INSPIRATIONAL teacher Georgie Lax has won a Reading for Pleasure Teacher Award for the second year in a row.

Georgie inspires young readers at Starcross Primary School and lives in Teignmouth.

The winners of The Farshore Reading for Pleasure Teacher Awards 2022, in association with the Open University and the UK Literacy Association (UKLA), have been announced, revealing how teachers have found innovative ways to inspire reading for pleasure in the classroom.

Each year since its launch in 2017, the awards have revealed the determination and passion of teachers to get children reading. The teachers who entered the 2022 awards were just as equally passionate and continued to display inventiveness in original and surprising ways.

Farshore’s 2022 Reading for Pleasure research showed that in 2021 reading for pleasure amongst children remained low, with only 25% of children saying they read daily or nearly every day for pleasure, rather than for schoolwork, meaning teachers have an even more vital role to play.

Reading for pleasure is a simple solution to help with academic attainment, social mobility and mental health issues post-pandemic but the research shows that 64% of 0-17s would rather watch TV, play video games or go online than read books.

This year’s entries saw teachers at schools across the length and breadth of the UK united in a mission to get children and their families reading, despite the continued disruption caused by the pandemic, cost of living crisis and budgetary constraints.

This is the second impressive win for Georgie Lax after winning the Experienced Teacher category in 2021.

In the Whole School category, at her school, Starcross Primary in Exeter, they established a Change Team of passionate teachers and teaching assistants from across all year groups with an aim of increasing knowledge of current and new authors, with a focus on poetry.

Ensuring that every child was represented in the books they read, the award judges got a real sense of reading for pleasure being woven into the fabric of the school, evidenced by many projects including staff adding ‘what I am reading’ inserts to their lanyards, pairing older and younger children to become reading buddies and many more truly impressive initiatives.

Feedback from both parents and children has been positive, and the school itself has observed that KS1 SATS reading results being 10% higher than in 2019 and the frequency in which KS2 children are changing Accelerated Reader books has increased.

For her school, Georgie won £250 worth of Farshore books, 20 copies of Help Your Child Love Reading, and a year’s subscription to Beano Magazine.

Georgie said the award was ‘an amazing way to start the new school year.

‘I am already so excited about all the upcoming RfP plans we have for Starcross’.

Cally Poplak, executive publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books and Farshore, said: ‘Judging these awards is a highlight of the year for me – this is about the strategies teachers and reading champions use to open up children’s life chances by turning them into enthusiastic readers.

‘This is something that should be available to every child and Farshore is proud to shine a spotlight on such inspirational work.’

The Reading for Pleasure Awards 2022 were judged by:

► Joy Court, Co-founder: All Around Reading

► Teresa Cremin, Professor of Education, The Open University

► Alison David, Consumer Insight Director, Farshore

► Fiona Evans, Head of Schools Programmes, NLT

► Cally Poplak, Executive Publisher, Farshore Books

► David Reedy, UK Literacy Association

► Mike Stirling, Creative Director, Beano Studios