The winners of the First Minister’s Reading Challenge 2020-21 have been announced online by the Children’s Laureate and bestselling author of the How To Train Your Dragon series, Cressida Cowell (above).
Now in its fifth year, the First Minister’s Reading Challenge is run by Scottish Book Trust, the national charity changing lives through reading and writing.
The awards recognise the efforts of schools and pupils to support reading for enjoyment and create a reading culture in their school, home or community. All those who submitted this year will receive book tokens, with the winners also receiving a trophy.
The First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “Reading is something that always brings me joy, and no matter how I am feeling there’s something to match my mood. During the pandemic, it has been a lifeline, and I know it has been for countless others.
“The reading challenge was launched to inspire as many young people as possible to discover a joy of reading, and I have been so impressed with all the innovative work schools and communities have been doing this year, rising to the challenge of doing this during these extraordinary times, and doing so with great ingenuity.
“Huge congratulations to the winners, as well as everyone who submitted incredible entries.”
The national winner, receiving the School Reading Journey Award, was Grange Primary School in Angus.
Their submission was full of fun and innovative ideas, from moving their Reading Café to pupils’ homes to their virtual book fair. The impact on families and pupils was clear and the work of the support staff was highlighted for their dedication.
Victoria Tweed, Acting Headteacher at Grange Primary School said: “We have a real culture of reading for pleasure here at Grange Primary School and it’s very much led by the children, which makes us super proud to have won the School Reading Journey part of the First Minster’s Reading Challenge.”
The national winner for the Reading Inspiration Challenge was Preston Lodge High School in East Lothian.
Their entry was put together by their superstar school librarian and promoted reading with a variety of events despite the school closure. They ran a Virtual Library Escape Room and lockdown library clubs and the panel commended their creativity and resilience on trying new ideas to keep the whole school reading.
For the School & Community Partnership Reading Journey Award category, there were some fantastic community engagement ideas, despite the challenges with Covid-19 restrictions.
The national winner for the School & Community Partnership was Elphinstone Primary School in East Lothian.
The judges felt that the partnerships this school built around reading for pleasure were incredibly meaningful and placed reading at the centre of their community with their Elphy Tales project. They worked closely with a local storyteller to embed storytelling into everyday school life, including during lockdown.
The national Gaelic Medium Education (GME) Reading Journey was awarded to Goodlyburn Primary School in Perth & Kinross.
The judges felt that they had gone above and beyond since winning the category in 2018, introducing an exciting and inclusive project called Mother Tongue to Other Tongue and integrating popular genres across their work. The school worked hard to embed books and reading across their GME curriculum.
The Community Reading Culture award celebrates the groups who work outside of school to give young people further opportunities to read for pleasure. The national winner of the Community Reading Culture award was Heriot Mini Book Bank in Scottish Borders.
Their entry stood out to the judging panel due to the creative ways they managed to keep their reading culture going in such a rural area, despite all the restrictions. When they had to close, they took reading on the road in their very remote community with their Book Bike and held an inspiring virtual author event.
This year, the Pupil Reading the Most Books award was won by Camryn from Seaton School in Aberdeen, who read 49 books.
The national winner of the School Reading the Most Books was Crosshouse Primary School in South Lanarkshire. With a pupil role of 401 they have read 3868 books over the course of the Reading Challenge.
For the Pupil Reading Journey award category, there were five national winners:
- Mrs Jalland’s Primary 1 class at Carmuirs Primary School in Falkirk. The Primary 1s did a whole range of activities led by their favourite books, and even ran a project with a school in America. It was clear the children took ownership of their reading journeys, taking part in Everyone Reading in Class (ERIC) time and listening to each other’s stories.
- Primary 2 class at Oakgrove Primary School, Glasgow. The Primary 2 class focused their reading journey around their class story, and used that as inspiration for lots of reading activities, from designing a home to exploring feelings. They were very creative in their entry, showing enthusiasm for the class story through all of their wonderful ideas.
- Primary 4A at Newington Primary School in Dumfries & Galloway. The class put together an entry detailing all of their reading throughout the year, what they’ve done in school and at home, and what they’ve enjoyed the most. They even managed to create some great links with their local community during lockdown.
- The Primary 5 award was received by Finn who is home-schooled at Fields Schoolhouse in Angus. The judges were impressed by Finn’s enthusiasm and determination to read during the pandemic. He was commended for extending and developing his knowledge and interest in farming by reading the Farmer’s Guide and being interviewed by them regarding his very own egg business.
- Caleb from Findochty Primary in Moray was awarded the Primary 6 Pupil Reading Journey award. The judges were impressed by the progress Caleb had achieved in his reading this year and by his initiative to ask for help when needed.
The First Minister’s Reading Challenge was launched in 2016 for Primaries 4 to 7 and expanded to include all primary and secondary schools as well as libraries and community groups in its third year.
Scottish Book Trust, the national charity changing lives through reading and writing, delivers this exciting reading initiative on behalf of the Scottish Government and every school in Scotland is invited to take part.
From Monday 14 June to Friday 18 June, Scottish Book Trust is hosting the First Minister’s Reading Challenge Festival, with digital events that schools can join online via their website.
Events include creative writing with Patrice Lawrence, a draw along with Ross Collins and a wildlife walk with Hamza Yassin. Events will be available to watch on demand until the end of August.
Marc Lambert, CEO of Scottish Book Trust, said: “Congratulations to all our First Minister’s Reading Challenge awardees. It’s wonderful to see schools across Scotland reading for pleasure and building reading cultures in the classroom and at home.
“Thank you to our funders for making this programme possible, and to Cressida Cowell for announcing our amazing winners. We hope everyone will enjoy our first ever celebration festival, which can be joined from our website.”
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