The Open University and the UK Literary Association work together to research the significance of teachers being readers, and ways to build active, excited communities of young readers. As well as reward amazing teachers, both organisations are keen to profile and develop research in this area.

The winners of The Farshore Reading for Pleasure Teacher Award 2021, in association with the OU and UKLA have just been announced.

Entrants were asked to submit a research-informed case study on how they have encouraged children to read for pleasure including details of context, research inspiration and rationale, aims, outline, evidence of impact and reflection. 

The award, which launched in 2017 serves to show the determination and passion of teachers to get kids reading, but the teachers who entered the 2021 awards showed inventiveness on a never-seen-before scale as they tackled multiple lockdowns.

Now in its fourth year there are four award categories:

Early Career Teacher

Experienced Teacher

Whole School Award

Community Reading Champion

The winner of each category received Farshore books to the value of £250 for their school, and there were 20 copies of Help Your Child Love Reading by Alison David to be won.

Congratulations to all of the winners:

Early Career Teacher category: Phoebe Lawton of The Wilmslow Academy, Cheshire.

Experienced Teacher category: Georgie Lax of Starcross Primary School, Devon.

The experienced teacher category also saw two highly commended entries from Mary Jenkinson of St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, South Yorkshire and Cathie Whiting, Deb Johnson and Sharon Ealing of Coleshill Heath School, Birmingham.

Whole School category: Joint winners, Jon Biddle of Moorlands C of E Primary Academy, Great Yarmouth and Laura Atkinson of Lapal Primary School, West Midlands.

Craig Clarke of Lea Forest Primary Academy, Birmingham was highly commended in the Whole School Award category.

Community Reading Champion category: Joint winners, Jenny Holder of Liverpool Learning Partnership (Liverpool) and Jill Queen of Netherburn Primary School, South Lanarkshire.

As schools reopened, teachers used reading as a comforting way to welcome children back to the classroom and bring the school community together again.

Mary Jenkinson of St Joseph’s, South Yorkshire invited families for socially distanced after-school tea parties with story times

On the first week back at school Phoebe Lawton of The Wilmslow Academy, Cheshire picked one book for a whole school project, to bring the children back together as readers.

Teachers also got inventive throughout school closures to get parents reading too.

Jon Biddle of Moorlands Primary Academy, Great Yarmouth opened the school library twice a week during lockdown, creating a ‘Parents Book Box’ for parents to borrow books for themselves too and become reading role models for their children.

Jill Queen of Netherburn Primary, South Lanarkshire launched a community lending library to encourage the parents, carers and people of Netherburn to read more, following a survey revealing that very few children saw their parents reading at home.

Alison David, consumer insight director at Farshore, said: "Teachers play such an important part in getting children to read for pleasure. They have a difficult task, which is to both teach children to read and to motivate them to read for pleasure. Many parents don’t read to their children at home very often, if at all.

In 2012, an average of 41% of 0-13s were read to daily/ nearly every day, and in 2020 31% . As a result, children often don’t appreciate that reading can be so pleasurable for them.

The work these teachers have done is truly inspirational, both engaging with parents and treading the line so well between teaching the skill to read and helping children find the will to read."

Lockdowns have also seen teachers take innovative approaches to classroom story time, with many of the winning teachers incorporating story times over digital platforms as part of their reading for pleasure.

Phoebe Lawton of The Wilmslow Academy, Cheshire introduced a series of ‘Who’s Reading?’ videos where a staff member would read a story each week and families could watch together at home, and ‘Read Aloud Time’ where children heard a story being read aloud each day and could vote on the book they’d like to hear.

Once schools reopened, Deb Johnson, Cathie Whiting and Sharon Ealing of Coleshill Heath School launched a reading role models initiative where older children in Year 4 volunteered to read to children in Nursery. It built the Year 4 children’s confidence in reading aloud and their love for reading has inspired the Nursery children to become readers themselves. At the end of the project, the Year 4 children received a letter from Nursery giving them feedback, which they loved receiving. Callum (Year 4) said: "Mum, look at my letter. Nursery thought we were really good."

Being read to has been proven to be one of the most powerful ways to inspire reading for pleasure. For 8-13s, if they are read to daily or nearly every day they are twice as likely to read independently for pleasure than if they are read to just weekly.

Teresa Cremin, Professor of Education (Literacy) at The Open University, said "These awards showcase the brilliant work that teachers are doing to build the habit of reading in childhood. The vibrant reading communities built within and beyond their schools help children sustain this important habit which, as the government’s Reading Framework (DfE, 2021) highlights, makes a real impact on their learning."

The awards were launched following extensive research into reading for pleasure by Farshore, the OU and UKLA.

Studies suggest teachers have limited awareness of children’s literature beyond the tried and tested classics and lack a coherent reading for pleasure teaching strategy. Curriculum pressures and an emphasis on testing detracts from their abilities to dedicate time and space for this which in turn this has a direct knock-on effect on children’s development as readers.

"By recognising and celebrating teachers who are currently putting reading for pleasure at the heart of their classrooms, it is hoped the award will serve to inspire others to use similar practices in the future."