Shared Practice: Achieved Gold? What next ? How to stay shiny (May 2025 recording)

This is a collection of one presentation and two interviews from a live webinar event held in May 2025, discussing sustaining a reading for pleasure focus in school and planning beyond Reading Schools accreditation, together with great practice examples, top tips and pointers. The recordings feature a presentation from the Reading Schools team, together with interviews with Annbank Primary School's Deputy Head Teacher Caroline Tonner and the chair of CILIPS School Libraries Group Scotland Dr Graham Fairweather.

This content directly relates to key areas 1.3.1 whole school action plan, to support the continuation, development and sustainment of reading for pleasure practice. We recommend watching these recordings and downloading the presentation below if you are interested in exploring ways to promote and support ongoing readership and reading for pleasure activity in your school. Please visit our CLPL calendar(this will open in a new window) for other upcoming and recorded sessions.

Introduction

Scottish Book Trust's Liam McCallum introduces the session, profiles the schools both reaccredited and working towards reaccreditation and shares some of the information gleaned from survey responses and the Reading Schools 23/24 evaluation.

Interview: Caroline Tonner

Annbank Primary School's Caroline Tonner speaks with Scottish Book Trust's Clara Owen about her school's journey to Reading Schools Gold accreditation, the legacy this has left and what the future plans are for sustaining a reading for pleasure focus across the school and wider community.

Interview: Dr Graham Fairweather

Clara then chats with the High School of Glasgow's Dr Graham Fairweather, exploring his experience in leading and supporting schools to Gold accreditation, how a school may wish to approach the concept of accreditation and how to ensure a reading culture remains a priority in schools.

Breakout discussion

We would like to thank all of the attendees for participating in our breakout discussion, where we shared ideas, challenges and advice on sustaining a reading for pleasure focus and accredited status. We also showcased a draft resource document to assist with reflection activity following accreditation and in readiness for reaccreditation – this is a working document and will be made available to all schools once the final edits have been completed.

Related resources

There are other resources that you may also find of interest to support the key area outlined above:

• Use our 'ready to go' presentation templates, like our introducing Reading Schools assembly presentation template(this will open in a new window)
• Explore our resources to facilitate discussions and activities around reading identities(this will open in a new window)
• Continue surveying your learners(this will open in a new window) to find out what their interests are and how to meet their reading needs
• Explore ways to support your learners to respond to what they are reading(this will open in a new window) for pleasure
• Check out our new community page(this will open in a new window), to find great practice from fellow schools across Scotland
• Join our Schools Network on Microsoft Teams – a space for learning professionals across Scotland to connect, share practice and access support