Arbroath High School has emerged as one of the national winners in a reading challenge inundated with entries from across the country despite the challenges of lockdown.
The Scottish Book Trust announced the winners of the First Minister’s Reading Challenge 2019-2020 online, with the Angus secondary revealed as the winner of the reading inspiration challenge.
They were recognised for creating a reading culture which includes the whole school community. Judges were impressed by initiatives which included a number of successful events to inspire pupils, particularly their Big Book Swap involving hundreds of youngsters.
The high school also runs a weekly reading group for pupils with additional support needs, pupil suggestion box and manga club.
Arbroath High School head teacher Bruce Pandrich said: “This year’s literacy project has brought us together as a learning community, developing a very positive reading culture through an extraordinary variety of experiences.
“We are enormously proud and pleased about the remarkable achievements of our literacy group, which has been so effective and active throughout the last year.
“It has brought many rich benefits such as the joy and pleasure of reading to our whole school and learning community, which have been recognised in this award.”
Now in its fourth year, the Challenge encourages children to read for pleasure and develop a life-long love of books.
A range of awards recognise the efforts of schools and pupils to support reading for enjoyment and create a reading culture in their school, home or community.
It was initially launched for primaries four to seven and expanded to include all primary and secondary schools as well as libraries and community groups in its third year.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “It is great to see so many young people discover their own love of reading but also help to bring that passion and inspiration to their friends, families, schools and local communities.
“I want schools across Scotland to sign up to the challenge when it launches in August so that we can keep sharing the joy of reading for generations to come.”
