Bring the joy back into books for children as Bolton School tells us how it encourages reading.
National Literacy Trust recently published its annual report about children and young people’s reading in 2024. Based on over 76,000 responses to its annual literacy survey from children and aged five to 18, it found that the percentage of children and young people who enjoy reading was at its lowest since the survey began in 2005. Just 34.6% of those asked said that they enjoy reading in their spare time, a figure that has decreased by 8.8% in the past year alone.
With only 20.5% of children saying that they read something daily in their free time, it’s clear that reading enjoyment is on the decline. But it isn’t all doom and gloom, there are plenty of ways to encourage children to read more at school and at home, as Bolton School tells us…
Rewarding reading is a great place to start with encouraging children to pick up a book. In 2024, the English departments at Bolton School started using the Sparx reader app to better track engagement with reading. The top readers and those who reach gold reader status on the app receive rewards for their reading, and the stats show excellent engagement, with an impressive completion percentage of 98%. Across the senior schools, pupils enjoy a weekly morning form time that is set aside specifically for reading too. Reading is set as homework in boys division literacy lessons, while in the girls division pupils enjoy fortnightly library lessons where they read through an anthology with their peer group.
Students are encouraged to recommend books to one another, adding a social component into reading will add another element of fun for kids. All Year 7 boys are excited to choose a ‘book buzz’ book in the autumn term. The boys division literacy lessons begin with a book recommendation for others, and the student-led ‘gold reader’ newsletter also promotes reading to boys. In the girls division, recommended reads are included as part of the curriculum. The library encourages boys and girls in all year groups to provide recommendations to go on display amongst the shelves, so that pupils can see what their peers have been enjoying. World Book Day offers yet more opportunities for students to share favourite books with one another. The library also shares suggested reads to support the English curriculum and to encourage reading for knowledge.
In fact, the recommendations begin even before students arrive at Bolton School. At the beginning of the school year, all incoming year sevens received a book, Wonderscape by Jennifer Bell, to read in the summer before they joined the school, and extra tasks were provided to extend their engagement with the story. The library also provides new students with a list of ‘seven books to read before year seven’ to give young readers more options to explore.
Bolton School pupils benefit from several author talks a year, both in-person and virtual. These experiences help young readers to develop their comprehension skills by exploring these books in more depth.
Providing a wide variety of material is key for children to explore their interests via reading. Bolton School’s library is at the heart of its culture of reading for pleasure, providing a safe space where pupils can read, enjoy clubs and activities, and explore wider interests. There are regular thematic displays linked to current events in school and in the wider world, such as Black History Month, Neurodiversity Month, LGBTQ+ displays, horror at Halloween, banned books, and more.
Bolton School also promotes reading for pleasure more widely through the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award – an annual award run by the school’s librarians, which allows children across Bolton to select their favourite book from the three shortlisted.
Every year, the school hosts a Book Award Day in celebration of the books and reading, with the shortlisted authors attending to meet children from schools around Bolton. This is always a popular event, with lots of engaged children full of questions about the books!
The shortlist for the 2025 award was announced after deliberations and the three shortlisted books are The Final Year by Matt Goodfellow, The Secrets of the Snakestone by Piu Das Gupta, and My Brilliant Plan to Fix Everything by Ben Davis.
Library staff at Bolton School said: “While all quite distinct titles, they do have common themes running through them – determination, resilience and maintaining a sense of humour when life is challenging. We hope that everyone reading them will enjoy them as much as we have.”