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All About the Teacher's Reading Challenge
The 2023 Teachers’ Reading Challenge launches across the UK on 26 June and runs until 31 October. You can sign up on this website.
The Teachers’ Reading Challenge is an opportunity for school, library and other education staff to expand their knowledge of children’s books and develop their understanding of reading for pleasure pedagogy. The Challenge invites participants to join a supportive and inspired community of educators and readers, set their own reading goal, share reviews, access resources, and submit an example of practice.
500 Words, the UK’s most successful writing competition run by the BBC is back! The competition will be open from Tuesday 26 September to Friday 10 November 2023.
Since the competition was first launched in 2011 by Chris Evans on the Radio 2 Breakfast Show, it has received over one million stories from children throughout the UK.
This year, the two age categories will be 5-7 year-olds and 8-11 year-olds.
Children of all abilities are encouraged to use their creativity and imagination to write a story they would love to read without the pressure of having to worry about spelling, punctuation and grammar.
The brilliant 500 Word judges are back: award-winning and best-selling authors Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Francesca Simon, Charlie Higson, and former Children’s Laureate, Malorie Blackman. This year there will be a new addition to the panel, TV legend and children’s author, Sir Lenny Henry.
Prizes for the winners include books, book tokens and for their stories to be recorded and published on the BBC website. The winner stories will also be shown on a special 500 Words programme on BBC1 on World Book Day, 7 March 2024.
Children can start writing their stories over the summer and the BBC has lots of tips and resources to help, including story starters from Pobble for ages 5–7 and 7–11.
Reading Well for teens presents Dr Clare Etherington in conversation with Emma Goswell & Sam Pollen
During this recorded webinar, GP Dr Clare Etherington talks to Emma Goswell (Coming Out Stories) and Samuel Pollen (The Year I Didn’t Eat) about their books, teenage wellbeing and how reading can help.
This webinar is one of a series of virtual events aimed at secondary schools, colleges and libraries to tie in with the Reading Well for teens scheme (launched on 10th October 2022).
26 June 2023
Reading Well for teens presents: In conversation with Aoife Dooley and Rhian Ivory
During this recorded webinar, Aoife Dooley (author/illustrator of Frankie’s World) and Rhian Ivory (author of Hope) talk about their books, teenage wellbeing and how reading can help.
This webinar is one of a series of virtual events aimed at secondary schools, colleges and libraries to tie in with the Reading Well for teens scheme (launched on 10th October 2022).
26 June 2023
Reading Well for teens presents: Love Ssega in conversation with Sita Brahmachari and Nicola Morgan
During this recorded webinar, musician and artist Love Ssega talks to authors Sita Brahmachari (When Shadows Fall) and Nicola Morgan (Be Resilient: How to Build a Strong Teenage Mind for Tough Times) about their books, teenage wellbeing and how reading can help.
This webinar is one of a series of virtual events aimed at secondary schools, colleges and libraries to tie in with the Reading Well for teens scheme (launched on 10th October 2022).
26 June 2023
The Teachers' Reading Challenge 2022 has ended!
This year’s Teachers’ Reading Challenge has now come to a close, with over 2,000 teachers, librarians and education staff taking part and reading over 4,000 books over the summer!
We would love to hear your thoughts on the Challenge and how we can make it even better next year by completing our evaluation survey.
For a chance to win £100 in National Book Tokens, all you need to do is complete the survey by 5pm, Friday 18 November. Full details can be found by following the link here.
16 November 2022
Reading for Pleasure and Purpose: A School Librarian's View
Several years ago, I was having a conversation with a senior science teacher who said he didn’t read for pleasure. “Not true,” I replied, “you read for pleasure all the time”.
“That’s just bird magazines, not fiction, not literature,” he said, “that’s not reading.”
This perception that reading for pleasure has to be fiction, and literary fiction at that, is a problem.
