The Next Chapter

The Next Chapter is a project working with small groups of students in year 9 or year 10 who don’t currently read for pleasure.

There is evidence to show there is a large gap in achievement between secondary school students who read books for pleasure and those who do not (OECD, 2010; Mol and Bus, 2011) and further studies suggest that there is a positive relationship between reading frequency, reading enjoyment and attainment.

We want young people to enjoy reading and not just see it as something they have to do in their English lessons and that's where the The Next Chapter project came to fruition!

The project launched in in the Summer term of 22/23 with a pilot programme at Finham Park 2 School in Coventry and ran five sessions looking at snippets of five different books that vary in genre, length, style, a new book each session.

Students took part in a comfortable environment where they can relax and start to recognise the enjoyment in reading.

The books were played on Audible and students were able to read along to the book as well with the session facilitated by ThinkHigher. The aim is for students to experience a relaxing environment and enjoy some of the different types of books the world has to offer and then feeling empowered to continue reading independently once the five weeks finish.

They might start their journey into becoming a person who reads for pleasure and then prosper from the benefits that brings. We want the pilot of this project to start with small groups to try and remove the pressure from peers and remove the stigma around a culture that reading books is not fashionable or cool (Wilkinson et al 2020).

We are extremely excited to announce that we are continuing The Next Chapter this academic year after the success of the pilot and are working with a number of schools in the local area including Finham Park 2 and Stoke Park.