Two girls laughing while looking at books in their school librarySupporting reluctant readers at Key Stage 3 webinar

Watch our webinar from Tuesday 3 December where we explored ways that your school can support reading at Key Stage 3.

Hosted by BookTrust and joined by practitioners and a Spark Reading author, the webinar looked at why reading and reading enjoyment has such an impact on students' future success, summarising the latest research and looking at strategies you can implement in your school to engage reluctant readers at Key Stage 3.

School librarian Bridget Hamlet and BookTrust's Emma Zipfel discussed ways to create a reading culture at Key Stage 3, sharing tips and advice - and we talked to author Nathanael Lessore on how he creates compelling stories to engage young readers. We also gave an overview of BookTrust's Spark Reading KS3 shared reading programme.

Find out more about Spark Reading

About the panellists

Bridget Hamlet

Bridget Hamlet

Bridget Hamlet is the School Librarian & Learning Resources Development Manager at Rushey Mead Academy in Leicester.

The SLA's Secondary School Librarian of the Year in 2023, Bridget has had a huge impact on the library at Rushey Mead, and in other libraries across the Academy Trust.

 

Nathanael LessoreNathanael Lessore

Nathanael Lessore was born in Camberwell, South East London, as one of eight children to French and Madagascan parents. His debut book Steady For This was shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing 2024, and won the Branford Boase Award 2024 and Diverse Book Awards.

He is the author of King of Nothing (included in the Spark Reading programme) and writes stories that show his South East London childhood as the funny, warm, adventurous world that wasn't always represented as such.

 

Emma ZipfelEmma Zipfel

Emma Zipfel taught English in London secondary schools for over twenty years where she held various roles including leading Literacy and Reading for Pleasure.

She is passionate about the importance of reading and seeing the diversity of our world represented in books for young people. She has recently joined BookTrust and is part of the Spark Reading team.