Here at Edward Bryant School we have run Readathons a number of times and they are always great fun!

The main reason I first chose to run Readathon was to promote reading for pleasure across the school and to encourage children to read at home more. Raising money for charity was an added bonus. We ran Readathon over two weeks and the enthusiasm for reading was clear for all to see. Readathon helped to establish good home reading habits which have been maintained since AND there is definitely more of a buzz about reading through the whole school. Some of our newer members of staff said it helped them to establish a regular reading time in class and to encourage otherwise reticent readers to grab a book. 

Since our first Readathon, I cannot walk down a single corridor without being stopped by children who want to tell me what they are reading. Reading has become firmly established at the heart of our school. 

When I wanted to hold another Readathon, I decided to give it a new focus as we have already established such good reading routines both at school and at home. We launched our Sponsored Poetry Readathon earlier in 2020 to try to promote a love of poetry, something which doesn’t always get the attention it should. 

We challenged all of our children from Reception to Year 6 to read, write, watch or perform a poem at home every day for a week and to get sponsored for doing so. Alongside this we spent the week in school celebrating, sharing and enjoying poetry. 

When you hold Readathon you really do get out as much as you put in. For the Poetry Readathon we gave it a big launch by asking the poet AF Harrold to record a video announcing the start of the challenge and through Twitter we were able to contact other poets who set challenges or offered encouragement. 

I also offered small prizes like bookmarks and postcards throughout the week to any children who were showing enthusiasm for poetry. I was really overcome by the number of children who were writing poems at home and wanted to share them at school. I believe the Poetry Readathon really has changed the children’s attitudes to poetry. 

Raising money for books and storytellers in hospitals is itself a great motivator and we are very proud to have raised thousands of pounds for Read For Good so far and are looking forward to many more Readathons in the future!

Read For Good make it so easy to run a sponsored read and provide good quality resources like sponsor cards, bookmarks and stickers. I look forward to working with them again very soon.    

Phil Tite

Teacher, Edward Bryant School