School Zone
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Winter Mini Challenge 2020
Visit The Reading Agency Shop to sign up for the FREE Winter Mini Challenge 2020 resources pack.
Download our quick guide on encouraging children to read for enjoyment here.
By encouraging your pupils to take part in the Winter Mini Challenge, your school can:
- Enhance and support its reading initiatives and involve parents and the wider community
- Celebrate the joy of reading whilst ensuring all children are able to read well by the age of 11
- Continue to support pupils’ learning during the holidays
- Help to prevent the trend for children’s reading skills to dip over the holidays
Here are some Winter Mini Challenge ideas to try
The theme for the Winter Mini Challenge 2020 is “Everyone Is A Hero”. It’s all about celebrating heroes from all kinds of different books and having fun reading this winter!
- Create a piece of class artwork to display on your wall or in the school library. Children can take inspiration from their favourite stories and characters, or real life heroes.
- Read an extract from your favourite book or poem to your class, or share a story time video. Visit our Reading Club for inspiration
- Share the Heroes book collection, featuring top stories chosen by our publisher partner Knights Of.
- Try out our Book Sorter in class to find even more book suggestions. Over a million books have been added by children using this website. Children can use the Book Sorter to receive reading recommendations and read book reviews.
- Share this website and the Home Zone with parents and carers and support those who might find it harder to take part or engage with library services.
- Celebrate the achievements of pupils who participate in the Challenge when they return to school in the new year.
- Find more news and our latest children’s reader development offers on our Facebook page
The Teachers’ Reading Challenge
Join your own challenge by signing up for the Teachers’ Reading Challenge, running from July 2021 – September 2021. Get rewards, resources and start conversations with other teachers as you discover brilliant children’s books this summer.
Resources and recommendations from the 2020 Challenge are still available for you to access too!
Chatterbooks
The Reading Agency also co-ordinates a national network of reading groups for children called Chatterbooks.
Find out more about the resources available for you to set up your own children’s reading group here.
Visit our Shop to order a Chatterbooks group leader toolkit and to see our latest reading group offers. You can also find hundreds of free resources including reading group guides and activity packs on our resources page.
If you would like more information about Chatterbooks please get in touch
Reading Well for children
Reading Well for children provides quality-assured information, stories and advice to support children’s mental health and wellbeing. Books have been chosen and recommended by leading health professionals and co-produced with children and families.
The booklist is targeted at children in Key Stage 2 (aged 7-11), but includes titles aimed at a wide range of reading levels to support less confident readers, and to encourage children to read together with their siblings and carers.
Find out more about the scheme and access supporting resources here.
Young Adult Reading Recommendations
If you’re a fan of YA lit or are looking for books to engage young people, check out our latest YA reading recommendations, all chosen by young adults.
See their suggestions on the Reading Hack blog.
OverDrive is the leading digital reading platform for libraries and schools worldwide. We deliver the industry’s largest catalogue of ebooks, audiobooks and other digital media to a growing network of 43,000 libraries and schools in 70 countries. Users access OverDrive library services via our award-winning app Libby. www.overdrive.com