Books about Town (BaT) for Schools is a creative literacy project focused on raising levels of reading for enjoyment through the use of whole text. In this report, we share our findings from an evaluation of the second phase of the BaT for Schools programme, which found that teachers’ confidence in teaching whole texts and pupils’ attitudes to reading and enjoyment of reading improved significantly over the course of the project.
Funded by the Man Charitable Trust, the project ran between February 2015 and January 2016.
After taking part in the project, teachers improved their understanding of reading enjoyment and using whole texts, felt more confident teaching whole texts and became more familiar with evidence-based approaches to teaching literacy. The percentage of pupils that enjoyed reading rose from 53.8% at the start of the project to 69.5% at the end of the project.
The report’s findings were drawn from pre and post online surveys of teachers and pupils. In this delivery of BaT, 34 teachers from 18 schools were involved in a three-day CPD and more than 2,600 Key Stage 2 and 3 pupils benefited from teaching influenced by BaT training.