Library Lifeline part 9: Using your pupils’ love of sport to encourage reading for pleasure

Welcome to the ninth blog in our series, Library Lifeline, written in association with the School Library Association. This series is designed to support anyone working in a school library by answering their questions directly. If you have a question that you’d like to ask our ‘agony aunt’ – the School Library Association’s Member Development Librarian, Dawn Woods – then please email us at worldofstories@literacytrust.org.uk and your question may be the focus of a future blog!

How can we use a child's love of football to nurture an interest in reading non-fiction for pleasure

This week’s question focuses on an issue that teachers and librarians often face when trying to engage their more reluctant readers with reading for pleasure.

There are many distractions, competing interests and other activities that children might enjoy doing in their free which means reading falls by the wayside. Recent research from the National Literacy Trust around reading for pleasure and children's engagement with reading in their free time testifies to this decline. However, although it can be a challenge to try and engage reluctant readers who would rather be outside or taking part in sport, there is also an opportunity here to tap into an often underutilised source of reading inspiration.

Expand your range of non-fiction or sports-themed books

There are many stories about all kinds of sports and many of these non-fiction books provide a brilliant way in to reading. In your library, you could consider leveraging calendar moments like Non-Fiction November or major sporting moments like the Football World Cup as a motivator to explore information books on sport and more specifically football, both which are fantastic ways to entice children into reading for pleasure.

At the National Literacy Trust there is a whole team dedicated to encouraging children's literacy through their love of sport. Find out more about their work and access free sports and literacy-related resources.

It’s worth remembering that reading for pleasure is not just about cosying up with a fantastic story – for some, reading non-fiction is a great source of enjoyment.

There are an incredible range of information books at the moment and there are some great series covering favourite sports stars from all backgrounds. These include the following series:

• Football rising stars
• Football legends
• Ultimate football heroes

These books are not lengthy, which can be a great way to encourage children to work through a series or feel a sense of more instant achievement. The titles listed will also help children see the dedication and the effort that athletes give to their chosen career and hopefully find this inspirational.

Another avenue might be books that major on fun facts and statistics – fastest athlete, quickest goal, most goals, furthest distance covered, which teams have consistently won or lost. These books might appeal more to children who gravitate towards information rather than stories or fiction.

You can further expand your range of sports-themed books by finding out about any tie-in books which many publishers produce around the time of any major sports tournament. Such books often highlight the teams and players, stats and also information on the countries involved. Check out our football-related booklists for recommendations.

Using pupils’ love of football across the wider curriculum

A child's love of sports and activities like football can not only help them engage with reading but could be used within the classroom and linked into the curriculum. For example:

• Football or the Olympics to support a study in geography – where are the teams' or sport peoples' countries? You could use a sports person's country of origin as a springboard for your geography lesson, or devise a quiz on locations of previous tournaments using country clues and the library resources to answer
• The history of games – brilliant during the Olympics for Ancient Greece
• Maths can link into forecasting results with probability and how many points your favourite team needs to stay in the tournament.

Often you don’t even have to devise these yourself. Check out resources like the Sports and Literacy team's Euro 24 Book Battle Reading Challenge or the activities in partnership with the Premier League to help you plan activities and book chat around sport.

During a major tournament successful author Tom Palmer often posts an ongoing story chapter by chapter according to who gets knocked out and any significant linked events and has done this for football tournaments.

Discover our Sports and Literacy activities

If you're still in need of some motivation to enjoy sport and reading, discover our Sports and Literacy activities, programmes and resources. During major tournaments we even run World Cup Reading Challenge accompanied by attendant book lists and wall charts.

The School Library Association have a football booklist available to all too.

Enlisting extra reading encouragement from your school community

Think about staff members whom you can enlist to instigate book chat and talk about what they are reading themselves to inspire those pupils who need a little extra inspiration around reading for pleasure.

Non-Fiction November and a major world sports tournament make for the perfect opportunity to create a real sense of community around sport and reading. You could take small steps or implement initiatives that can have a big impact on the excitement and buzz created around football and reading in the long term.

This could include:

• Encouraging coach-led book chat at the end of PE lessons
• The school sports team captains talking in assemblies about titles they have read related to their sport
• Do you have a local football club whose players might pop in to do brief book chats or listen to pupils read? This is a popular initiative when in place, and can really create a wider community feel around your school’s reading culture
• Ask your Pupil Librarians to make a display on sports books in your school library. Add a gallery of photographs of the book jackets, and incorporate fun props and football paraphernalia to further bring the display to life

With a little effort, book chat around football and non-fiction can be an excellent way to engage more children with the library and its activities, including those who previously did not think that the library could provide them with recreational reading linked to their passion for sport.