Running a book club: how to have huge fun with books, develop a reading culture, and raise standards

Published on: 07 December 2023

We at BookTrust know the value of a school having a culture of reading for pleasure, and that a book club can stimulate engagement with books.

The recent DfE Reading Framework suggests a book club as one way that schools can encourage reading for pleasure. We asked teacher Jon Ringer for his top tips on running a successful book club.

Photo courtesy of Still Moving Media

I have been running a book club at Sheepscombe Primary School near Stroud for eight years. The Mad Hatters Cake Eating Book Club has transformed reading in my setting. It has resulted in a vibrant, dynamic reading culture in our school, placing Reading for Pleasure front and centre.

The club came about as the result of my involvement in the Reading Teachers = Reading Pupils scheme and many of the ideas listed below have their source in the vision of this project and through nearly a decade of professional dialogue with colleagues who make up the Stroud RT=RP book group.

There are many ways to set up and run a book club but below I describe some of the tried and tested principles that have worked for me.