Reading Schools

Reading Schools is open to every school in Scotland!

About Reading Schools

Reading Schools is an accreditation programme for schools that are committed to building a culture of reading for their learners and communities. Research proves that reading for pleasure has positive impacts on learners' attainment across the curriculum, supporting wellbeing, critical thinking, creativity, empathy and resilience.

Reading Schools offers:

• an accreditation for your school, with the option of advancing to silver and gold status
• a framework for improvement mapped to How Good Is Our School? 4(this will open in a new window)
• professional development opportunities for staff
• a way to champion pupil voice
• opportunities for collaboration within and between schools
• pathways to engaging families and the wider community
• resources, training and support from Scottish Book Trust

(this will open in a new window)Visit the Reading Schools website

If you have any queries for the Reading Schools Team, you can email readingschools@scottishbooktrust.com(this will open in a new window)

The benefits of becoming a Reading School

Our evaluations identified strong indicators that the Reading Schools programme is valuable to schools and supports positive outcomes around engagement, literacy and health and wellbeing. It also finds that the programme has a wider impact on staff in terms of professional practice.

• 97% of learning professionals felt reading for pleasure had become a routine activity at their school due to Reading Schools
• 98% said that the programme helped pupils to have their voice heard
• 98% of learning professionals noted an increase in the number of families engaged in reading for pleasure
• 99% told us that Reading Schools had significantly contributed to professional development

(this will open in a new window)Find out more about the evaluation

The Reading Schools framework

The Reading Schools framework details the key areas that are crucial to building and sustaining a whole-school reading culture. Key Areas are mapped against How Good is Our School? 4(this will open in a new window). Under each key area you can see what you need to do to become a Reading School and advance to silver and gold level. If you have any questions about the framework, please get in touch.

Reading Schools is funded by Scottish Government.