Help us evaluate the Summer Reading Challenge

The Reading Agency is searching for twenty schools to help evaluate the impact of the Challenge on children’s progress and attitudes towards books and reading.

The Summer Reading Challenge is an annual event aimed at 4-11-year-olds. Children are encouraged to read six books of their choice during the summer holidays with collectable incentives and rewards. The Challenge has been running for twenty years, and in January 2019 we were delighted to announce that we were awarded funding from Arts Council England to evaluate the difference our programme makes with our evaluation partner Renaisi. 

To help us do this, we’re in need of twenty primary schools who can help us understand the impact taking part in the Challenge has on children’s progress and attitudes towards books and reading. The Challenge gets children reading for fun during the summer, and helps tackle the ‘summer slide’, a decline in children’s reading frequency and ability during the long holidays. These schools will be invaluable in helping us develop an evidence base on the impact of this fun, free programme on children’s reading enjoyment, confidence and skills.

We are looking for twenty primary schools that:

• Are located in disadvantaged areas of England

• Have a KS2 class/year group where at least 10 students will be participating in the 2020 Challenge

• Are willing to use a lesson time before and after the summer to administer a specifically designed test with this class/year group

Participating schools will be eligible for a range of rewards and prizes, including book collections, vouchers and author visits (pending availability). They will also receive an analysis of their test data for school use, and compensation for their involvement in the evaluation.

Get involved

Please get in touch with Renaisi’s Project Manager for the evaluation Martha Aitken on [email protected] or 020 7033 2626.