Five easy ways to get started with Rooted in Reading

Uprooted by Su Blackwell, currently on show at the National Centre for Craft and Design in Sleaford.

Reading can have a transformational impact on young people and this is captured very dramatically by Su Blackwell's piece shown here. In this short blog I will explain some of the quick, easy and cheap ways in which your school can get started on using Rooted in Reading to boost reading for pleasure.

1. The original green passport. This can be used by pupils from Year 5 to Year 8, so would be ideal for either primary or secondary school. Simple prompts, easy to complete and soon develops a feeling of success as the entries mount up. All you need is one passport per pupil (40p each if bought in packs of 100) and a Rooted in Reading rubber stamp (£7) to endorse the pupils' entries.

2. Show the relevant Rooted in Reading film at a department or staff meeting. They are only about 6 minutes long and include the project's patron, Morris Gleitzman and Michael Rosen. Then show them in an assembly to introduce the project to your pupils. The links to the primary and secondary films are here under the heading Reading Resources.

3. Get your KS4 and Sixth form pupils reading using the Rooted in Reading Award passport. These are 80p each in packs of 50. Tell your pupils about the impact that working through the Award passport had on pupils at Aldridge School in Walsall, where those who completed it achieved substantially better GCSE grades than other pupils with similar KS2 scores - read my blog on this here.

4. Give Year 6 pupils a copy of the Transition Passport on their induction day and guide them through the completion of the first few entries. Encourage them to complete the middle section during the summer vacation and then complete them when they come to you in September. Read their entries and gain much better information than you've ever had before about your pupils' reading histories, their attitudes to reading and their writing skills. Adapt your curriculum so that it builds on this information.

5. Work with your librarian and teachers across the curriculum to build empathy by using the My Reading World passport. This can be used with pupils from Years 5-9 and will help to build understanding of other cultures and other people, while also building cross-curricular reading skills - what could be more important?

   
   

These are just a few ways in which you could use the Rooted in Reading range to kick start reading for pleasure in your school. Check out the website for more resources. If you have any questions about the project I am always happy to chat - please get in touch.