You may choose to judge the early years category of the Royal Mail Awards in a shared reading scheme, involving P6 or P7 pupils reading the 3 shortlisted picture books to P1 or P2 pupils (or in a secondary school S1 or S2 reading to younger pupils in one of your cluster primaries). This is a particularly good project for reluctant older readers.

• Why try shared reading?
• Apply to run shared reading across an education authority
• Free books for individual schools
• Research
• Our shared reading model is based on the Dundee City of Discovery Picture Book Award - find out more

Why try shared reading?

• Builds confidence, motivation, enjoyment and enthusiasm of more reluctant P6/7 readers: although the reading material is of a younger reading age than material for their age group, pupils don’t feel patronised by it as the purpose is to read and find out the views of their younger peers: “Children really enjoyed reading and sharing books with younger children in P2. It was a great boost to their confidence, fluency and self esteem.” Lois Cassidy, Slamannan Primary School, Falkirk
• It’s pupil-driven: often we find even after the project has finished older pupils are still very keen to read to the younger ones, and the younger ones are still keen to be read to
• Helps you fulfil the Curriculum for Excellence: click here for more details
• Links secondaries to primaries in their cluster: where secondary/primary pairing takes place, pupils build good links with their feeder schools
• Builds trust and respect between pupils
• Official research based on the experiences of the children and teachers at 10 Falkirk schools who took part in 2008 highlights the many further benefits of being involved in the shared reading scheme and is available to download here.

Apply to run shared reading across an education authority

The deadline for applications has now passed.

The chosen local authorities this year are Aberdeenshire, Fife, Perth and Kinross, Highlands and the Western Isles. Thanks to funding from Crerar Hotels they each received shared reading CPD sessions from Creative Contexts' Cathrin Howells, and three drama workshops from Books Alive's Pam Wardell.

Free books for individual schools

Scottish Book Trust’s funding through Crerar hotels also allows us to provide 30 sets of the 3 shortlisted picture books for each school taking part using the shared reading model, available on a first-come, first-served basis. All of the free sets for the 2010 Royal Mail Awards have now been allocated.

Research

Scottish Book Trust Research 

In 2008 Scottish Book Trust commissioned official research into the impact of the shared reading project in 10 Falkirk primaries.

The final report gives an overview of the project, provides details of the research methodology, lists a range of findings (including approaches, benefits, suggested changes, the legacy and effective practice) and makes recommendations for future projects of this nature. 

Click here to download the Shared Reading 2008 Final Report   

Dundee City of Discovery Picture Book Prize

In Dundee primary schools taking part in the Dundee City of Discovery Picture Book Prize, upon which the Royal Mail Awards shared reading scheme is modelled, and at Corrie Primary School in North Ayrshire who ran the Royal Mail Awards in a shared reading scheme in 2007, the teachers recorded the following benefits for participating pupils:

• increase in pupil self-esteem and confidence, and their own awareness of this
• improved reading
• listening and talking skills
• working with and reading to a younger audience
• demonstrating independent learning and self motivation
• and the following feedback from teachers:

"I think they learned more from doing the Picture Book Award than they have from any other project. It made me feel very enthusiastic about my teaching too."
"The children grew in self confidence. The tasks and responsibilities they were given allowed them to be much more independent and work on their own initiative."

• and the following feedback from pupils:

"It made me feel like reading"
"I have learned that the P1s are more fidgety than I thought!"
"I really enjoyed working in the awards because it brought everyone close together and it was really fun. It also taught us a lot."

This scheme is also ideal for involving reluctant readers or children with additional support needs in the awards.  

Register now to take part in the awards. Remember to tick the shared reading box to say you are judging the awards in this way.

Go back to Royal Mail Awards home page