St Teresa's Catholic Primary School visit the library with Reading the Game

Year 5 pupils from St Teresa’s Catholic Primary School visited Anchorsholme Library as part of the Community Trust’s redeveloped ‘Reading the Game’ programme.

Reading the Game, an English intervention initiative for reluctant readers, is part of the Premier League Primary Stars project delivered in schools across the United Kingdom. It uses the appeal of the Premier League and professional football clubs to inspire children to learn, be active and develop important life skills.

Year 5 pupils from St Teresa’s have had weekly sessions based around a variety of football related reading platforms. Sessions included looking at magazines, websites, blogs and a group novel in order to raise the pupil’s interest in reading. These activities were a hit with the pupils who thoroughly enjoyed the sessions. Ciaran enjoyed the poetry section because ‘it was funny’ and Elliot also enjoyed it too, saying ‘it helped me learn how to read poetry’.

As a reward for their hard work eight pupils from the school visited the library. They all signed up to the library and the school will now continue visit the library on a monthly basis to give the pupils the opportunity to change the books they have borrowed.

Will, one of the pupils from the group said “I have never read so much at home” after taking a book home from the library.

Jen Crofts, PE Officer for the Trust, has rewritten the Reading the Game programme and was happy with the impact it’s had. “The sessions are now more concise to have a greater impact. We are trying to make the programme sustainable throughout the school and continue the library visits. The need for reading for enjoyment is greater than ever and the participants are now reading more in their spare time.”