Rewarding progress and recognising personal achievements

A great way to recognise the progress and achievements of individual learners is through tailor-made certificates. The nature of each certificate can be as broad or as nuanced as you want, from 'trying new genres' to 'book recommendations'.

This is a simple, cost effective and accessible way to praise all of your learners and recognise their individual achievements. Along with your Reading Leadership Group, why not involve you learners in picking award categories?

Bertha Park High use their 'Green Flag' merits to reward learners for the reading ambition and adventurism, awarding them as part of their very own reading awards and sharing the activity on their social media pages.

Why not use one of our templates at the end of this resource to design your very own Reading Schools certificate.

We have seen some lovely examples of small prizes being awarded to learners for their reading achievements, such as bookmarks, badges and stickers.

Why not involve your learners in designing and creating their very own prizes? You could use a downloadable template or make your own from scratch.

Involving your learners in the process engages them from the outset and makes the prize even more personal and meaningful.

We see many schools incorporating reading routines into their house point allocation process. Rewards for reading progress and achievements feature within their existing points scheme, with learners able to acquire points for the 'house' through their reading activities. This is a great way of using a well established platform to celebrate reading and motivate your learners.

Maddiston Primary School created a video for parents to promote reading at home called '4 steps to support your reluctant reader'. This in itself is a great family engagement tool, but learners can also achieve house points for finding out the favourite books of their family members and sharing them in class.

Giving reading positive exposure is really important and we have seen schools hold reading assemblies and special awards ceremonies with an exclusive focus on reading for pleasure. Certificates and house point allocation announcements are often included. In other schools, reading is a prominent feature in their weekly general assembly.

Hallglen Primary School celebrate their 'Reading Stars' at each week's assembly. Each class teacher picks a reading star for the week and their name is added to a PowerPoint for assembly.

'Golden Time' can provide a fantastic opportunity to promote and celebrate reading for individual learners, whole classes and even the whole school. Incentivising experimenting with reading and incorporating rewards into 'Golden Time' is a simple but really effective way of threading reading into existing schemes and structures within your school.

It's a great idea to celebrate the efforts of not only a whole class, but also the whole school. Reading Schools takes all of your learners on a journey, so extending celebrations and praise across every class really highlights the importance of reading for pleasure. Finding ways to engage your whole school in reading and celebrating the growth of readership across your school community can really enhance your journey and cement your reading culture.

Kirkhill Primary School issued their P1 to P3 classes reading charts and their P4 to P7 classes reading diaries. Their collective efforts achieved praise and status, giving their learners targets, incentives and rewards, with every learner receiving stickers and bookmarks adorned with handy reading strategies. Every year they also hold an award ceremony and issue their Whole School Reading Award, celebrating the joy of reading for pleasure.

With blended learning and an increase in the use of online platforms, we have seen some great examples of schools maximising these platforms. Falla Hill Primary School would routinely make use of the 'praise function' on Microsoft Teams; this simple action meant that the progress of all learners could be celebrated online in a visible and effective way.

During periods of restriction and being unable to meet in person, schools have taken their activities online, using platforms such as Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams. This has allowed learners to remain in close contact with each other and their teachers, while also enabling reading and storytelling to continue outwith the classroom.

Why not hold a Reading Party in your school? With so many books and genres for inspiration, you could host a variety of themed parties, or perhaps use your party to celebrate the joy of reading, with storytelling, DEAR time and other fun reading challenges and activities.

If your school gives gifts to learners, why not make it a book. Use your celebration events, such as Christmas or Book Week Scotland, to gift books to your learners and have reading a prominent fixture in your school's calendar of celebrations.

Thinking about broadening your Reading Schools journey? Why not form partnerships in your local community? We have seen lovely examples of community leaders and local businesses being invited to school celebration events, from bookshop owners and public librarians, to local councillors and community leaders.

Local and social media are great outlets to not just promote reading, but also to celebrate all of the great work you and your learners are doing. Why not celebrate your reading efforts publicly, like Beancross Primary School who throughout lockdown engaged their local community with book trails and hidden gifts, community DEAR session publicised on social media and engaging with their neighbouring nurseries to really broadcast their message.

Bridge of Allan Primary School ran a series of Bookie Breakfasts and included members of their local community to come along and join in their book related celebrations. In addition they received funding from the Scottish Library and Information Council to create an amazing EAL Reading Café, which has been enjoyed by many families and community members, becoming a great space to share reading achievements and celebrate a love of reading.

Or why not invite local community members to judge your in-school competitions, like Callander Primary School, who asked their local community to help judge their book-themed class door displays and classroom 'Book Neuks'.