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Buster’s Book Club

The club that creates reading millionaires!

Buster’s Book Club is making reading fun

Nearly 20,000 children and families in Kent, Medway, Bexley, Bromley and Sussex have been using the successful reading reward scheme Buster’s Book Club in 2020-21 in what has proved to be a very different and challenging year!

In spite of all the challenges – the bubbles; isolating; class/school closures – the pupils will have read a combined total of over 4 million minutes this academic year which is a fantastic achievement!

If your school wants to join in the fun, we are now signing up schools for the new academic year 2021-22 and we would love to have your pupils join us.

The initiative is designed to make reading fun and encourages children to read what they enjoy (including comics; magazines; non-fiction titles, recipe books etc – whatever they choose!) outside of the classroom environment. There are year group reading minutes targets to give pupils something to aim for but reaching your ‘target’ is less important than improving week to week. It doesn’t matter if a child reads 100 minutes or five minutes they will all be contributing to their class and school success. They record their reading minutes on a bookmark, which is ‘signed off’ by a parent/carer/older sibling providing another opportunity to engage families in the child’s reading journey.

Classes are encouraged to read a little bit more each week and increase their overall class reading minutes total. In schools there is recognition for a Star Reader in each class every week and an overall school Reading Class of the Week as well as Bronze, Silver and Gold badges available. Awards are based on effort and improvement as well as reading minute totals and schools can set their own in-house challenges such as the most unusual  (but safe!) place to read at home.

There are regular inter-school, district and county challenges with prizes including book bundles; class resources such as mapping games and STEM building sets; school visits by storytellers, authors or celebrities and visits by organisations such as Creepy Claws, Kickstart Sports, Dot Kids and occasionally a visit from Buster Bug himself! The competitive element has been shown to motivate many children – and teachers – and can help foster peer-to-peer support and encouragement across the class. Plus all the pupils reading together can become Reading Millionaires!

Giving awards and prizes for reading for enjoyment, gives schools fantastic success stories to celebrate in assembly as well as in newsletters to parents/carers – ramping up the motivation for the pupils to read even more.

Why is reading at home important for pupils?

According to research by the National Literacy Trust:

“Overall, nearly 4 in 10 (37.5%) of those who never read outside class read below the level expected for their age.”

“Children and young people who read below the expected level for their age are four times as likely to say that they rarely or never read outside class (38.6%) compared with those who read above the level expected for their age (9.9%).”

“There are also clear relationships between children’s and young people’s reading skills and the length of time they read…..nearly nine times as many young people who read above the expected level for their age read for longer than one hour compared with young people who read below the expected level. Conversely, young people who read below the expected level for their age are three times as likely to say that they read for up to 10 minutes compared with young people who read above the expected level.” 

In addition, this has been a tough 16 months and research by the Education Policy Institute and Renaissance Learning in their ‘Understanding Progress in the 2020 – 2021 Academic Year’ report for the Department for Education reveals that for reading, the learning loss by the end of the spring term was an average of 2.2 months for primary pupils. 

To find out more, sign up and join the fun, or renew for Buster’s Book Club, please contact Kay Devine at kdevine@thekmgroup.co.uk or complete the form below.

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Literacy case study

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Book club engages whole school community

  At every primary school there are pupils for whom reading is a challenging experience. And Baird Primary Academy in Hastings was no exception to this rule. A number of the school’s pupils were firmly positioned in the reluctant-reader category, viewing books as something to be...
Posted On 22 Feb 2019
, By Ben Skelton
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Pupil transformed by reading reward scheme

Jacob Phillips hated reading. He avoided it with something approaching dedication. But when his school joined the KM Charity Team’s reading reward scheme, he channeled that dedication and buried his head in books instead – and it’s stayed there ever since. The eight-year-old...
Posted On 23 Apr 2018
, By Liz Nicholls

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More literacy stories

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Specsavers promote Buster’s Book Club

  Staff from Specsavers branches in Kent have been promoting a reading reward scheme to families on the High Street. This term schools have another chance to sign up to Buster’s Book Club which encourages children to read at home for pleasure and sets challenges that can...
Posted On 02 Sep 2019
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Free swimming for reading champs

  A Crawley leisure centre has thrown its weight behind primary school literacy initiative Buster’s Book Club. Everyone Active’s K2 leisure centre will provide free-swim vouchers to the pupils of winning classes in the reading reward scheme. The club uses competitions and...
Posted On 09 May 2019
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Easter trail promises chocolate rewards

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Posted On 09 Apr 2019
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