Reading Schools Accreditation
Through the creative work and leadership of class teacher Dr Kirsten Fenton and Junior School librarians, Georgina Tibai and Rebekah Fieschi, the Junior School has successfully moved from Core to Silver Accreditation with the Scottish Book Trust. The Junior School is now one of only 190 schools across Scotland to have achieved a Silver Accreditation. You can read more about how we achieved our Core Accreditation here.
Gaining Silver Accreditation demonstrates that the Junior School has moved beyond established reading routines to sustaining a vibrant, whole-school reading culture, offering pupils wider experiences such as author visits, pupil-led initiatives, book discussions and meaningful engagement with families and the wider community.
To create such a strong reading culture, Junior School staff make reading fun and accessible through innovative initiatives such as last January’s “New Year Readolution” where students gave book recommendations to teachers; “Reading Buddies” where some of our older children read with our youngest; and taking part in national celebrations such as KILTS which aims to have as many schools collectively reading Scottish authors on St Andrews Day.
Next up, our Junior School will aim for the Scottish Book Trust’s highest accreditation: Gold. Meanwhile, the Senior School is working towards achieving its Core Accreditation.
National Read-Aloud Challenge
Along with its new accreditation, the Junior School was named the Scottish winner of the 2025 National Read-Aloud Challenge. Only 12 schools across the UK were awarded this prestigious prize.
“Your pupils’ enthusiasm, effort and love for reading aloud this summer have been nothing short of inspiring,” the judges said.
The challenge encourages students to read throughout the summer, building confidence, fluency and a love of books. Students read aloud into Fonetti, an app powered by speech recognition technology that listens to the students read in real time, providing encouragement, corrections and celebrating progress. The app rewards students with certificates for reaching various milestones and allows schools to compete against one another.
A huge congratulations to all our keen Junior School readers, and a special thanks to the fantastic teachers and staff who keep the love of reading alive in our schools!
