At Rotherfield we are creating an embedded culture of reading for pleasure. We believe that RfP is a vital part of a holistic education. Not only does it boost academic achievement, but it has benefits across the board! 

The National Literacy Trust’s research has found that children and young people who are the most engaged with literacy are three times more likely to have higher levels of mental wellbeing than children who are the least engaged (39.4% vs 11.8%). 

Reading for pleasure has also been shown to have massive social advantages and can boost children's confidence for many elements of their school life and beyond into their experience of the workplace, and even to support them as adults to help their own children’s learning should they become parents. 

We prioritise reading for pleasure in class through Storytime Sessions, which are timetabled in three times per week across the school: here children have the pleasure of being read to by their teacher simply for the love of storytelling! 

At Rotherfield we have a wonderful library, which is pupil-led; it is run by our fabulous library team (which includes a Young Librarian of the Year National Finalist for 2025!). We also ensure that every class across the school has a half termly visit to our local Islington South Library to choose their own book to take home to read. Every class has a welcoming and well-stocked book corner so that children have a space to read and build their love of reading.  

Alongside their teacher picked guided home reading book, children get to choose a free choice book to take home each week too.  

We run regular parent reader sessions, where our parents come into class and read with their children. This Winter also saw the implementation of Bedtime Books – our hugely popular after school event where stories were told with children and parents, and hot chocolate was served! 

We celebrate our enthusiastic readers and have a Golden Reader for every class per half term.  

We run regular book fairs in the school so that children can browse and buy their own choice of books – and raise money for the school to purchase even more! This year we have also run a Pop-Up Bookshop where children got to choose their own free book donated by The Book People.  

Teachers as readers is an important part of the Rotherfield RfP philosophy and we run a staff book group to help develop our knowledge and love of children’s books.  

Our ‘Get Caught Reading’ photo competition is a beautiful way that we get to see the wonderful (and sometimes very unusual) places that our children choose to read the books that they love at home.