1. The National Schools Reading Competition

2. Read for My School What is it?
Read for My School is the exciting new national schools reading competition from The Pearson Foundation and Booktrust, with support from the Department for Education
Reading for pleasure is at the heart of the initiative, which aims to generate excitement about books and cultivate long-lasting positive attitudes towards reading
It is free for all primary schools in England and in its first year is open to children in years 5 and 6

3. Read for My School Aims for children
The competition will encourage children of all abilities to:
enjoy books and have fun reading
explore a variety of genres and formats
make their own choices as readers
recommend titles to friends
read their way to rewards for themselves and their schools

4. Read for My School Benefits for schools
It will also provide participating schools with:
a new, free reading initiative that is straightforward to organise
the opportunity to encourage and reward readers of all abilities with great prizes
a chance to win a significant donation of books for their school library, from a pot of 100,000 provided by Pearson
access to an online library of books provided by Pearson
free downloadable resources including Recommended Reads for every competition category

5. Read for My School Key dates
Read for My School launched at The Telegraph Bath Festival of Children’s Literature on 1 October
All primary schools in England have been invited to register for the competition for free at
To ensure schools receive all the information they need to prepare for the start of the competition we are encouraging them to sign up by the end of the autumn term
The competition will commence on Monday 21 January and close on Friday 22 March

6. Read for My School Competition rules
Participating children will be challenged to read as many books as they can from eight different categories
Read for My School will provide a free online library of books for each category. Alternatively, children may choose to read any book of their choosing offline as long as it fits the relevant category. We will provide a list of Recommended Reads to help guide their choices
Children will log what they have read on the website, receiving virtual rewards and being entered for prize draws based on the number of books they have read
Each school will be invited to nominate pupils for regional and national awards

7. Read for My School The categories
Historical Hits – tales to take you back in time
It’s a Mystery – thrillers, whodunits and spooky stories
Keep it Real – books to fill your brain with facts
Laugh out Loud – rip-roaringly funny reads
Out of this World – titles with a touch of sci-fi, fantasy or magic
Stars of the Screen – books featuring characters from film and TV
Thrill Seekers – amazing adventure stories
Wild Thing – tales of animal antics

8. Read for My School Librarian involvement
The support of school and public libraries and schools library services will be crucial to the competition’s success, including:
providing access to books
helping children find suitable reads
giving advice to teachers on how to engage children in the competition
There are also a number of key ways we hope you can help:
encourage schools to sign up
invite children to complete their online reading on the computers in your library
use your existing stock to create book displays for the categories
order extra copies of the online books and Recommended Reads if necessary

9. Thank you for listening!
Read for My School Discussion points
How else can we encourage schools to sign up?
How would you like us to communicate the Recommended Reads and online titles to you?
What supporting materials would be useful for libraries?
What resources would you like to have access to online?
Do you have any other questions about RFMS or Booktrust’s other work in schools?
Thank you for listening!