Community and public benefit

Read On - inter school reading campaign

Project description

The scheme is a five-school partnership, which includes both state and independent and also involves the local public library. We are also supported by the National Literacy Trust's 'Read On' Campaign and the project is essentially a school- based version of book groups that can be found worldwide.

The key aim of the project, when first discussed, was to promote 'reading for leisure' including anything from comic books through newspapers to the latest bestseller. By promoting reading in this way we hope to encourage reluctant readers and then, over time, introduce them to new material.

The librarians also saw the opportunity to boost citizenship skills by encouraging state and independent schools to form links with peers in different settings through their common interest in reading.

Once 'Read On Groups' had been established in all the schools pupils were encouraged to develop their own new initiatives to promote reading in schools and the public library. Subsequent activities by the members such as 'see the film, now read the book' displays and the setting up of comic libraries have all helped in the process of recruiting new readers.

We now have well over 100 pupils involved across the five schools and more are joining all the time thanks to the proactive recruitment by existing users.

Benefits

There are a number of cross-curricular benefits of pupils' enthusiasm for reading in English, History, Drama and Citizenship. The work of the partnership has also raised the profile of the librarians and their role in the school community. Teachers have noticed how the Librarians can support the teaching and learning process through these types of projects. The public library benefits as the Reading Groups act as a focus group for the public library's teenage provision as well as encouraging pupils to run storytelling sessions for the under-fives

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