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First Minister's Reading Challenge
The First Minister’s Reading Challenge aims to help children and young people between the ages of 5 and 18 to read widely, explore a range of books and develop a lasting love of reading.
Developing a love of reading in childhood can have a huge impact on educational attainment and future wellbeing. The challenge encourages schools, communities and libraries to:
- Create and embed a reading culture
- Build relationships around reading
- Celebrate reading journeys
- Showcase the great work they are doing to encourage reading
Register your organisation to take part and access your free resources by visiting the First Minister’s Reading Challenge website(this will open in a new window).
Resource library
There's lots of support available to help schools build a reading culture. We've developed a library of learning resources, support materials, adaptable presentations and videos(this will open in a new window), and we also showcase best practice case studies on our blog to inspire your reading journey.
New for 2019, we've worked with young people across Scotland to develop the Bookzilla app(this will open in a new window), a free new app designed to help young people track their reading, share recomendations and set their own reading challenges.
Funding opportunities
Registered groups can apply for funding to invite authors, illustrators, poets, storytellers or creative practitioners in to inspire them on their reading journey.
- Inspiring Classrooms: £500 grants for primary schools
- Creative Workshops: £500–1000 grants for secondary schools
- Library Fund: £500 grants for libraries
- Community Fund: £500 grants for community groups
Key dates
- Thursday 29 April 2021: Reading Challenge submissions deadline
Celebration Event
We have seen so much inspiring practice from organisations across Scotland who have found creative and exciting ways to encourage children to develop a love of reading. This video of our celebration event 2019 shows just what can be achieved by signing up for the Challenge(this will open in a new window) and putting a focus on reading for pleasure.