School challenge sees pupils go to extreme lengths to enjoy reading

Pupils have gone to some unlikely places to lose themselves in a book as part of an extreme reading challenge.

Heacham Infant and Nursery and Heacham Junior schools, part of the West Norfolk Academies Trust, launched the extreme reading challenge last year, before the first lockdown, as a way of making reading more fun. 

Heacham primary pupil take to unusual locations to enjoy a book as part of school's extreme reading challenge. - Credit: DNAT

But while normal school was shut down it became a whole new imaginative way of learning.

Assistant head Catherine Bennet and English lead Claire Chadderton asked families to send in pictures of pupils reading in unusual locations, and got replies including hiding in a cupboard and even on a roof. 

Heacham primary pupil enjoys book with lizards as part of school's extreme reading challenge. - Credit: WNAT

“The extreme reading challenge was a bit of fun, but also a way to encourage them to regard reading as a leisure activity, not just something to do with schoolwork, and it seems to have worked, so we hope we can encourage them to be lifelong readers," said Louise Jackson, executive headteacher.