In this episode, Claire meets with Heather Wright, a former teacher and founder of Reading Rocks, a project designed to develop the love of reading in children.   
Heather talks about her teaching career and the opportunities she’s had, with the support of her school, to promote the love of reading. She explains the different strategies she has established within her school to assist parents and children develop this. Heather shares some advice on how teachers, schools and parents can develop the love of reading as well as explaining the importance of reading. She outlines the CPD training Reading Rocks offers and explains how reading should be approached in schools and in the classroom. 
Heather and Claire explore the importance of reading and why it is the foundation for every child’s educational journey. They discuss some of the challenges schools and teachers may face with developing the love of reading as well as advice on how to overcome these.  
KEY TAKEAWAYS 

Heather has been at the same school for 15 years and enjoys her role due to the district it belongs to and the challenges it faces. 
She began her teaching career in Year 1 and moved on to teaching Key Stage 2. She was also the IT co-ordinator. After her maternity leave, Heather choose to work part-time and due to this she lost her TLR role. 
As a part-time class teacher Heather’s headteacher saw the potential and creativity she had. With the support of her colleagues, they began reading research as they knew the impact reading for pleasure had on children’s future.  
The ‘Year of Reading’ project started in 2014/15 as a whole school project to promote the love of reading within children. Children were exposed to various texts and reading materials to support them with their reading journey and ability.  
One of the first campaigns within the project was ‘The Big Bedtime Read’ which is now well established and happens every year at her school.  


When the idea was introduced to parents at the school, Heather anticipated around 30 parents, but to her surprise around 400 people gathered in the school field around the campfire, some in their pyjamas with a teddy and a book just simply reading.  
Despite working at a school with a high percentage of Pupil Premium (PP) children and low parental involvement, Heather and her team were able to create an environment where reading was promoted and celebrated for parents and children.   
Heather and her team contacted the local rabbit rescue centre and welcomed ‘Bug Bunnies’. Children in Key Stage 1 then read to the rabbits.  
Throughout that academic year, Heather used social media as a platform to promote the work she was doing in her school. She also used this medium to contact and interact with authors and illustrators. 
Heather held her first reading conference with an audience of 150 people. She held another conference due to high demand and this allowed the opportunity for schools and teachers to share their hard work.  


These two conferences ran through the school’s administration but now the conferences are delivered by Reading Rocks and take place across the country.  
To support children with reading and help them develop the love of reading, Heather suggests that we should read to children and find our own passion for reading and share that with the children. Young children’s interest should be linked to the text that they are reading or is being read to them. She suggests that girls and boys should not be classed as two separate groups. What is done for the girls should be done for the boys.  
Books should be for all and everyone should be included.  
She tried to incorporate STEM to develop the love of reading.  
Heather suggests that we should reduce the pressure of reading i.e. not saying “we are sitting down to read rather” normalising and making it feel natural.   


Children need to build a familiarity with the books they read.  
Heather believes that the ‘love of reading’ cannot be taught, but the lov