Gold Student Teacher RfP Award Winners announced

We are delighted to announce this year’s Student Teacher RfP Award Winners. Developing Reading Teachers through teacher training is key to building the next generation of enhanced professionals. All the winners this year showed great promise and the Gold winner was Sophie Campbell for her Example of Practice on Empowering Pupils at Netherburn Primary School, South Lanarkshire. See it here. Sophie’s ambitious aims were well-considered and brilliantly executed. Congratulations to all the award winners and their university tutors who supported their journeys as pedagogues and readers. Prizes are on the way!

2022 SLA Information Book Awards Winners

November saw the School Library Association crown the winners of the 2022 Information Book Awards with the brilliant Black Artists Shaping the World by Sharna Jackson and Dr Zoe Whitley named as overall winner in both the 13-16 category and the teenagers choice award. Read more about this outstanding selection of winning books on our website.

Read Aloud for RfP poster – New resource now available

The OU RfP Team is continually adding new resources to the website to support RfP pedagogy and practice, including our new Read Aloud for RfP poster. This could prompt useful discussion at your next staff meeting, encourage reflection on your practice and be shared with parents.

Reading Agency Winter Mini Challenge

The Reading Agency’s Winter Mini Reading Challenge is running from 1 December through 20 February 2023. This is a great way to encourage reading at home over the winter break. Sign up using your chosen device, set your reading goal and add your chosen reads to your profile. It’s that simple!

Would you value reading volunteers in your school?

If you could benefit from reading support volunteers, but you’re not sure how to find them, then check out this offer from Coram Beanstalk!. They will find trained helpers in your area and place them at your school until July 2023 for no charge, beyond the cost of a book pack. What a chance to secure more support for your young readers!

Last call for the SPARK! Book Awards early-bird discount!

The SPARK! Book Awards is now run in partnership with the Open University, and we’d love more of you to join us this year. This is an inclusive award open to all schools across the country, and a great way to get learners engaged in choosing winners of a prestigious national book award! Use the early bird discount code (OU2022) by 16 December 2022

Author in the Spotlight: Ross Montgomery

Ross Montgomery published his first book, Alex, the Dog & the Unopenable Door (2013) nearly a decade ago when he was working as a primary school teacher. Since then, he has been very busy creating picture books – see what inspires his love of reading and writing in our December author spotlight.

December Top Texts

Ready to curl up with some festive fiction this Christmas? The wonderful Mel Taylor Bessent - author of The Christmas Carrolls - has chosen some fabulous festive texts for us all to read this December. Check out her brilliant selection, along with other recommendations, on our Top Texts page.

The  schools participating in our OU Reading Schools Programme: Building a Culture of Reading are nearing the end of our first term of joint exploration into RfP knowledge and pedagogy. English leads have carefully analysed their baseline pupil and teacher surveys and planned for action. The OU RfP team have been working with headteachers and subject leaders in the run up to Christmas so that their action plans are finalised ready for implementation in the New Year. Stay tuned for more news next month as schools begin to track the impact of this work.

CPD for TRG Leaders January 11th 4-5.30

We are looking forward to welcoming our TRG leaders to our spring CPD event – Authors in the Spotlight. We will be meeting authors, and discussing the term’s focus for TRG meetings – RfP pedagogy. TRG leaders keep an eye out for the email invitation which will be landing in your inbox in early January.

Flying High English Hub,Nuttall TRG - Update from Curtis Jordan

We have a great group who are incredibly enthusiastic and driven towards changing children's lives through reading for pleasure. Our first book blether focused on 'Graphic Novels' prompted fabulous book talk. We enjoyed sharing our top picks and taking away new recommendations and are working on our development plans back in school.

Bringing home, and school together at The Mortimer Reading Café!

Our second-placed Gold-star Student Teacher Award winner is an example of practice from Louise Nesbitt and Kayleigh Reid, and the development of their fabulous reading café. Preparations to launch the Mortimer Reading Cafe included an understanding of children’s reading preferences, further enriching RfP knowledge and involving parents and the wider school community.

Online Bedtime Stories

2020 Egmont RfP Award winner Nigel Lungenmess-Ward wanted to raise the profile of reading St Margaret’s Primary Academy in Lowestoft, Suffolk. To do so, he decided to use Facebook Live as a medium for streaming live read alouds on Friday evenings for children and families. Nigel says that the biggest impact was ‘the buzz around school’ as children ‘were talking about their reading more.’

Absorbed in stories

This month’s research feature by Anežka Kuzmicová  from Prague explores children’s perspectives on being absorbed when reading fiction. This fascinating journey into ‘getting lost in a book’ offers enormous insight into the mind of the child reader and is a great research piece to share with your colleagues.