Embracing the First Minister’s Reading Challenge
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The First Minister's Reading Challenge (FMRC) aims to promote reading for pleasure in schools, libraries, and communities in Scotland. It is open to students in primary grades P4-7 and now also includes a secondary school pilot program. The document discusses several successful initiatives undertaken by Renfrew High School to engage students in reading through their school library as part of the FMRC secondary school pilot program. These initiatives included special events for Book Week Scotland, a gift book project, author visits, and a graphic novel project to promote the school's history. Evaluations found that the initiatives helped create a reading for pleasure culture and increased student engagement with the school library.
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Embracing the First Minister’s Reading Challenge
- 2. • Create and embed a reading culture. • Build partnerships with schools, libraries and communities to deepen engagement with reading. • Celebrate pupils’ individual reading journeys. What is the First Minister’s Reading Challenge?
- 3. - FMRC open to P4-7 - Partnership challenge - FMRC extended to P1-7 - Secondary School pilot - FMRC extended to libraries and community groups - September 2018 FMRC launch - June 2019 Celebration Event
- 4. “The librarians were fantastic, not only did they organise story telling sessions for each class, they also set up membership for over 400 pupils. One of the P1s was overheard telling another, ‘Did you know I am getting to take this book home? For free!’ I did not want this initial excitement to decline and so I encouraged the pupils to use the library in their own time. My hopes came true, when returning our books after the October holidays, our librarian said that she had seen many of our pupils in over the holidays. Library usage was up 83% in October 2017 compared to October 2016, with 1126 more visits. Even more satisfying was the increase in loans on children’s books. Borrowing in children’s fiction had increased by 137% on the year before, and by 79% in non-fiction. This was concrete evidence that changes in our practice in school was having positive effect in the community.”
- 5. “We have been working very closely this year with Midlothian Library Services and after sharing our idea with them, they were keen to get involved and offered to supply the books required for the project. We spent the afternoon travelling around the community being ‘Book Fairies’ - we hid the books and were thrilled at the reception we received! Over the next few weeks more and more people, both children and adults, shared where they found their books. Local businesses have commented on the excitement they've witnessed and there has been a real buzz among the children and families!”
- 7. Building a Reading for Pleasure Culture Renfrew High School 2017-18
- 8. Renfrew High’s participation with FMRC secondary school pilot programme has sought to engage, enthuse and stimulate pupils’ interest, usage and positive perception of the school library and resources – as an inspiring, interactive, open and welcoming environment.
- 9. To stimulate and increase pupils usage and involvement of the school library and resources – and running parallel with FMRC aims and objectives – a proposed plan was drawn up comprised of 4 key stages; To create a teen oriented library space and resource that is focused on providing a welcoming, collaborative and engaging environment. To implement and provide the resources necessary to promoting and enhancing a Reading for Pleasure culture. To promote wider community engagement of school library activities - across the school and beyond. To provide methods of evaluation that measures the impact of FMRC secondary school pilot project at Renfrew High.
- 10. National Poetry Day was the first event of the new school year to introduce and welcome the new intake of S1 pupils to the library – and the topic of ‘Freedom’.
- 11. The Travelling Gallery’s autumn visit to Renfrew High consisted of a specially curated art exhibition crafted by the Glasgow’s Women’s Library artist-in-residence, Lauren Printy Currie – and focused on inspiring pupils’ understanding and perception of art, libraries and culture.
- 12. ‘Nourish’ was the theme for Book Week Scotland 2017 – we focused on health and wellbeing. Tapping into this topic, school library activities highlighted the nourishing capabilities and capacity of the library to help pupils – as a place of social inclusivity and belonging.
- 13. The success of Book Week Scotland 2017 and the Reading for Pleasure culture evident at Renfrew High prompted BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland to broadcast a feature in school on Scottish teenage reading habits.
- 14. One of the major projects during Renfrew High School’s involvement in FMRC, was the Gift of Reading – a book gifting project during the month of Advent.
- 16. Renfrew High’s very own Patron of Reading, Martin Stewart, author of Riverkeep and The Sacrifice Box, has actively been involved in events across the school community.
- 17. In February, class 1F2 celebrated world renowned painting, The Monarch of the Glen, residing at Paisley Museum, by producing their own bespoke poetry and verse dedicated to this most iconic of Scottish images.
- 19. Award winning script and screen writer, Adrian Mead visited the school in March to discuss and share the workings of scripting and story-boarding across books, film and TV.
- 21. The culmination of Renfrew High’s FMRC project – Magic Torch Comics have hosted a series of in-school workshops to help pupils create and publish their very own graphic novel, focused on the rich history and heritage of Renfrew.
- 22. Working in collaboration with the project, West College Scotland have added their expertise and provided the material and technical resources to help pupils bring their stories to life through animation and digital technologies.
- 25. Please do get in touch with us via phone, email or Twitter: ReadingChallenge@scottishbooktrust.com 0131 5240160 @FMReadChallenge www.readingchallenge.scot Any questions?
Editor's Notes
- Want to look at both the large scale of schools and their wider communities and the smaller scale reading experiences of classes and individual pupils. This challenge is bringing reading for pleasure to the forefront by providing a platform to share best practice. It is saying that encouraging our young people to read is just one of the most important things we can do - I used to say to my class, you can borrow a book but keep the ideas. We want children to read to explore new worlds, take them places they’ve never been, encourage them to question their own, improve them, make them better and different - (Neil Gaiman)
- We started with a focus on P4-7 and then this year expanded to include P1-3 – there was a specific challenge to encourage schools to build partnerships with libraries and we’ve seen some really brilliant work this year but entries had to be submitted in partnership with a particular school. For next year, we will be opening up the Challenge secondary schools, libraries and community groups. This will be called the ‘Reading Inspiration’ challenge. This challenge will be flexible and inclusive, and open to groups of any size and make-up within a secondary school, which may include: Whole schools Whole year groups Single classes Groups convened by the school library or other reading leaders in school This will be called the ‘Library Reading Culture’ challenge. This challenge will flexible and inclusive, and open to groups of any size and make-up that convene within a library. Libraries will not have to detail the groups they are working with when they register to participate in FMRC, as this will likely develop over the year. However, when they submit an entry for the challenge we will ask that they detail the type and make-up of the group involved in the work detailed in their entry. The challenge should be specifically for work with children and young people aged 4–18, in line with the age groups of children who are able to take part through schools.
- I thought I’d share with you a few examples of how much schools have appreciated working with their local libraries as part of FMRC this year so here is an example of Ballumbie primary who were just delighted at the difference working together had made within their community.
- This is a lovely initiative in Midlothian where Newtongrange Primary worked with their library to become book fairies! The pupils hid books inside various shops, cafes and businesses, in the park, at community landmarks and throughout the school grounds – the idea being that whoever found a book could read it and then hide it again somewhere else.
- Six secondary schools across Scotland have been taking part in a pilot project this session. Scottish Book Trust selected the schools to represent a range of contexts and circumstances. The fact that schools have made reading for pleasure a priority in their schools’ through FMRC and shown how it fits in with whole school objectives has had a huge impact. All six schools have been making fantastic progress with their projects and it has provided a platform for schools to share ideas and get creative in terms of building their reading cultures. Bannockburn High have partnered with their library and local care home to undertake a Reading friends project – this was taken from the launch in their library. Pupil voice and exploring different ways to share reading recommendations – this school also had the idea to hold a book bistro as part of their library where pupils received special passes to relax in the bistro a lovely space they built with fairy lights, cushions etc. where they had the chance to read for a period and were served hot chocolate and cakes by the teachers. Instead of me talking too much, I’ll hand over to Robin to talk about the brilliant things he’s done in his school library over the course of the pilot.
- The importance of Reading for Pleasure is firmly established at Renfrew High School – with all S1 and S2 classes having a time-tabled library/reading period every week throughout the school year. Renfrew High’s participation with FMRC secondary school pilot programme has sought to engage, enthuse and stimulate pupils’ interest, usage and positive perception of the school library and resources – as an inspiring, interactive, open and welcoming environment – to instil and forward a Reading for Pleasure culture across both the school and wider Renfrew community. Running parallel with FMRC pilot aims and objectives, there is a strong focus on literacy in Renfrewshire with Reading for Pleasure being a key priority. Renfrewshire is an attainment challenge authority and there is a school libraries attainment team working closely with the core school library service. The school libraries come under the Attainment Challenge, Learning and Teaching: Literacy Workstream. As part of this Michelle Kane, one of the peripatetic attainment librarians, has been working closely with myself and Renfrew High to run targeted evidence based programmes with one aim being increasing positive reading attitudes.
- To stimulate and increase pupils usage and involvement of the school library and resources – and running parallel with FMRC aims and objectives – a proposed plan was drawn up comprised of 4 key stages; To create a teen oriented library space and resource that is focused on providing a welcoming, collaborative and engaging environment To implement and provide the resources necessary to promoting and enhancing a Reading for Pleasure culture. To promote wider community engagement of school library activities – across the school and beyond. To provide methods of evaluation that measures the impact of FMRC secondary school pilot project at Renfrew High.
- Consequently, throughout the school year, a calendar of events and activities has taken place in the school library – that has sought to encapsulate the aims and vision of FMRC… And to ensure the school library is a cross-curricular and community oriented hub – that promotes the library as an inclusive, welcoming and vibrant environment. National Poetry Day was the first event of the new school year to introduce and welcome the new intake of S1 pupils to the library – and the topic of ‘Freedom’. The ‘Freedom’ for pupils to explore, define and create their own poetic verse on the topical subject provided a welcoming and apt entry point for the S1 pupils introduction to the school library.
- The Travelling Gallery’s autumn visit to Renfrew High consisted of a specially curated art exhibition crafted by the Glasgow Women’s Library artist-in-residence, Lauren Printy Currie – and focused on inspiring pupils understanding and perception of art, libraries and culture.
- ‘Nourish’ was the theme for Book Week Scotland 2017 – focused on health and wellbeing. Tapping into this topic, school library activities highlighted the nourishing capabilities and capacity of the library to help pupils – as a place of social inclusivity and belonging. To increase awareness of the school library and the subject of ‘Nourish’, a number of activities took place across the school – including a visit by author of Hieroglyphics and Other Stories, Anne Donovan… a lunchtime Yoga workshop in partnership with P.E department… and a visit by Lush Cosmetics for a bath-bomb making workshop proved a relaxingly colourful and popular event.
- The success of Book Week Scotland 2017 and the Reading for Pleasure culture evident at Renfrew High prompted BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland to broadcast a feature in school on Scottish teenage reading habits.
- One of the major projects during Renfrew High’s involvement of FMRC, was the Gift of Reading – a book gifting project during the month of Advent. A pupil led book buying trip to the local Waterstones bookstore ensured all gifted reads were chosen by pupil peers. The Gift of Reading provided a platform to raise awareness the school library – and the Reading for Pleasure culture evident – that chimed nicely with the Christmas countdown.
- The success of the project caught the attention of local media – with coverage across Renfrewshire.
- Renfrew High’s very own Patron of Reading, Martin Stewart, author of Riverkeep and The Sacrifice Box, has actively been involved in events across the school community. Highlights over the past year included Martin giving an inspiring talk to all S1 pupils, and being a special guest (alongside baby daughter) at the first book club café, hosted by the school library and the local Waterstones bookstore to discuss his latest novel.
- In February, class 1F2 celebrated world renowned painting, The Monarch of the Glen, residing at Paisley Museum, by producing their own bespoke poetry and verse dedicated to this most iconic of Scottish images.
- Three pupils from the class were on hand to recite their expressive and inspiring verse - bringing the painting to life.
- Award winning script and screen writer, Adrian Mead visited the school in March to discuss and share the workings of scripting and story-boarding across books, film and TV. A number of budding school writers have since been invited to go on work experience at Adrian’s latest on-location screen shoot in Glasgow.
- Throughout the school year, a number of S1 and S6 pupils have collaborated on paired reading schemes to improve reading confidence. As the year progressed – a selection of S1 paired readers have gone on to expand their reading journey, and provide paired reading sessions to primary one pupils across Renfrew’s cluster primary schools. The school library has also been working closely with Renfrew High’s primary school transition teacher – to help bridge P7’s journey into secondary school. A library doors open day is planned to welcome the school’s new cohort to their secondary school library.
- The culmination of Renfrew High’s FMRC project – Magic Torch Comics have hosted a series of in-school workshops to help pupils create and publish their very own graphic novel, focused on the rich history and heritage of Renfrew. Running parallel with the FMRC aims and objectives – this project has sought to stimulate pupils’ enthusiasm and engagement towards Reading for Pleasure – combined with developing increased literacy skills, including creative writing, research and illustrative skills. Moreover, the project has provided a spring-board to extend the school library’s outreach across cross-curricular subjects, and welcome a wide array of resources and talent coming together in a library hub.
- Working in collaboration with the project, West College Scotland have added their expertise and provided the material and technical resources to help pupils’ bring their stories to life through animation and digital technologies. Consequently, each pupil will receive an accredited qualification from West College to add to their school record of achievement. Further to the project’s aims – to illustrate and promote the pupils’ work and unique take on Renfrew’s heritage and increase awareness across the wider community – a public launch date of the published novel is scheduled for late June at Renfrew Town Hall. Pupils, friends, families, school staff and the project’s working partners have all been invited to attend this launch event and celebrate Renfrew High’s Reading for Pleasure culture and participation with FMRC. We are planning to produce large-scale displays of the novel to travel around key locations in the community as well as providing local businesses with copies of it. The group involved will form our new graphic novel club and we are hoping to link this with transition encouraging the new S1s to use the library and engage with our graphic novel collection.
- Moving forward and onto next year’s national roll-out of FMRC – we are looking forward to building upon the success and participation with such an inspiring project – as a basis to increase awareness and engagement of a Reading for Pleasure culture across schools and communities. In particular, we are looking forward to maintaining and growing the partnerships that have developed across the year – including Renfrewshire Arts and Museums, public libraries, Waterstones, Scottish Book Trust and West College. All have sought to promote and effect the school library as an event-full, welcoming and inspiring cross-curricular community hub.
- We have thoroughly enjoyed being part of FMRC secondary school pilot programme – and are looking forward to putting together our case study to inspire others and act as a useful resource. Our school’s participation with FMRC and promoting a Reading for Pleasure culture – has propelled the school library to top of mind, as a go-to vibrant and welcoming hub, at the forefront of the school community.