Taking part in the Summer Reading Challenge really pays off

Over the school holidays we ran our annual competition, which four-to-11-year-olds can take part in free of charge.

The challenge’s aim is to encourage youngsters to read a number of books and take part in fun sessions and activities.

It’s also about encouraging our children to develop a love of reading from an early age and to prevent a dip in reading attainment during July and August.

And it’s not just the individual pupils who are signing up and taking part.

In a bid to get as many schools involved as possible in this year’s event, £300 in book vouchers were on offer to three lucky schools to help stock up their library’s shelves. They were asked to promote the challenge and help get pupils signed up and taking part.

Out of 92 eligible schools the winners were:

• Hey with Zion Primary for the highest pupil participation level – the fourth year in a row the school has won a prize
• Greenacres Primary Academy for the most engaged school.
• St Martin’s C of E Primary for the most improved participation level.

Ruth Titmuss, Reading and Writing Lead for Greenacres Primary was over the moon with the school’s prize.

She said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have received these book tokens.

“We really tried to engage more families with the reading challenge this year to ensure the children keep up their reading habits over the summer.

“Our very enthusiastic student reading ambassadors will now speak to each class to create a wish list of books they want to see in our library, which we’ll buy with our vouchers.

“Thank you Oldham library service!”

Councillor Peter Dean, Cabinet Member for Thriving Communities and Culture, said: “Congratulations to everyone who took part in this year’s reading challenge, and especially the schools who won the prizes and I hope their pupils enjoy the new books they’ll be getting.

“This is the fourth year we have run the schools competition, and it definitely encourages them to take part and promote the challenge to their pupils.

“Schools are now starting to look out for the annual awards and we’ve been told it’s even started some friendly rivalry between them.  Plus, children were excited to take part knowing that they might help win some vouchers for their schools.”

Over the course of the challenge, Oldham Libraries and Gallery Oldham welcomed 691 new child members and delivered 70 free exciting Marvellous Makers workshops which included author visits, adventure walks, performances, arts and drama to 2,752 attendees.

The reading challenge was successfully completed by 842 young people who all received a medal and certificate.

Cllr Dean added: “It’s great news that the reading challenge has helped introduce young children and families to our superb libraries so they can explore the range of books and services available all year round.”

The book vouchers were generously funded by Information Resources (Oldham) Limited, Kajima Partnerships Limited and Infrared Capital Partners.