In this training, Christine Counsell examines the gap (in many school settings) between reality and aspiration in reading for pleasure. Very often, despite explicit policy intentions and despite stated provision and all manner of programmes, pupils are still not reading many, diverse, high-quality novels, eagerly and independently by the end of Year 9. This has serious consequences for what pupils can subsequently access both within literature and much more widely in education.
Christine identifies what goes wrong, examining the ‘why’ (why reading high quality novels, independently, matters so much), the ‘what’ (what kinds of novels are ideal for fostering reading for pleasure) and the ‘how’ (what do we know from research, experience and literature itself about how to get all pupils reading novels for themselves, independently and enthusiastically).
You can watch the video or read the summary and key takeaways. Share with your teams for some encouragement and actionable next steps in your classrooms.
