A Plymouth primary school teacher has won a top award in a national competition which promotes reading for pleasure in schools.
Eve Vollans, reading and phonics lead at Mayflower Community Academy in Ham Drive, received the Experienced Teacher Award in the Egmont Reading for Pleasure Teacher Awards.
The Awards, run in association with the Open University and the UK Literacy Association, were launched in 2017 to promote reading for pleasure in schools.
2020 marked the most competitive competition to date with a 66% increase in submissions.
Eve was recognised for her reading initiative called ‘From Beginners to Bookish Bletherers’ aimed at motivating Key Stage 2 boy readers.
Eve wanted to support the boys with reading skills and to give them opportunities to enjoy and discover new texts and ways of reading.
She gave them bespoke reading packages, every Friday the boys arranged a one minute book review session which is posted on Twitter and even included outdoor reading. The boys were keen, enthusiastic, and their reading attainment increased as a result of Eve’s work.
Eve received an individual award, Egmont books to the value of £250 for her school and 20 copies of Help Your Child Love Reading by Alison David.
“We were so impressed with the creative, innovative and entertaining ideas that were demonstrated in the submissions,” said Alison David, consumer insight director at Egmont Books.
“From our research we know how important it is that children read for pleasure. The interesting thing about reading for pleasure is that you can’t teach it! It is not a set of skills to acquire. Teaching reading is teaching literacy, it’s incredibly important, but not to be confused with helping children establish a lifelong love of reading, simply for the pure joy of it.
“However, reading for pleasure can be shared, modelled, and encouraged. These amazing teachers and schools, with their inspirational research-informed ideas, understand that.”
Teresa Cremin, Professor of Education at the Open University said:
“We know that teachers are under immense pressure to deliver results, and can find it challenging to make time within the curriculum for fostering reading for pleasure. But the social, emotional and cognitive benefits of reading for pleasure is unquestionable.”
