Top tips for creating a culture of reading for pleasure

Published on: 09 January 2025 Author: George Lewins

We're sharing top tips to help you build a reading for pleasure culture - both in the classroom and in your wider school community.

Our recent research highlighted the massive impact teachers have on children's reading habits. After their immediate family, teachers are often the most influential reading role models in children's lives; both in practical terms, including making recommendations and providing access to books, as well as in helping to develop pupils' perceptions and attitudes towards reading.

The wider school environment also contributes to this influence, and the latest Ofsted inspection handbook places a lot of emphasis on the development of a school-wide culture of reading for pleasure due to its proven impact on wider attainment and wellbeing.

Teachers' individual influences are valuable, but if settings can create a culture which fosters organic, intrinsic motivations to read, they can plant seeds which will continue to bear fruit throughout children's lives.

But how to go about creating this culture? Too much adult influence can discourage an active reading environment; too little and you risk stagnation.

Try to imagine this tricky balance using the analogy of a working environment. Unfortunately, for many children, school can feel like a place of work; a place where they have little control over their day-to-day.

Picture, for example, your boss telling you to embrace a culture of healthy eating (as a substitute for reading for pleasure). You might well feel annoyed and micromanaged by their suggestion: you already get your work done on time, lunch is a personal choice! If you were lectured about the benefits of healthy eating while your leadership ate junk food and sweets each day, you would (rightly) feel that their words were hollow. No matter how many times they encouraged, implored or demanded that you ate healthily, your fundamental attitudes towards eating behaviours would be undermined by the injustice of this hypocritical, top-down mandate.

Instead, imagine if your work environment began offering free healthy snacks, displayed appetisingly, with fruits and vegetables prepared in new and exciting ways. Imagine seeing your boss and all of the management team eat healthily and truly enjoy it; imagine hearing them speak eloquently about their eating habits and seeing the health benefits they described. If your place of work also began to facilitate the sharing of recipes, to celebrate healthy choices, and to offer support for those who were struggling with change, it would be far more likely that a culture of healthy eating would emerge.

This example demonstrates one of the fundamental challenges of creating a culture in a setting in that it is not just the target group that needs to embrace it, but everybody, especially those in positions of power. Every person in a given setting influences and is influenced by a reading culture.

It is not merely a policy that can be implemented and then left alone; rather, it is a living and reactive being, one that needs to be nurtured and encouraged to grow. Achieving a united, collaborative message and demonstrating shared benefits and values can yield amazing results that begin to generate independent momentum.

The following tips and ideas can be used to help provide ideas for encouraging a positive culture of reading for pleasure in educative settings.

In the classroom

One of the best ways teachers can use their influence to encourage reading for pleasure is to dedicate time and attention to it in the classroom. This may sound obvious, but the teacher's focused attention is one of the most valuable resources in a classroom, and it is in very high demand!

• Use dialogic talk with students to build shared knowledge and understanding of the books they have read. Aidan Chambers has an excellent book on the subject.
• Prioritise dedicated reading for pleasure times throughout the day and use it to read yourself! Try not to let it become a holding activity while you finish other tasks.
• Make sure your reading spine and core curriculum uses diverse, representative and high-quality contemporary books. Use our Great Books Guide for some suggestions.
• Spend time sharing your own reading habits and those of support staff. Be open and honest about likes and dislikes. Recognise that it is OK to be critical in a considered way.
• Read aloud throughout the day and across the curriculum. Use books as an entry point for the humanities or to introduce topics of debate in PSHE.
• Be responsive to the momentum of your class. If everybody is enjoying murder mysteries, create a dedicated section to them in your reading area, talk about them in class, and learn about their structure and features in English lessons.
• Play to pupils' strengths. Do not impose your own preferences on children; if they are obsessed with manga or fanatical about football, use their passion as a route into reading.
• Respond to the challenges of modern media. We cannot ignore the pull of digital media; in some cases, it is unrealistic to think that a 300-page novel will successfully replace the instant gratification of a games console or a short video on a social media platform, no matter its quality. Graphic novels, highly illustrated books, and short story anthologies are engaging formats that can compete with modern media and can motivate learners to read, whatever the next step of their reading journey may be.
• Aim to give autonomy to children in their book selection. While they may have a banded or teacher-assigned book to read for a specific reason, make sure that children also have the opportunity to browse and select a book they want to read for pleasure or information.
• Make reading areas child-led and functional. While displays and aesthetics are important, reading corners and areas should be primarily focused on the needs and interests of children. Have dedicated areas for books recommended by pupils, experiment with voting or ranking systems using colour coded stickers or tally charts to show which books are hot right now, and make sure that books can be readily accessed and browsed by genre.
• Share reading successes. Hearing from a friend who enjoyed a story may contribute to a positive culture far more than hearing the same feedback from adults. Be aware of the friendship dynamics in your class and make sure you share reading achievements and opinions from key children who may influence the culture of the group.
• Work collaboratively on decisions affecting reading. Rather than always being adult-led, try to consult your pupils as much as possible on the direction of reading in your class. This could include voting on the hometime story or deciding on the layout and structure of the reading area.
• For further tips in a handy one-page format, check out our ten top tips for teachers as reading role models here.

In the wider setting

Influences on reading come from a variety of sources, not just the class teacher. Children often have close friends, siblings and trusted adults they look up to who they may only see during break times or perhaps at a breakfast or after-school club. Similarly, the environment around the school can be influential on reading behaviours.

The following suggestions are tailored towards provision outside of the classroom which can promote a culture of reading for pleasure.

• Use assemblies to share reading trends and achievements with the wider school community. Keep track of popular books, celebrate pupils' achievements, or invite classes or individuals to share their recommendations or reviews.
• Ensure all adults in the setting are celebrated as reading role models. PE, music, drama or art teachers, and other staff including playground or lunch supervisors, the maintenance team, or reception staff can be invaluable role models for children – especially for those children who feel less confident in their own classroom.
  Harness these relationships by giving these members of staff opportunities to share their own reading habits. Invite them into class to read, allow children to go and interview them about their favourite books, or give these adults the resources they need to incorporate reading into their role during the working day.
  At a school I used to work in, a member of the office team used to read daily with a pupil from my class each morning after their "special job" of taking down my class's lunch choices. Missing 10 minutes from a morning lesson was more than made up for by the growing enthusiasm they developed for reading because of this relationship.
• Where possible, make regular use of the school library or local libraries. Timetabling opportunities for browsing and reading in different settings may provide additional motivations to read.
• Give opportunities for older pupils to read with younger classes. There is a dual benefit as older children feel proud to help the younger children and the younger pupils see positive role modelling from children they look up to.
• Make sure that reading environments and opportunities are present in continuous provision, including in the playgrounds of all key stages. Try to keep these areas well-stocked, inviting, peaceful, and safe; older children will often enjoy being given roles of responsibility to keep these areas running smoothly.
• Home engagement is hugely important. In your regular communications with families, include recommendations from different children each week to provide inspiration for book selections at home. Consider running after-school book clubs with families, inviting them to workshops in which shared reading is modelled, or letting families join the class at the end of the day to share in the magic of a hometime story read aloud by the teacher.
• Set up a staff book club to get adults into the habit of reading and books-based discussion.
• Try setting up a Comics club as described by Helen Jones here.
• Create a buzz with games, competitions and incentives. There are loads of fun activities that you could try:
  • The Masked Reader: share a video of a member of staff reading in an assembly each week and let pupils guess who it could be.
  • Create a communal reading display in the main hall or in reception which children can add a sticker to whenever they finish a book. You could also give different colours to assess which genres are most popular.
  • Invest in a "book vending machine" which contains new books; give out golden tokens for effort or interest (not attainment) in reading.
  • If appropriate for the children involved, try to harness their competitive spirit by competing in a readathon against other classes.
  • Invite a book fair into school to give children and families an exciting opportunity to purchase discounted books while raising money for the school.
  • If possible, use the tannoy or announcement system to signal a "stop, drop and read" moment at moments during the week.
  • Incorporate dress up days and role-play opportunities into reading planning.
  • Start a book recommendation delivery service. Give children the opportunity to choose a book from school or from home, wrap it up, and provide a card with a brief synopsis attached. These can then be addressed and delivered to individuals around the school. My former deputy head used to wheel a trolley around every Friday afternoon handing out addressed book recommendations and it quickly became very popular!
• Invite external readers, storytellers, authors and other guests into school as often as possible to inspire your learners.
• Plan events and trips with the school community including families which celebrate reading; this might include a campfire story evening, a pyjama dress-up bedtime story, a reading picnic, or a visit to a dramatised performance of a favourite book.

While this list is not exhaustive, it should provide some ideas for how to get started with the formation of a culture of reading for pleasure.

Remember that reading and enjoying great books with children underpins all the above advice, and that sharing the joy of reading with children is a gift which will keep on giving throughout their lives.

Happy reading!

This article has been written by George Lewins, a former primary school teacher and literacy coordinator who now works in the Books team at BookTrust.