Reviews Jon Biddle, English lead and NEU rep at Moorlands Primary in Norfolk, is passionate about fostering a love of reading for pleasure. Here he shares ideas and tips for schools to try.
Discovering how reading shapes us all
A short reading survey can give teachers a genuine picture of their pupils as readers – from their knowledge of authors, to how much access they have to books at home
ONE of the common themes running through all my Reading for Pleasure articles has been the importance of getting to know children as individual readers. Having regular book chats with your class provides a steady trickle of knowledge about their preferences and interests, but giving them a short survey is an extremely useful starting point.
Last week, all the key stage 2 pupils at my school were given one to complete. We provided limited guidance as to what we were looking for in their answers, how much detail we would like, or what our own thoughts and preferences were. We wanted to have the most genuine picture of them as readers as we could. They were given all the time they needed to fill them in and, after each teacher had looked through them, I spent some time exploring them further to identify common themes. Firstly, it was really heartening to read that most of our pupils viewed Moorlands as a reading school and considered their teachers and support staff to be readers. Most of them also agreed that reading was cool. Knowledge of authors had increased significantly since the last time we had asked 38
them. This is partly as a result of our regular reading assemblies but also because we’ve continued to make a big effort to expose them to a broad range of diverse writers. However, knowledge of poets was still limited to Michael Rosen and one or two others. We’re trying to address this by introducing Poem of the Day across the school (led by the children) and by giving poetry a higher profile in our school and classroom libraries. There are also plans to run at least one poetry-themed assembly per term. Visits from authors, poets, illustrators and storytellers, in person and online, were incredibly popular across all the classes. Finding the funds to make these happen can be a challenge but it’s important that we continue to give them priority because they make reading come alive for children in a way that very little else can.
One of the most disheartening things we learned was that access to books is still very limited in some households. Although we purchased and sent books home during lockdown and regularly encourage families to use our school library and visit the local
educate Your magazine from the National Education Union (NEU)
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library, this continues to be an ongoing issue. Studies suggest that almost one million UK children don’t have access to books at home and it is a barrier that needs addressing at all levels. Our reading surveys have provided a really good opportunity for us to reflect upon whether the Reading for Pleasure that we feel we’re providing is the same as the Reading for Pleasure provision that the children feel we’re providing, and I’d strongly recommend finding the time to do them across your school. We’ve talked about the results as a staff, and it’s given us a clear idea of the path we need to take over the next year or two. There are good examples of reading surveys on the Open University Reading for Pleasure website (ourfp.org), the National Literacy Trust website (literacytrust. org.uk) and my own personal blog. Finally, I’d like to recommend one of the most useful books I’ve read all year, Understanding and Teaching Primary English by James Clements and Mathew Tobin. It’s extensively researched, accessibly written and full of practical advice on how to develop the teaching of oracy, reading and writing. I can’t praise it highly enough. @jonnybid
