Read for My School

Read for My School is the national schools reading competition from The Pearson Foundation and Booktrust, with support from the Department for Education

Reading for pleasure is at the heart of the initiative, which aims to generate excitement about books and cultivate long-lasting positive attitudes towards reading. 

Read for My School is:

• free for all primary schools in England
• open to children in years 5 and 6

The 2013 competition took place from 21 January to 22 March.

Children who attend participating schools have been encouraged to:

• read as much as they can
• explore a variety of genres and formats
• make their own choices as readers
• recommend titles to friends
  
  

The competitive element of the programme is designed to:

• be fun and motivate children of all abilities, with a variety of interests, to read for pleasure

• give children the opportunity to read their way to rewards for themselves and their schools
  
  

All registered schools have been:

• given exclusive access to an online library of titles donated by Pearson, Penguin and DK, which their pupils can read for free on the competition website. We've also put together a downloadable list of Recommended Reads from a variety of publishers, which teachers can encourage their pupils to look for at home and in their school or local library or bookshop. The list of titles can be downloaded from the website's Teachers Resources area
• entered into a prize draw to receive a substantial donation of books drawn from a pot of 100,000 titles that are being provided by Pearson, Penguin and DK. Details of how these books will be allocated are available here
• be invited to put forward two pupils for regional and national awards. The nomination process and the prizes on offer are explained here

Jeremy Strong, children's author and Read for My School Spokesperson: 

I'm really lucky that my work as a children's author takes me into schools up and down the country. And what always strikes me when I talk to children that read a lot is that they do so because it's fun. I wouldn't sell many books if children were only reading because it was useful or because they'd been told to by their teacher. Read for My School is a brilliant initiative because it's based on the idea that the more you enjoy reading - the more it inspires you, makes you guffaw, or cry, or exclaim, or scratch your head - the more you'll want to read.

Viv Bird, Chief Executive, Booktrust:

Over the years Booktrust's national schools programmes and resources have proved to be invaluable in helping pupils become enthusiastic and confident readers, so critical for their personal and educational development. With the launch of Read for My School, we have the chance to build on that success and really crack the challenge of helping all children to enjoy reading.

School Registration

All primary schools in England were able to register for free during the competition on the official Read for My School website. Registration for 2013 has now closed but information about Read for My School 2014 will be available shortly.