Reading Connects

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Reading Connects
Reading Connects supports schools in building
whole-school reading communities.
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The power of reading for pleasure
finding ways to engage students in reading may
be one of the most effective ways to leverage
social change. Being more enthusiastic about
reading and a frequent reader was more of an
advantage, on its own, than having well-educated
parents in good jobs. Reading for Change,
OECD, 2002
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• The Reading Connects approach promotes.

• positioning reading for pleasure at the heart of
  the schools policy agenda
• involving all members of staff
• promoting a wide range of reading materials
• giving pupils a role in planning and delivering
  activity
• learning from and sharing good practice with the
  Reading Connects network

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• The Reading Connects website offers.

Practical tried-and-tested ideas Resources Resea
rch and statistics Networking opportunities
locally and nationally Inspiring case studies
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Advantages of signing up to Reading Connects

• National recognition - the right to call
  yourself a Reading Connects school with
  supporting certificate and logo
• A copy of the Reading Connects handbook and
  Family Involvement Toolkit, Enjoying Reading
  booklet and access to your own Reading Connects
  blog
• Networking opportunities facility to search LAs
  for Reading Connects organisations, Reading
  Connects activity and events

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The Reading Connects audit
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What schools say about the audit
The audit process was simple, easy to manage and
acknowledged what we were already doing. So many
awards are paper-chasing, time-consuming mechanism
s that can actually prevent a school from doing
what its meant to be doing not so Reading
Connects.
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• Building a whole-school reading community
  involves developing the following key areas

• Whole-staff involvement
• Family involvement
• Community links
• Visible reading promotions
• The school library as a hub
• Reading events and groups
• Embedding reading for pleasure across the
  curriculum
• Integrating reading for pleasure into transition
  units
• Provision for special interest groups

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Recognising family engagement with reading as a
priority

• Parents are a childs first educator and have the
  greatest influence on their childs educational
  development. This important fact is borne out by
  a wide range of research that can be summed up by
  the following conclusion
• Parental involvement in their childs reading
  has been found to be the most important
  determinant of language and emergent literacy.
• - Bus, van Jzendoorn and Pellegrini, 1995

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• NLT reading survey of over 8000 pupils
• Pupils felt that it was the responsibility of
  home and school to encourage them to read
• Almost half the pupils never or almost never
  talked about reading with their family.
• 25 of pupils never saw their father read

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The Reading Connects family involvement toolkit

• Supporting schools in reaching out to their
  pupils families and encouraging them to make
  their homes reading homes.

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• If we work together, our combined expertise and
  enthusiasm could make every home a reading home
  and every child a reader.