While reading is a key skill across the curriculum, finding time and opportunity to encourage reading for pleasure can be difficult. School librarians, however, are well placed to lead and support initiatives to engage students with reading and develop a love of reading across all ages and abilities.
Every school is different, and the ideas listed below come not just from my own school’s practices, but from the wealth of inspirational work being done by school librarians across the country. It is vital that schools find the tools that work best for them.
Something for everyone
A good school library is obviously about more than just books. However, stocking and curating a wide selection of books is a key step in promoting reading for pleasure. In library lessons for years 7 and 8, we actively encourage free choice, allowing students time to choose and try out any type of book they find appealing – be it fiction, information books, magazines or graphic novels.
Finding books that tap into interests and fandoms is another essential step in encouraging reading. I have had countless students over the years who have previously rejected all other suggestions suddenly poring over every page of a book about their favourite sport, hobby or celebrity. The current “Booktok” trends online provide an opportunity to see what young people might be discovering on social media and allow librarians the chance to promote those books (or similar, more age-appropriate alternatives!) in their libraries.
It is also essential that every ability is catered for, as well as any additional needs, with choices for all students to find engaging and fun. The use of the HiLo series of books can be brilliant for helping less-able readers enjoy a great story and have the added benefit of being dyslexia-friendly (now re-labelled as “super-readable”). Highly accessible, picture-heavy non-fiction can also be hugely appealing to weaker readers, with the option to dip in and out of these books an attractive feature.
When talking about “all abilities”, it is easy to view our most-able students only in terms of “stretch and challenge”. However, it is also important that our reading options for these students cater to preferred genres and hobbies, and their tastes and interests are not dismissed or rubbished in favour of more “worthy” texts. I have seen brilliant readers turned off reading by a constant push to “improve”, so it is important to maintain a balance of enjoyment and advancement.
Another important aspect, and a key theme in our library, is that all students should have “windows and mirrors” – books that allow them to see different lives/cultures and empathise with others, but also books that allow them to see people like themselves represented on the page. Sometimes this personal connection with a book can be that lightbulb moment, where a student who has previously dismissed books as not for them discovers that perhaps this isn’t the case.
Discussions, social reading and whole-school focus
In an increasingly busy and fast-paced world, it is so hard for a lot of students to find an opportunity to really focus and give a book a chance to engage them. Also, for many students, there is an underlying preconception that reading is a very quiet and isolated activity.
We use time in reading lessons to promote discussions about shared books and reading, reminding students of times they have enjoyed being read to or reading with others, either at home or at primary school. Often these shared experiences promote a much more positive view of reading, as they can feel connected to friends and family through a shared book. In many classes we continue this model of reading together, with a class read or smaller in-lesson reading groups.
Peer recommendations are also useful when students are choosing what to read. Time is devoted in library lessons to students discussing what they are reading/have read, sharing first impressions of books, and often looking at books together in small groups.
Displays in the library help kick-start conversations about books and reading, again encouraging students to try something they might not have otherwise considered and creating a sense of shared experiences. This idea is also then disseminated throughout the school, with book display slides acting as a talking point in form time and lessons for both staff and students.
Staff are encouraged to share their own reading with students and regularly have door displays to show what they are reading, or what books the library can offer that link to their subject. The library works closely with departments to provide engaging books to support learning, as well as wider reading options around subjects, including a newly developed “Stretch” library, designed to attract our most able cohorts with fun non-textbook selections.
It is also lovely for students to see a huge range of staff helping out at library events, dressing up for World Book Day, and popping into after-school clubs, allowing the library and reading to be more than just an extension of the English department.
Events and extra-curricular
One of the most effective ways of promoting reading for fun is through making the library and associated activities fun. If students can start to connect books and reading with the things they enjoy, it helps them to develop positive attitudes.
I regularly organise additional activities, events and competitions for students. After-school clubs such as Dungeons & Dragons allow students to find like-minded friends, as well as have fun in the library space. There are frequently themed lunchtime activities/crafts provided to tie-in with celebration days, film/book releases, and focus weeks/months.
In addition, I arrange after-school celebrations throughout the year, ranging from quite simple short events e.g. Spooky Stories in the Dark, where students drank hot chocolate and listened to Halloween tales, to much bigger parties like our Mad Hatter’s Tea Party event last year, which included crafts, games, a hands-on animal experience and food (including cakes baked by the cookery club).
I have recently been inspired by the work of other school librarians to plan an in-school “comic-con” celebration, helping students to see reading alongside other popular entertainment such as films, television shows, and gaming.
The extra-curricular provision through the library always strives to have a whole-school and wider community focus. Our recent World Book Day Murder in the Library challenge involved teaching, non-teaching and senior staff in a series of videos and clues, as well as subject-specific posters being used around the whole building. Our LitFest event last year managed to include author talks for years 7 to 10, author workshops with specific themes and cohorts, a primary school visit, and trips to both an independent bookshop and a local library.
Final thoughts
School libraries are perfectly placed to be the central hub of a whole-school movement to encourage reading for pleasure. A school librarian has the time, skills and opportunities to connect the dots, allowing students to see a love of reading go beyond the library and the English classroom, and find the vast array of possibilities to love what they read.
- Heather Grainger is the librarian at Weatherhead High School in Wallasey. Heather won Secondary School Librarian of the Year at the 2024 School Library Association Awards. Find her previous contributions to SecEd via www.sec-ed.co.uk/authors/heather-grainger/ and for further information, visit www.sla.org.uk/awards
Further listening
SecEd Podcast: A brilliant secondary school library: In this episode, we consider what makes for excellent library provision in the secondary school, including ideas for supporting literacy and curriculum delivery, May 2025: www.sec-ed.co.uk/content/podcasts/seced-podcast-brilliant-secondary-school-library