Five reasons to do the Teachers' Reading Challenge this summer
As a teacher you spend all year recommending books to children. When did you last read one just for you?
The Teachers’ Reading Challenge is your summer to do exactly that, and go back in September with a reading life that feeds straight into your classroom’s reading culture. Here’s why it’s worth it.
1. You’ll enjoy it!
The Teachers’ Reading Challenge is about books you choose, at your own pace, across your summer holiday.
You can follow a themed badge – Laugh Out Loud, Poetry Power, Great Graphic Novels, Rebel Grrls, We Are Family Too, Black British Brilliance – or simply read five books from the children’s and YA lists. There’s no fixed order, no assessments, no hoops. Just a genuinely inspiring reading list, and the time to get into it.
2. You’ll find books your class will love
The lists are built around the books children are reading right now. Which means the titles you discover this summer become the recommendations you reach for in September. We know that as a reading role model, your recommendations will really land with your class and start the new academic year off brilliantly.
3. You’ll feel more confident talking about reading
Teachers who took part in the 2025 Challenge highlighted a range of positive impacts, mostly commonly being introduced to new authors and illustrators (81%) and broadening their knowledge of children and young people’s literature (72%). Around two-thirds (67%) also reported feeling more confident in promoting reading for pleasure.
That confidence shows up in small, everyday ways: a better answer when a child asks what to read next. A more instinctive reach for the right book, and a richer, more natural book talk.
4. It connects your reading to your pupils’ reading
One of the things teachers told us they loved most was the link between their own summer reading and what their children were doing. When you have that shared understanding of books, you can meet children where they are.
Several teachers described using their summer reading directly: making classroom displays of staff recommendations, connecting titles to the Summer Reading Challenge, or using what they’d read to spark independent reading time and book clubs. The reading doesn’t stay on holiday – it comes back with you.
5. You’ll be part of something
More than anything, teachers said they joined to be part of a community of readers. Not a formal network. Just the feeling of reading alongside people who care about the same things you do.
One librarian recruited three members of the science department. They read pupil recommendations together and built a library display out of it. “It’s so important for pupils to see teachers engage with books,” she said.
Teachers who responded to our 2025 survey were asked whether they would recommend the Challenge to a colleague – and every teacher who answered said that they would.
Sign up for the Teachers’ Reading Challenge this year. It’s free, it’s flexible, and your summer reading list is waiting!
