Counter to the recent National Literacy Trust report, students at Bolton School are keen readers and the Senior School promotes reading for pleasure through a wide variety of initiatives.
This year, the English departments started using the Sparx reader app to better track engagement with reading. The top readers and those who reach Gold Reader status on the app receive rewards for their reading, and the stats show excellent engagement, with an impressive completion percentage of 98%. Across the Senior Schools, pupils enjoy a weekly morning form time that is set aside specifically for reading too. Reading is set as homework in Boys’ Division Literacy lessons, while in the Girls’ Division pupils enjoy fortnightly Library Lessons where they read through an anthology with their peer group.
Students are encouraged to recommend books to one another. All Year 7 boys are excited to choose a ‘Book Buzz’ book in the Autumn Term, Boys’ Division Literacy lessons begin with a book recommendation for others, and the student-led ‘Gold Reader’ newsletter also promotes reading to boys. In the Girls’ Division, ‘recommended reads’ are included as part of the curriculum. The Library encourages boys and girls in all year groups to provide recommendations to go on display amongst the shelves, so that pupils can see what their peers have been enjoying. World Book Day offers yet more opportunities for students to share favourite books with one another. The Library also shares suggested reads to support the English curriculum and to encourage reading for knowledge.
In fact, the recommendations begin even before students arrive at Bolton School. This year, all incoming Year 7s received a book, ‘Wonderscape’ by Jennifer Bell, to read in the summer before they joined the school, and extra tasks were provided to extend their engagement with this story. The Library also gives new students a list of ‘7 Book to Read Before Year 7’ to give young readers more options to explore.
Bolton School pupils benefit from several author talks a year, both in-person and virtual. These experiences help young readers to develop their comprehension skills by exploring these books in more depth.
Weekly Book Clubs take place in the Boys’ and Girls’ Division Libraries, offering games, quizzes, crafts and even treasure hunts around the Library. Members also have additional opportunities to meet authors virtually during lunchtimes. In the Girls’ Division there are additional extra-curricular activities centred around reading, such as the Advanced Readers club in Year 9 and ‘Classics and Cake’ for Years 10 and 11.
The Library is at the heart of Bolton School’s culture of reading for pleasure, providing a safe space where pupils can read, enjoy clubs and activities, and explore wider interests. For non-fiction fans, there is a selection of magazines for students to browse, including Teen Breathe, various daily newspapers, sports magazines such as Match, Sky at Night, BBC History, and Scientific American. There are regular thematic displays linked to current events in school and in the wider world, such as Black History Month, Neurodiversity Month, LGBTQ+ displays, Horror at Halloween, Banned Books and more. Regular scavenger hunts around the shelves and other fun activities help students to become more familiar with and comfortable in their Library, as do extra-curricular activities like the roleplaying DnD Club, which also helps to develop oracy and encourages factual reading for fun through the use of various rule books.
Bolton School also promotes reading for pleasure more widely through the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award: an annual Award run by the school’s Librarians, which allows children across Bolton to select their favourite book from the three shortlisted. Every year, the school hosts a Book Award Day in celebration of the books and reading, with the shortlisted authors attending to meet children from schools around Bolton. This is always a popular event, with lots of engaged children full of questions about the books!
The shortlist for the 2025 Award was recently announced after deliberations over the summer holidays. The three Shortlisted books are:
- ‘The Final Year’ by Matt Goodfellow
- ‘The Secrets of the Snakestone’ by Piu Das Gupta
- ‘My Brilliant plan to fix everything’ by Ben Davis
Library staff at Bolton School said: ‘While all quite distinct titles, they do have common themes running through them – determination, resilience and maintaining a sense of humour when life is challenging. We hope that everyone reading them will enjoy them as much as we have.’
Activities in the Library help to promote reading:
The Bolton Children's Fiction Award Shortlist 2025 was recently announced:
Author talks help pupils engage more deeply with reading and books:
On World Book Day, the School puts on a host of activities to encourage young people to read for pleasure:
