Celebrating Five Years of Reading for Pleasure!

We are delighted to be celebrating five years of the Open University (OU) Reading for Pleasure (RfP) coalition!

Since 2017, we have experienced incredible growth and have been part of some brilliantly successful social-justice driven projects and initiatives. In fact, it is estimated that our research has influenced the reading lives of over 180,000 children* thanks to our hugely popular OU/UKLA Teachers’ Reading Groups.

 

In this short video, Prof Teresa Cremin, Professor of Education at The Open University, recounts some of the highlights from the past five years and extends a huge ‘thank you’ to all those that have supported Reading for Pleasure.

Some of RfP’s achievements include supporting 150 schools to build a culture of reading, The Teachers’ Reading Challenge and The Farshore Reading for Pleasure awards. Click on the image below to see some of our biggest successes to-date!

Infographic showing key statistics on Reading for Pleasure since 2017. Reading for Pleasure. Celebrating five years. Over 2,000 registrations for our free online course in its first two months. Over 300 teacher reading groups supporting approximately 7,000 members. Over 600 examples of practice research informed and published on our website. Over 180,000 children’s lives influenced through our teachers’ reading groups. (See footnote for context). Over 5,000 people participated in the teachers’ reading challenge, our joint initiative with The Reading Agency. We have supported 150 schools through our school development programme since 2019. Worked with 34 Higher Education Partners. Some of our amazing partners include UK Literacy Association, The Reading Agency, World Book Day, the School Library Association, Coram Beanstalk We are co-founders of the Farshore, Open University and UKLA Reading for Pleasure awards which are now in their fifth year. Our community includes over 23,000 Twitter followers and over 44,000 newsletter subscribers. Visit www.ourfp.org For Twitter follow @OpenUni_RfP For Facebook follow @OpenUniRfP Footnote: Based on average primary classroom size of 26.6 in 2020/2021 school census on gov.uk. All data is from the Reading for Pleasure website and internal records as at April 2022. (Click to read more RfP in numbers)

Community Coalition Growth

In the past five years, our work has involved a vast audience of teachers, student teachers, librarians, teaching assistants and literacy coordinators, through numerous social justice-driven projects and initiatives.

Over 600 teachers have published their research-informed RfP work as Examples of Practice (EoP) on this site. Each EoP showcases their impact on children as readers and allows other practitioners to read about and benefit from their newly informed experience.

Plus, there have been well over 300 OU/UKLA Teacher Reading Groups (year-long CPD sessions informed by the RfP research) which have attracted approximately 7,000 members who have gone on to improve pupils’ reading for pleasure in their schools.* In addition, the team have worked with 34 Higher Education Institutional Partners to support student teachers as readers and future educators.

The OU Reading for Pleasure community has flourished, and currently has an impressive 23,000+ Twitter followers and 44,000+ newsletter subscribers.

Over 180,000 children's lives influenced through our teachers' reading groups.(Click to read more RfP in numbers)

Collaborations

In partnership with The Reading Agency, we set up the Teachers’ Reading Challenge, to expand teachers’ repertoires of children’s texts and equip them with knowledge and skill to confidently promote choice-led reading and participate as fellow readers.  In just two years, over 5,000 people signed up for the challenge.

We have also successfully collaborated with Farshore and UKLA to co-found the annual Reading for Pleasure Awards. The awards, now in their fifth year, celebrate teachers, reading champions and schools whose practices make a real difference to children’s  recreational reading. Each year case studies are submitted to the RfP website and judges, including Professor Teresa Cremin, award prizes for outstanding entries across several categories.

“Finding ways to engage students in reading may be one of the most effective ways to leverage social change. (OECD, 2021)”

Launch of free OU RfP course

In January 2022, the we launched our official OU Reading for Pleasure Badged Online Course and received over 2,000 sign ups in two months! This free CPD course was designed to to widen understanding of how reading for pleasure, changes children’s life chances and enable participants to develop the knowledge and strategies needed to promote reader engagement across schools, homes and communities.

RfP Background

In 2017, The Open University Reading for Pleasure (RfP) website was launched to share the findings of the ground-breaking Teachers as Readers research, led by Professor Teresa Cremin.

The aim was to enable more young people to become childhood readers, thus reaping the associated academic, social and emotional benefits and advancing social justice.

An Advisory Group of teachers and UK Literacy Association (UKLA) consultants helped shape the evidence-informed site, which offers research, pedagogy and resources to enrich the profession’s RfP knowledge, understanding and practice.

 

 

*Based on average primary classroom size 20/21 (gov.uk)
Data from Reading for Pleasure website and internal records – April 2022

In other news

OURfP Newsletter Live! 5th December

We are delighted to host another OU RfP Newsletter Live, a rapid-fire event dedicated to the latest in Reading for Pleasure. With Professor Teresa Cremin

Summer 2023 RfP Conference

Thank you to everyone who joined us on 17th June in Milton Keynes for our summer 2023 RfP conference – Blethering Together: Sustaining the Pleasure

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