Celebrating innovation at this year’s Reading for Pleasure Awards

The winners of The Farshore Reading for Pleasure Awards 2021, in association with The Open University and the UK Literacy Association (UKLA), were announced on Thursday 21 October.

Launched in 2017, the awards celebrate the passion of teachers to get kids reading every year, but the teachers who entered the 2021 awards showed inventiveness on a never-seen-before scale as they tackled multiple lockdowns. The past year has seen a drop in 5–10-year-olds choosing to read daily or nearly every day for pleasure[i] meaning teachers had an even more vital role to play.

Teresa Cremin, Professor of Education (Literacy) in the WELS School of Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport (ECYS), said “These awards showcase the brilliant work that teachers are doing to build the habit of reading in childhood. The vibrant reading communities built within and beyond their schools help children sustain this important habit which, as the DfE’s reading framework (2021) highlights, makes a real impact on their learning.”

Winners were awarded in four categories: Early Career Teacher, Experienced Teacher, Whole School and Community Reading Champion. There were six winners in total (two awards had joint winners), each with inspiring stories and brilliant examples of classroom practice.

To find out more and to read each of the winners’ entries, visit the Reading for Pleasure Awards 2021 summary on the Reading for Pleasure website.