Blackpool F.C Community Trust and Blackpool Gateway Academy are working together to boost the amount of reading pupils in the school do at home.
The ‘Red Ted’ competition was launched earlier this week at the school, where our Senior Physical Education Officer Chris Debar delivered a whole school assembly encouraging the pupils to read at home, more often.
‘Red Ted’ will run over the course of five weeks, with each pupil being challenged to read at home. Each time a pupil reads at home or speaks to their parents about what they have read, it is added to their Red Ted Reading Log Book. The class with the highest collective amount will then be given the prize of spending half a day at Bloomfield Road where they will take part in lessons in the Community Trust classroom, a ground tour and even have their lunch in the stadium.
Each week Chris will attend an assembly in the school to provide a weekly update of which class is in the lead to drive the Red Ted competition.
As part of our primary school provision, the Community Trust offer schools an intervention programme in English which aims to increase enjoyment, confidence levels and frequency of reading and writing, in addition to the ability of pupils. ‘Reading the Game’ encourages pupils to participate in weekly activities such as ‘Word of the Week’, ‘Joke of the Day’ and rearranging match reports.
The competition was also promoted during an after-school event on World Book Day, where Bloomfield Bear was a surprise visitor, much to the delight of the attending pupils. They posed for pictures, took part in a variety of reading and writing activities with their parents and one pupil even read the very popular book ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ to Bloomfield Bear. 
Acting Principal for Blackpool Gateway Academy, Alicia Gibbons said, “It is great that BFC Community Trust have linked with us to help motivate our pupils to pick up a book and read at home. In school we often promote competitiveness in sport to encourage the children to perform to their best. So we asked the Community Trust to help us apply a ‘competitive edge’ to our Red Ted Initiative and champion a sense of teamwork within our classes. The launch event was very well attended so we are certain that our pupils are ready to rise to the challenge.”
Click here to find out more about Reading the Game.
