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interviews was that the teachers were making assumptions about pupils’ reading habits
and how they promoted reading for pleasure across the school. One teacher stated:
“0ur children read a lot anyway...so do we”. However from initial data analysis, it
transpired that although pupils indicated positively to question 26 about their teacher
liking reading, evaluative comments from the pupils indicated that they did not often
see their teachers reading books in the context of the school day. The 2 key
interviewees were surprised with this finding and it became one of the key priorities
that fed into their reading promotion action plan.
Impact upon visibility of reading
There was an improvement in the variety of
reading materials that children engaged with
as indicated in question 4 and an increase in
the number of texts that pupils used online in
their classrooms. The increased variety of
books and different authors named following
implementation may suggest that pupils are
being exposed to a greater variety of books
and authors through successful activities
such as teachers’ reading boards, author of
the term initiatives and class discussions whereby teachers and pupils make
recommendations to each other; one interviewee felt that a system of pupils
recommending books on post it notes and displaying these within the class library was
successful in increasing awareness of the variety of books and she explained how some
of the children in her class had read a book that they may not normally have chosen
based on these recommendations. There was a significant increase in the response to
question 41, with nine more pupils indicating that they discuss what they have read in
class with their teachers and peers. This seems to suggest that the heightened visibility
of reading throughout the school has promoted and encouraged more conversations
around books. One interviewee felt that ‘children were more aware of books’. There
were increases in questions 13, 14 and 15 which suggest that children feel more
confident reading and enjoy reading both at home and school.
