This week marks the celebration of World Book Day on Thursday 7th March 2024. World Book Day’s mission is to promote reading for pleasure, offering every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own. Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income. We want to see more children with a life-long habit of reading for pleasure and the improved life chances this brings them.

World Book Day was created by UNESCO on 23rd April 1995 as a worldwide celebration of books and reading. World Book Day is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. The first World Book Day in the UK and Ireland took place in 1997 to encourage young people to discover the pleasure of reading. As World Book Day founder, Baroness Gail Rebuck, recalls “We wanted to do something to reposition reading and our message is the same today as it was then – that reading is fun, relevant, accessible, exciting, and has the power to transform lives.”

This week, students in KCS are getting involved in different activities to help promote reading for pleasure and enhance literacy skills, including ‘Caught Reading’, ‘Speeding Read Dating’, ‘Book Club Movie Watch’, ‘Book Recommendations’ etc.

Here are a few tips for parents on how you can help to encourage your child/children to become active readers.

1. Allow children to choose books and reading material. Giving your child the freedom to choose their own books will help them to find ones that are of interest to them and encourage reading for pleasure. Regularly visit libraries for your children to pick out new books.

2. Make it a part of your routine. Making time for reading in your everyday life will make it feel more natural and habitual. Schedule a specific time during the day when your child is expected to engage in reading.

3. Praise and give attention for reading but be careful about material rewards. Research finds that offering rewards for reading (such as giving candy for reading a certain number of pages) increases reading but not necessarily motivation to read for pleasure in the future.

4. Model reading for pleasure. Let your children see you reading for pleasure and tell them about the books you are reading. If you read on your phone or a tablet, make sure they know when you are reading.

5. Read to your children to encourage a love of books. Even after your children learn to read independently, continue to read to them to foster a love of books.