Think about the books you have read that have made you cry, laugh aloud, kept you up until the early hours, made you miss your stop on the train, got you through a difficult time...or perhaps have stayed with you for a lifetime…!

This year will be a National Year of Reading: something we haven’t had since 2008! We will be celebrating this in numerous ways at Balshaw’s – and we really want it to feel like a ‘celebration’, rather than a chore! Please see some suggestions below on how to encourage reluctant readers without making reading feel like ‘more homework’.

The National Year of Reading 2026 is a Department for Education initiative, in collaboration with the National Literacy Trust. The initiative is to reignite a national love of reading, particularly amongst teens.

Research from the Literacy Trust shows that children who enjoy reading are more likely to succeed at school and develop stronger confidence and communication skills, yet many parents report that their children struggle to engage with reading.

So, how can you engage reluctant readers?

  • Graphic novels/Manga
  • Magazines (remember when these used to be an essential high-school staple?)
  • Electronic readers/Kindle App on a phone (some students just prefer reading on screens, and that's okay if it wins half the battle, and on the Kindle App the books are available instantly)
  • Audiobooks (scientifically proven to do all the ‘good stuff’ reading does)
  • Lead with their interests (cars, football, nature- it doesn’t need to be traditional fiction, it can be autobiographies, historical books- or comic books)
  • Watch the film first (can give students a way of visualising the characters and the world)
  • Use a timer (2 minutes a day to start with!)

If we work together, we can help children build confidence, reduce anxiety around reading, and open the door to a lifelong love of stories…one page at a time.

The slogan for this campaign is “Go All In” - and that’s exactly what we need to do. Let’s re-ignite the spark for reading, and prove that it really can be better than Netflix and Tik Tok! You can read more about "Go All In" on their website here.

Please find some useful links to websites where you can find some reading suggestions: