\n<\/p>\n
A<\/span>jmal, 7, is an avid fan of the InvestiGators comic books. They feature two crime-busting alligator secret agents called Mango and Brash. \u201cIt\u2019s really funny,\u201d he says, then outlines the plot of his current favourite in exhaustive detail.<\/p>\n Wren, 8, is making her way through Louisa May Alcott\u2019s Little Women. \u201cI didn\u2019t read lots when I was in year 1,\u201d she says, but now she\u2019s loving chapter books. A beaming boy called Siva, 8, who\u2019s enjoying one of Neill Cameron\u2019s Donut Squad series, adds: \u201cI like chapter books and<\/em> I like comic books.\u201d<\/p>\n Nwanneka, 9, is loving Kid Normal by Greg James and Chris Smith. \u201cI like it because there\u2019s this 11-year-old called Murph and he ends up in a school where everybody has a superpower, except him,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Research has shown there is a reading for pleasure crisis among children in the UK, where enjoyment of books has fallen to its lowest level in two decades. Not so here at Christ Church primary, a tiny Church of England school tucked behind the maze of HS2 construction works in Camden, north London, where children fizz with excitement about books.<\/p>\n Last month the queen, who is the patron of the National Literacy Trust (NLT), visited to open a brand new library, funded by Bloomberg, in the school playground \u2013 the first to be opened in the government\u2019s National Year of Reading, a UK-wide initiative aimed at reversing the decline in reading enjoyment.<\/p>\n From the outside, it looks like a large, well-kept shed. Open the doors and there are colourful shelves bursting with new books, toadstools to sit on, a leaf-patterned soft carpet and a hidey-hole reading den where children can curl up to read.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got lots of different books,\u201d Stina, 8, one of five new librarians, says proudly. The library is the culmination of years of work with the NLT to encourage reading at the school, which serves families living on nearby estates.<\/p>\n Ross Fox, a year 4 teacher and English lead at Christ Church, describes the numerous initiatives the school has introduced to encourage children to fall in love with books, including visits from theatre groups, storytellers and authors.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018Schools in areas of high disadvantage must do everything they can to be book-rich\u2019 \u2026 Ross Fox, the English lead at Christ Church school in Camden.<\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/p>\n There are stay-and-read sessions for parents every last Friday in the month. There are \u201cdress-up days\u201d and \u201cbooknics\u201d (picnics with stories) in nearby Regent\u2019s Park. Meanwhile, parents are encouraged to sit in on phonics lessons in reception and year 1 so they can support their child\u2019s reading at home.<\/p>\n Older children read to younger ones and there are bookchats \u2013 informal time for pupils to talk about what they are reading and what they recommend. \u201cAnd we really protect story time so every class gets to hear an adult reading on a daily basis,\u201d Fox says.<\/p>\n The new library has only added to the excitement. \u201cIn a world where many of us \u2013 children included \u2013 have so much available at our fingertips, books face more competition for our attention than ever before,\u201d Fox adds.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven we have double the average percentage of children who qualify for free school meals here, it is vital that, whilst they are here with us at school, they are introduced to as much quality literature as possible. Schools in areas of high disadvantage must do everything they can to be book-rich.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Christ Church primary school\u2019s new library has nooks where children can retreat to read.<\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/p>\n New research by Unison shows almost half of England\u2019s library staff have lost their jobs since 2010, leaving communities without support after years of austerity and highlighting the challenges of getting more children reading.<\/p>\n Libraries in England employed 17,902 staff in 2010-11, but the number fell to 9,497 by 2024-25 \u2013 a loss of more than 8,000 full-time roles, according to the union\u2019s research.<\/p>\n Alton Park junior school in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, is also bucking the trend and boosting reading for pleasure. Year 5 teacher Emma Preston \u2013 a passionate reader and collector of signed copies \u2013 stresses the importance of developing knowledge and enthusiasm for modern children\u2019s literature among teachers, so they can then inspire pupils.<\/p>\n At the start of every weekly staff meeting, the first 10 minutes are devoted to discussing books. For the children, there is a reading treasure hunt in the summer, with activities laid out on blankets around the school field. In January there\u2019s \u201chygge\u201d reading day, when pupils snuggle up to read in classroom dens.<\/p>\n There\u2019s \u201cnonfiction November\u201d and, in National Storytelling Week, the children practise reading a story aloud, which they then perform for their parents. \u201cIt was one of those moments,\u201d says Preston. \u201cWhen the children were reading I turned round and every parent in the hall was smiling.\u201d<\/p>\n Preston\u2019s year 5 children also recently enjoyed a visit to a nearby Penguin distribution centre, where they were given a tour and met the children\u2019s author Iqbal Hussain, who gave them each a signed copy of his book. \u201cIt was like gold dust \u2013 their little faces,\u201d Preston says.<\/p>\n <\/span>The new library at Christ Church is the first to be opened as part of the government\u2019s National Year of Reading scheme.<\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/p>\n At George Green\u2019s, a large secondary school and sixth form on the Isle of Dogs in east London, where more than 60% of pupils meet the threshold for additional pupil premium funding, literacy coordinator Sophie Harrison agrees that every teacher must see themselves as a reader.<\/p>\n \u201cOur work began with [author and educator] Aidan Chambers\u2019 belief that unless a school is staffed by people who enjoy books and enjoy talking to children about what they read, it is unlikely that they will be very successful in helping children to become readers,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cA central aim has been creating a school that reads, a community of readers where \u2018book gossip\u2019 \u2013 the everyday sharing of what we\u2019re reading, loving, abandoning or recommending \u2013 happens across corridors, classrooms, and staff rooms. We\u2019ve moved deliberately from isolated events to a sustained, everyday reading culture.\u201d<\/p>\n There are book clubs for staff and students, reviews and recommendations, reading buddies across different year groups, whole\u2011school reading challenges, a school reading website, author events and a library with about 8,000 titles plus audiobooks, where stock is constantly replenished and repaired at the school\u2019s book hospital.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no silver bullet,\u201d says Harrison. \u201cIt\u2019s about lots of little things building up the momentum. It\u2019s like a giant book club.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ajmal, 7, is an avid fan of the InvestiGators comic books. They feature two crime-busting alligator secret agents called Mango and Brash. \u201cIt\u2019s really funny,\u201d he says, then outlines the plot of his current favourite in exhaustive detail. Wren, 8, is making her way through Louisa May Alcott\u2019s Little Women. \u201cI didn\u2019t read lots when<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[1980,1001,166,339,5489,1870,1067,588],"class_list":{"0":"post-46631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-book","9":"tag-books","10":"tag-children","11":"tag-club","12":"tag-excited","13":"tag-giant","14":"tag-reading","15":"tag-schools"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}