I’m a part time primary teacher and I spend a couple of days a week working at Readathon, which is great because I’m able to put my knowledge of life in the classroom to good use! I know all too well how a teacher’s time is stretched by government and school demands, and having run Readathon myself in school I want to share my belief that Readathon can be a tool to support, not an additional task. Recent independent research shows that schools who run Readathon have higher attainment levels than those who don’t, with schools who run it year after year having the highest levels of attainment, so Readathon can inspire children to read for pleasure whilst helping teachers achieve results – how amazing is that?!

I’ve had some ideas about really practical ways in which Readathon can help get other jobs done for teachers too. So, see below how Readathon can help tick off your ‘to do’ list without adding to the workload!

Class or Whole School Assemblies

Need to run an assembly? Why not launch your Readathon in an assembly using the resources and DVD in your Readathon kit. One less thing to plan yourself! And you could have an assembly at the end to share how Readathon went with your class or school – how much was raised, who read/raised the most, which was the most popular book or author, any Readathon activities that happened, share photos, videos and children’s thoughts on doing the Readathon – we would love to hear about this too!

A Project for School Council

Let your School Council use the resource kit themselves to  run your Readathon; it could be a great opportunity for them to take responsibility for a whole school event and create a buzz about reading from a pupil’s point of view!

Guided Reading

Readathon could be one of your activities during the week’s guided reading tasks, with pupils using the time to read and record their Readathon progress. Discussions could also be had about what they have read and would recommend to others, or complete book reviews about their Readathon books.

Cross-Curricular Links

Can Readathon become the tool through which you teach your pupils about persuasive writing (Why you should run a Readathon), PSHE/Citizenship (Charity work, helping others etc) or data handling (tables and charts to show the number of books read, most popular book or author, predicted sponsorship/targets and actual money raised, calculating how much the school has earnt in book vouchers), for example.

Class Story

It can be hard to fit in but children really treasure that class story at the end of the day. They love being read to and just a ten minute slot, at any time during the day, can develop children’s language skills and vocabulary as well a love of stories. Listening to stories can count towards their Readathon too.

Literacy Initiatives

Readathon can work with other Literacy initiatives that may already be in school. Books read for Accelerated Reader, the Read Ahead Challenge and the Summer Reading Challenge, for example, could all count towards a Readathon – just add them to the sponsor card and hit two targets with one book!

If you’d like any more ideas or want to ask any questions about how Readathon works please do give us a call on 01453839005, and if you’ve got some ideas to add to this list please drop Jo a line – jo@readforgood.org

Lucy Robinson