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First Minister’s Reading Challenge 2018 Opens
The First Minister’s Reading Challenge, which encourages literacy and a love of reading in young people, opens for registrations online today. The scheme is run by Scottish Book Trust and funded by the Scottish Government.
More than three-quarters of all local authority primary schools in Scotland signed up to the First Minister’s Reading Challenge in school year 2016-17, the year it was introduced, when it was open to all P4-P7 pupils.
Following this success, this year it has been expanded to include all primary school ages and, in addition, will be piloted with S1-S3 pupils in six schools across Scotland.
In the Challenge’s first year, schools ordered Reading Passports that pupils used to log their reading journeys, brought authors to their classrooms through fully-funded visits, registered their classes to take part in challenges, and made use of book suggestions, learning resources and ideas to encourage young people to develop a love of reading.
Prizes for the most impressive and innovative submissions were awarded by the First Minister at a celebration event in Edinburgh in June.
The First Minister’s Reading Challenge aims to build on the work already taking place in schools across the country to encourage children to read widely, explore a range of books and develop a love of reading. The focus of the Challenge is to boost reading for pleasure and support schools, libraries and communities to build reading cultures.
Marc Lambert, CEO at Scottish Book Trust, said: “The response from schools and pupils to the first year of the Reading Challenge was fantastic and, with the expanded ages it is now open to, we are looking forward to even more children from across Scotland getting involved.
“Reading is a key life skill and so reading for pleasure needs to be encouraged whenever possible, particularly among schoolchildren who can have a lot of competing demands for their time. Locking in a love of reading at this age is very important so that all young people have the best chance of fulfilling their potential.”
Teachers can find out more and sign up for the First Minister’s Reading Challenge here: https://www.readingchallenge.scot/