At Wetherby Prep, we believe every boy is a reader, he simply needs the right story to begin.
Reading for Pleasure has been identified as a key marker in academic success, but research in the UK has long highlighted a gender gap in reading enjoyment, with boys statistically less likely to read for pleasure. Yet at Wetherby Prep, our experience tells a different story. When pupils are offered books that speak to their curiosity, humour, and imagination, reading transforms from a requirement into a joy.
Reframing Children’s Literature as a Living Field
One of the key tenets of the way that we run the library is ensuring that the texts that we host represent the diverse backgrounds and reading habits of our students. This is seen in no better way than our half-termly ‘Readerly’ recommendations, which are featured throughout the school, as well as in our weekly newsletter. These are chosen by Mr Kaplan-Smith, Head of Library and TPR, as well as a teacher of English, alongside Mrs Lalji, our School Librarian.
Highlighting the best of newly released children’s books, we run the interest levels across the school by selecting three books for both Lower (Years 3, 4, and 5) and Upper (Years 6, 7, and 8) Schools. For each we select an Approachable, Enthusiast, and Challenger book, meaning that every boy has an entryway into the newest and best in Children’s Literature.
This extends into the library itself, which is being constantly updated based on pupil interest, driven by the engine of the boys’ suggestions and recommendations, hand written and placed around the library to catch the eye and ignite interest.
“Children’s books are constantly evolving and developing, just like our students. Helping them to understand that is key to building tomorrow’s readers.” Says Mr Kaplan-Smith
Meeting Boys Where They Are
As the 21st century moves forward, so to do the ways that boys interact with reading, and we’re happy to meet them where they are. Alongside classics and novels from a range of genres, we also have been building a healthy Graphic Novel section, as well as expanding our non-fiction with lushly illustrated infographics covering topics as wide-ranging as geo-politics, pre-history and anthropology.
This extends to the way that we organise the library, leading by genre and interest rather than simple alphabetisation. This allows students to self-select based on their own interest, and has been a great success, helping ease the process of selecting a book, and speeding up the time to getting stuck into the first chapter.
We also work in tandem with the English department, applying our Approachable, Enthusiast and Challenger system to the class readers, providing accompanying texts that help to support the fantastic learning that happens in the classroom. This could be expanding themes, sharing stylistic elements, or offering a common perspective to the one they’re learning about in their English lessons.
Building Reading Habits
None of this would work without the support outside of the library, and the robust reading culture we have built operates as much beyond the library’s four walls as within it. Each form spends a portion of their form time reading quietly, and each class has thirty minutes during their timetabled classes to spend in the library with a literacy professional, such as their English teacher.
To help support this, the library has extended beyond its physical location, sending ‘mini-libraries’ out into each form room, with a selection of age-appropriate books to help support reading during form time. In addition, we have a wide range of magazines that are delivered to each year group, such as Aquila in Year 5, which is a beautiful blend of fiction and non-fiction around a theme, or The Week Junior in Year 7, which collates the week’s current affairs into a digestible format.
Finally, we run both a Junior and Senior book club, spending an hour each week reading and discussing a shared book, of which they read around 4 a term. The Senior Book Club has the privilege of taking part in the prestigious Carnegie Medal award, reading through the entries and judging which should win the national award.
An Author for Every Boy
While the every-day reading habits are built and developed, we have crescendos in both the Autumn and Spring term where visiting authors come to Wetherby Prep and share their stories and experiences. Each term, every boy has either a talk or a workshop from a visiting author, with recent highlights being Kieran Larwood (Podkin One-Ear, Dungeon Runners) for Years 6 and 7, the Hip-Hop artist and poet Breis for Year 8, and most recently the wildly successful and prolific Cressida Cowell (How to Train Your Dragon, Wizards of Once, Which Way to) who visited Years 3, 4 and 5.
She held a rambunctious and enthusiastic hour of stories about her childhood, her path to becoming an author and illustrator, and held a wonderfully enraptured Q&A session with the boys of our Lower School. Afterwards they were given the opportunity to meet with Cressida, and have books signed.
“The boys remember these talks for years to come,” says Mr Kaplan-Smith. “Often they leads to a deep love of the author’s back catalogue, not to mention all the enthusiasm it builds for reading in general,”
Celebrating Growth and Joy
None of this would work without the enthusiasm and engagement from the student body, and the way we run the library reflects this. Led by fantastic Library Prefects, there is a culture of a shared love of literature that runs throughout the library.
Recommendations are written and adorn the shelves, competitions run throughout the year, and boys can’t help but share what they’re reading, whether with each other or their teachers. While this is centred in the library, it’s by no means limited to that space.
“The enthusiasm around reading in the school has become truly infectious, and that is something I hope each boy can take with them into their senior schools, and life beyond,” reflects Mr Kaplan-Smith.
A Culture of Reading for Life
The combination of the Readerly programme, the enthusiasm of our teaching staff, and the inspiration of visiting authors such as Cressida Cowell has created a thriving culture of literacy at Wetherby Prep.
We aim to cultivate not only capable readers but curious, imaginative thinkers, young people who recognise reading as a lifelong source of learning and joy.
Every book opened, every page turned, and every story shared contributes to that greater goal.
At Wetherby Prep, our boys do not simply learn to read; they learn to love reading, and that is a gift they will carry with them, page by page, into the wider world.
