“Great books help you understand, and they help you feel understood.” John Green

Did you know that, as well as raising literacy, reading for pleasure improves young people’s well-being, empathy and social skills? World Book Day affords an opportunity for the English Department to promote reading for pleasure and improve young peoples’ life skills. This year, we conducted a whole school Reading Survey, led by Mr O’Dowd, with the aim of ascertaining students’ reading habits and preferences and developing new strategies to engage young people with reading. On World Book Day, we promoted reading with a ‘Catch your teacher reading’ and teacher ‘Shelfie’ competition.

Students of in all Year groups competed in the ‘Catch your teacher reading’ competition. In teams, they hunted down thirty teachers who were hidden in classrooms and outdoor areas around the school. The team who found the most teachers won. The ‘Shelfie’ competition involved students working in teams to guess the teacher by the books on their shelves. Both activities served to promote literature and the love of reading for pleasure.