264 of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (and on any page of any other Harry Potter book).

Marley, you’re a reader because you’ve read so many books and you’re always happy to share recommendations with your friends.

Layla, you’re a reader because you can give a detailed plot summary of every Jacqueline Wilson book ever published.

Oliver, you’re a reader because you’ve quietly been working your way through the Young Samurai series since September.

James, you’re a reader because you love finding out extra facts about whatever topic we’re studying, and you start virtually every sentence with ‘Did you know...?’

Romy, you’re a reader because you always want to try books that you shouldn’t really be reading quite yet. Don’t worry, their time will come…and when it does, you’ll love them even more.

Leo, you’re a reader because you carefully take your signed Tom Palmer book out of your drawer and sit reading it with a contented smile on your face.

Jack, you’re a reader because you’re not afraid to change a book that you’re not enjoying.

Gabriella, you’re a reader because you read Bridge to Terabithia time and time again. It’s wonderful that you enjoy it so much!

Christian, you’re a reader because you come in every morning (without fail!) and tell me about the latest developments in the Once series.

Sonny, you’re a reader because you turn up at school book council meetings absolutely full of fantastic suggestions about which books we can buy for the school.

James, you’re a reader because, after a whole year of reading nothing but Beast Quest, you were brave and tried the Ranger’s Apprentice books and The Hobbit. And Christian was right, you loved them!

Taylor, you’re a reader because you discovered the Barnaby Grimes books by Chris Riddell and are happy to tell everyone you meet about how exciting you think they are.

Maddison, you’re a reader because you got so angry and frustrated during ‘that’ chapter in Wonder.

Have I proved my point Deer Class? I really hope so. Thinking about all of this today meant that it was the most heart-warming and enjoyable drive to school that I’ve had for a very long time, so thank you all!

Mr Biddle

Patron of Reading Conference 2016

Last weekend, the third Patron of Reading conference took place at the DoubleTree Hotel in Manchester. It was on a whole different level from the previous two that we'd organised. We even had sponsors (thank you MLS for all your support!) and a working sound system, which was a huge step in the right direction.

The line-up for the day was absolutely fantastic from start to finish. Speakers included authors The Two Steves, John Dougherty, Joffre White and SF Said; Miranda McKearney, OBE. from Empathy Lab; Marilyn Brocklehurst from Norfolk Children's Book Centre; Rob Smith, creator of the Literacy Shed; storyteller Marjorie Leithead and performance poet Tony Walsh. We also had wonderful contributions from librarians Mandy Wilson and Gill Ward; teacher John Bentham; organiser of the Haringey Chapter, Ian Coles from the Big Green Bookshop and Chris Lunt from MLS. The day was ably (??) compered by Patron of Reading founder, headteacher Tim Redgrave.

To find out more about the day, have a read of:

• the Haringey Chapter's Report
• Dom Conlon's report
• Bev Humphrey's storify 

You can find a summary of the day's events by using the Twitter hashtag #PoRConf16. Also, here's the link to the MLS Reading for Pleasure video and the link to a video created by author Marcus Alexander. Marcus was supposed to be presenting on the day, but unfortunately he recently broke both his biceps on a piece of gymnastics equipment!

I'm delighted, and very proud, to be involved in such a great scheme. After talking to several authors, teachers and librarians on the day, it's clear that it's having a real impact on reading in schools across the UK. I believe that Tim is already making plans for #PoRConf17...

 

 Hopefully Brenda enjoyed herself as much as we did!

 

          

 

           

           

          

 

 

 

Children's author knowledge

After a hectic, but very enjoyable, few weeks travelling around the country to various literacy conferences and helping organise a R4P TeachMeet event in Fakenham, I've finally found some time to write a blog post. I recently raised the question in the Reading for Pleasure Facebook group of how many authors an 'average' child in Year 5/6 would be able to name. I thought that most of them would know the 'Big Guns' (Roald Dahl, David Walliams, Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson and possibly JK Rowling), but how many others? The general consensus from the teachers, librarians and authors in the group was that most children in Year 5/6 would aware of the above names but not too many others.

Out of curiosity, I asked my class to list as many writers as they could in five minutes, without any help from their friends and without looking at the bookshelves. We ended up spacing ourselves out on the field. The lowest score was 2 (Michael Rosen and Jonny Duddle) and the highest score was 27. There were a few other scores over 20, most children got to about 15, although several were much lower. As we've spent the last four terms totally focused on creating a reading culture in the class, (I think) I was pleased with the results. The score of 2 can be explained away by the fact that the child spent most of the five minutes making a daisy chain, which she then gave to her best friend. It would be interesting to know how these scores actually compare to other similar aged classes.

            

              

I thought I'd better have a try myself (results below). There was a good male/female balance, but I found myself thinking of lots of great books whose author I couldn't remember. In fact, Rob Smith (The Literacy Shed) raised this- does it actually matter if children don't know many authors' names, as long as they know great books? Teresa Cremin from The Open University argued 'I think knowing authors is important for developing preferences and thus enabling volition and agency as readers - and also supports choice at bookshelves as readers hunt spines for more of the same.'

So, where do children at primary school get their knowledge of authors? Again, I asked my class for their thoughts, and they came up with their teacher, their parents, their peers and the shops. We aren't fortunate enough to have a school librarian, so most of them wouldn't be aware of how much guidance a good one could offer.

From my experience, it seems as if less time is now spent on developing knowledge of children's literature on teacher training courses. As Karen Argent said 'In my experience teaching at a university for the last 15 years, quite a lot of younger students training to teach do not read children's books or are particularly interested in them. Too much emphasis on literacy at the expense of literature when they have been at schools themselves perhaps? So, unless they then experience good inspirational stuff when they are training and/or on teaching practice - the fire doesn't get lit. I find it quite depressing...'

In the Teachers as Readers report by Teresa Cremin et al, nearly 25% of teachers couldn't name any picture book authors and 22% couldn't name any children's poets. When asked to list six 'good' children's writers, the same names kept coming up again and again (basically the ones at the top of the page). As most teachers admit to relying on their own knowledge of children's literature for decisions about classroom reading, and considering the facts that parental input varies massively from child to child, that peer knowledge is directly related to teacher knowledge and that most big supermarkets tend to stock the same few authors, maybe it's not a surprise that children don't know as many authors as we would expect.

SLA Conference 2016

This weekend I was delighted to attend the School Library Association conference in Gloucestershire and run a couple of workshop sessions about creating a Reading for Pleasure culture in schools. There were several entertaining speakers throughout the day, including Katherine Rundell, Andy Robb, Tracey Corderoy and Tony Walsh, as well as a wide range of workshops and seminars to attend. It was a real privilege to spend time with people so committed to getting children reading.

Attached below is a shortened version of the presentation. If you would like further explanation on any of the ideas it includes, please get in touch.

Personal Reading Histories

Tomorrow, my class are going to start thinking about and preparing their personal reading histories. Next week, we've invited parents in to work with them on creating a slide or video presentation.

I had a go at putting together my reading history earlier, up until I was about the age of 18 anyway, so I could show the children what I meant. It was actually really enjoyable. I've uploaded the presentation (which only lasts a minute) below and brought back a lot of memories. There are some 'hilarious' anecdotes to go with the slides for when I share it with the kids, but I'm afraid you'll have to use your imaginations and create your own.

I'm confident that children and parents working together will lead to some really high quality discussion about books and reading. Thank you to Teresa Cremin for the original idea.
 

Poetry in the garden centre

Despite being very dependent on successful Christmas play rehearsals, parents visiting to decorate the classroom and various other festive delights, at the end of this week my class are off to visit the local garden centre to share some of our favourite poetry with the customers. It's one of the initiatives in the school's campaign to get the local community more involved with reading, alongside #mydadreads, #mymumreads and various other ideas that the School Reading Council have come up with for the new term.

The plan is that they will work together in pairs to read and perform poetry. They'll be performing some of their own poems, alongside work by a selection of poets they enjoy. Included on the 'to perform' list are Paul Cookson, Liz Brownlee, Michael Rosen, Josh Seigal and Benjamin Zephaniah, although more are being added on a daily basis. We'll hopefully be able to get a few people to stop and have a proper listen. The customer will then be offered a photocopy of the performed poem to take home, along with the name of the collection it's taken from. The garden centre have been really supportive about the idea and have offered us all free refreshments when we visit. If it's successful, the plan is to repeat it in other parts of the village although unfortunately, for some unknown reason, we're not allowed to try it in the village pub.

School Reading Council

After half-term we are going to be officially launching our School Reading Council. Full details are currently a bit sketchy, but the overall aim is to give the pupils much more ownership over how we promote reading in school. Findings from the Literacy Trust's 2008 report, Young People's Self-Perception As Readers, emphasise the need to 'use systems of peer-to-peer recommendation, involving pupils in their school's reading culture and championing reading to other pupils' and a 2011 literacy survey reports that 'young people who are encouraged to read by their friends a lot are nearly twice as likely to enjoy reading and nearly three times more likely to say that they think reading is "cool" than those who are not.'

So far, we've chosen two children to represent each class, one who is already an avid reader and one who isn't (yet). Hopefully being on the council will remedy that! They are all allowed to wear a 'Book Champion' badge around school, which will give the position some real status, and will be attending meetings every couple of weeks, as well as feeding back to their class regularly.

When we had our inaugural meeting last week, they were absolutely full of ideas and suggestions about how to get the other pupils, the staff and their parents reading more. They're planning to be in charge of organising and delivering book boxes to the playground at lunchtime so that pupils can read outside if they wish. They talked about developing the book area in each classroom and getting each class to focus on a Class Author every half-term, as well as having more say in selecting the books we borrow from our local school library service. There were also suggestions to roll out the Mystery Book idea across the whole school.

They council members were desperate to be given a reading display board in a prominent area in the school, over which they would have complete control. One of their first ideas for a display was to go and photograph staff reading their favourite books and then expand on our #mymumreads and #mydadreads initiatives by launching a #myvillagereads campaign. Hopefully that will involve more than wandering around the village and harassing the local butcher into holding up a copy of his daily newspaper.

A couple of them were also extremely keen to be 'reading experts' and share their book recommendations with children who are struggling to find anything they want to read, which could be very successful if introduced sensitively.

One of the areas I'd love to give them a real say in is organising future author visits. At the next meeting I'm planning to give them a shortlist of 3/4 authors and then ask them to go off and do some research into who they think would be popular for a whole school visit. I will also leave it up to them to publicise the visit, ensure that each class has access to some relevant books, etc. They were also very interested to find out if they were allowed any sort of budget to spend on certificates and prizes for reading and new books, comics and magazines.

The fact that they were so full of enthusiasm has given me confidence that the idea can be sustained throughout the year, even if some of the council members change. In my experience, a buzz about reading created by children has more impact than a buzz about reading created by adults and, to quote from the Literacy Trust's 2008 report, 'we can use the enthusiasm of the self-defined readers to encourage other readers to widen their choice of reading materials in creative and innovative ways.'

I'm looking forward to seeing how the School Reading Council develops over the coming months and will update this post at some point with a progress report. On a completely separate subject, this afternoon my youngest daughter (age 4) went upstairs and took all the books off her bookshelves. She then hid them under her bed and filled the shelves with her collection of princess tiaras. Her argument was that 'They look nicer!'. I think she's going to be quite a tough nut to crack with this whole reading business...