I am fascinated by the part relationships play in the complex process – the skill and the will – of learning to read. If you retraced your personal reading journey, who would you find signposting the way for your reading development and your enjoyment of books? You may have forgotten the contributors who helped direct your route into literacy. Whether you remember them or not, whether they were sages or guides or both, I believe they left their mark.
I hadn’t. Not until I found him hiding in Dave’s basket of books in the Acorns’ charity shop in Ledbury last week. I read him from cover to cover, bought him for 50p, and brought him home with me.
Last year, my motto was: “Make reading come alive in 2025!”.
The year before that, my motto was: “Has learning to read become a bore and a chore in 2024?”.
I think I’m going to adopt this motto for the year ahead: “Keep reading ’til it sticks in 2026”.
I started this website in January 2020. I wrote my first blog post on Monday 8th January 2020 and gave it the title ‘3 books about belonging’. In the last paragraph, I wrote:
‘Although I have not found my place in the education system, I have not lost my enjoyment of teaching children. Ledbury is my home. I believe my qualifications, skills and experience are valuable and I am looking for a way to use them for the benefit of my community.’
It’s 31st December 2025 and I’m evaluating my attempts to reach the objective I set out for myself on 1st January 2025 – ‘let reading come alive in 2025’:
I’m following a wise man’s advice (aka Theodore Roosevelt) and continuing to do what I can, with what I have, where I am. As the epidemic of loneliness persists, mental health concerns rise, and reading for enjoyment hits crisis levels, the need to take off anxiety, take off pressure, take off stress, relax into reading and bond through books is greater than ever.
Here’s an outline of some of my recent efforts to build and strengthen relationships in families and communities through shared reading…
I bought this copy of ‘Read With Me: An Apprenticeship Approach to Reading’ by Liz Waterland in the Marjon’s bookshop in Plymouth during my initial teacher training. It still bears my maiden name inside the front cover. I have treasured the book since the late 1980s. The title was the inspiration behind my ‘Read with Julia’ website and YouTube channel.
On Thursday 16th October, amid news of the UK government’s target for 90% of 5-6 year old pupils to reach the expected standard in the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check (PSC), my family attended the funeral of our dearly beloved friend, Jan Britton, at Margam Crematorium in Wales.
Jan was an Early Years’ teacher. Her career began in East London and continued in Plymouth (where we met). From her eulogy, we learned that Jan had kept in touch with the children she taught – from the day they started school, into their sixties. We also heard stories and saw photos which portrayed the part shared reading played in Jan’s relationships with her pupils, her three children, and her eight grandchildren.
Probably the most constructive classroom observation I ever received came from the lips of an 8 year old.
If my memory serves me correctly, her name was Hannah and she would have been 8 when she joined my Year 4 class in September 1992. I must have been roughly halfway through my first year as a Newly Qualified Teacher at Bradwell Village Middle School, Milton Keynes when she shared her spot-on observation,
Once upon a post, She stood and stared, Looked out into a valley Full of bones And very dry.
“Can these bones live?” She saw the dark despair of death, She saw no sign of life, nor breath…
“Can these bones live?” She did not know, yet dared to hope, She listened to the Voice that spoke…
“Can these bones live?” She sensed a power beyond her own, She knew that she was not alone…
I penned this poem a couple of Saturdays ago, as I pondered the state of reading relationships in our world today. The more I think about it, the more convinced I become that readers are born through relationships.
On Monday 15th September, I was delighted to give a screen-free assembly at Ledbury Primary School to celebrate International Dot Day. I wore my dotty dress for the occasion, which I found in a local charity shop (it was originally from Boden, don’t you know, AND it has pockets).
The welcome greeting in the foyer of Ledbury Primary School
I took a bag with me, which I had received as a gift from Hayden and the Gardiner family when he moved on from my reception class at Ledbury Primary School in July 2022. In my bag, I carried a selection of books, including a poetry book, a picturebook and a children’s hymn book.
‘Superdog’ by Roderick Hunt and Alex Brychta
Oxford Reading Tree Stage 9
I was overjoyed to find a 50p Floppy favourite in the Acorn’s charity shop last Saturday. I couldn’t hold back my delight and, before I knew it, I was reading page 30 aloud to Dave at the counter.
My 3 children loved the Biff, Chip and Kipper stories. When my youngest started bringing them home from school, his older sisters would raid his book bag so they could read them again.
I’d like to pass on a heartfelt thank you to whoever preserved this wonderful Oxford Reading Tree book. Many ended up in the skip when the books didn’t fit in with the latest phonics fashion. Those who had to slog their way through the reading scheme year after year after year were only too glad to see them go, but let me share with you the joy I still find in these pages…
Read with Julia