Coventry and Warwickshire TRG: an update by Kala Williams

We had our last zoom session online in October where 10 teachers attended. We all discussed how reading for pleasure had really taken hold in each of our schools despite the lockdown! We have had a wonderful year through it all and are thankful to The Big Comfy Bookshop in Coventry who housed our sessions free of cost from the start right up until March 2020. We were surrounded by books and often bought one or two that caught our eye (as well as coffee, tea and cake!) – supporting our local bookshop in the process. Our group has grown from strength to strength with innovated actions taking place both in Coventry and Solihull. Teachers have all completed their development plans and are looking forward to uploading their wonderful examples of best practice. Our final session was filled with book blether and we shared advice on how to encourage sharing books in our bubbles – such as having an 'isolation shelf' for returned books until they could be safe to go back out to other children and encouraging 'to be read piles' for children with a wide variety of genres that are recommended by peers and teachers. Although parent's evening and other commitments has meant we have had to cancel our final zoom in November, we still communicate via email and OU/UKLA TRG Leader Kala Williams will bid farewell via video to this inspiring group of reading for pleasure advocates by the end of the month. Out of this experience a wonderful platform has been born, called 'The Author's Voice' which Kala looks forward to sharing with all teachers who have reading for pleasure at the core of their practice!