FAQs

Reading Schools is a fully funded programme to all schools in Scotland. There is no fee and no expectation for you to purchase any resources or services to complete an accreditation, but some schools may choose to. We understand that budgets are often very tight and so we have suggestions on ways you can fulfil criteria without spending money and also some external funding options for you to explore in our resources for 1.3.2 School environment, 1.5.1 Access to high quality books and 2.3.5 Access to Authors (Silver/Gold only). The cost of the school day does not need to be impacted, and please do Contact Us if you have any queries.

Reading Schools is a rolling programme so there are no fixed deadlines. We encourage you take the programme at your own pace rather than fit into a timeline. When you apply, we will aim to accept your Action Plan within 5 working days and your evidence plan within 15 working days.

Once awarded, a school's accreditation will last for three years. At the end of this period, schools will need to apply for re-accreditation either at a new level or to sustain the level they have already achieved.

Once an accreditation has been achieved, schools may apply for a new level of accreditation, for example go from Core to Silver or Gold, at any time. If they do this within one year, we will only ask to see evidence for the new level of accreditation.

For example: a Core level school that wished to progress to Silver and applied within a year would not have to resubmit their Core level evidence, they would simply submit their new Silver evidence. If they applied for Silver in years two or three they would need to submit Core and Silver evidence.

We understand that schools have a lot of important and, often, competing priorities. We have found that the Reading Schools programme is a useful framework to meet those priorities across the curriculum. Our evaluation reports tell us that learning professionals reported that Reading Schools had a significant impact. You can (or have your colleagues) watch our Research-informed practice on reading for pleasure webinar recording that details the rich evidence base around reading for pleasure and extracted data from our Reading Schools evaluations. You could also adapt and present our template resource on introducing Reading Schools to your colleagues. We also have several case studies of schools that have participated in the Reading Schools programme that describe the impact it has had in their schools.

What we have found from accredited Reading Schools is that you are already doing the vast majority of things we are looking for so you just need to record it and share it with us. Core level is the foundations of a reading for pleasure culture, Silver expands on that by bringing in outside elements such as authors and national events to the school environment and Gold spreads the word of reading for pleasure to the community outside the school. The trick is to record all the fun as you go.

The Reading Schools team is always here to support you so you can contact us or you might want to contact one of our Regional Outreach Co-ordinators if they are in your area. We also strongly recommend that schools support each other. Use our map to find other Reading Schools in your area or at an accreditation level that you are interested in and reach out to them.

Yes, we recognise that a Reading School application has a large administrative load and so we strongly encourage as many people contribute to your application as possible. This can also be a really good way to share voices from across the school and encourages participation.

The lead contact can invite contributors to the school application by logging in to the Reading Schools website to your Dashboard, which shows your existing Reading Schools applications. Click on the 'View' button beside the application you want to invite another use to, then scroll down to the 'Invite New User' section and enter their email address and role, then click Send Invitation. They will now receive an email with further instructions on how to complete the process to accept the invitation. For Further details, you can download our guide FAQ Inviting other users to your Reading Schools application

Absolutely, we understand that not all schools have a library or school librarian, so we do not require that a school have one. However, if your school does have a librarian, we would expect them to contribute and always expect the school to provide access to reading materials in some way. We also recognise that not all schools have access to a local library and so do not penalise schools that cannot access a local library.

Although Reading Schools is a fully funded to all schools in Scotland, we do recognise that you may incur some costs during participation, such as, purchasing new reading materials or updating your school environment. We understand that budgets are often very tight and so we have suggestions on ways you can fulfil criteria without spending money and some funding options for you to explore in our resources for 1.3.2 School environment and 1.5.1 Access to high quality books.

Reading Schools is available to all schools in Scotland whether you are a primary, secondary, all through, independent or special school. Our framework is designed to be flexible to suit your setting. You can see the impact for schools and learners in our community news and shared practice showcase recordings on out CLPL page. If you have any concerns about a particular area and how that would work in your setting, please do contact us and we will support you however we can.

Unfortunately, only schools within Scotland are currently able to become a Reading School. However, anyone can access our framework and resources to help you build and maintain a reading for pleasure culture in your school. We would love you to contact us if you are interested in the Reading Schools programme.

Reading Schools is open to all schools in Scotland.

Click on the Sign Up button at the top right of the screen. Select your Local Authority, School Type and the name of your school from the drop down lists. Then fill in the details it asks for, and you will be sent a confirmation email with a link you must click on before you will be fully signed up.

For further details, read our step-by-step guide with screenshots

Once you have signed up and logged in to the Reading Schools website, there are a number of things you can do. This includes submitting an application, inviting others to your application and starting work on your action plan.

For further details, you can download our guide FAQ First time logging in to Reading Schools

Click the Log In button from the menu at the top of the screen, then click on "Forgotten your password?"

Enter the email address you used to sign up and click 'Request Password Reset'.

You'll then receive an email with further instructions on how to select a new password.

For further details, you can download our guide FAQ Forgotten your password

Yes, as long as you are the current lead contact.

When you first log in to the Reading Schools website, you will be taken to your Dashboard, which shows your existing Reading Schools applications.

Click on the 'View' button beside the application, and you will be shown a list of your Application Users. Click 'Make Lead Contact' beside the name of the person you want to become the new Lead contact, then OK to confirm.

For further details, you can download our guide FAQ Changing the Lead Contact

When you first log in to the Reading Schools website, you will be taken to your Dashboard, which shows your existing Reading Schools applications.

Click 'New Application' and following the instructions on screen to add a new school.

To change school, click 'Change School' and find the new school from the drop down lists, the follow the instructions on screen.

If the school already has an active account, you should ask the Lead Contact to invite you to join.

For further details, you can download our guide FAQ Changing or adding a new school to your Reading Schools account

Yes, if you are the Lead Contact.

Log in to the Reading Schools website and you will be taken to your Dashboard, which shows your existing Reading Schools applications.

Click on the 'View' button beside the application you want to invite another use to, then scroll down to the 'Invite New User' section and enter their email address and role, then click Send Invitation.

They will now receive an email with further instructions on how to complete the process to accept the invitation.

For Further details, you can download our guide FAQ Inviting other users to your Reading Schools application

When you first log in to the Reading Schools website, you will be taken to your Dashboard, which shows your existing Reading Schools applications.

Click on the 'View' button beside the application, and you will be shown a list of your Application Users. To leave the Reading Schools account, you should click 'Leave' button next to your own name, and then click OK to confirm.

If you are the Lead Contact, you can also remove other users by clicking on the 'Remove' button next to their name, and then clicking OK to confirm.

For Further details, you can download our guide FAQ Leaving or removing a user from your Reading Schools account

Each Reading Schools application you make will have its own Action Plan, which you can view and edit by logging in and clicking the View button on your dashboard next to the relevant application.

Work through your action plan by clicking the appropriate boxes for your school’s action plan. Please note that some actions are mandatory and some ask for a maximum of 3 actions to be selected.

For further details, and for instructions on how to add your own actions or submit a completed Action Plan, you can download our guide FAQ Action plan

No, once your Action Plan has been accepted, we expect your evidence to reflect the activities chosen in your Action Plan.

You can abandon an Action Plan by logging in and clicking the View button on your dashboard next to the relevant application, then selecting Abandon Application. You will be asked click OK to confirm you wish to abandon this application.

For further details, you can download our guide FAQ Abandon an Action Plan

Once you have submitted and had your Action Plan accepted, you will be able to access the corresponding Evidence Plan.

To view and update it, log in and click the View button on your dashboard next to the relevant application, then click the Edit button beside your Evidence Plan.

Evidence can include comments, observations and links, quotes, photos, documents or videos. Click on ‘Add . . .’ for each section to add evidence.

For further details, and for instructions on how to submit an Evidence Plan, you can download our guide FAQ Evidence plan

Reading Schools is a rolling programme so there are no fixed deadlines. We encourage you take the programme at your own pace rather than fit into a timeline. When you apply, we will aim to accept your Action Plan within 5 working days and your evidence plan within 15 working days. We may get in touch every now and then to see how you are getting purely to offer our support.

Comments are the descriptions of your activities that give us the context of how you are embedding reading for pleasure in your setting. Quotes show us the impact of your reading for pleasure culture from everyone who participates.