The Reading Journey is a digital reading journal for primary schools. Drawing on the latest research, the app is designed to support the development of a child’s own reading identity and help schools build strong reading communities and promote reading for pleasure.

For pupils

The Reading Journey app allows children to build a digital bookshelf of books they have read, with opportunities to rate the books and record their comments as either text or audio entries. As their digital bookshelf grows, children can see how their reading identity has developed over time.

Choice and agency are at the heart of The Reading Journey, which is designed to help schools build a holistic view of children’s reading. As well as books from the class or school library, children can upload covers of books from home, magazines, comics and wider reading material such as football programmes or guidebooks. Children are also asked to record whether this was an independent choice or a book chosen by a parent or teacher.

For teachers

A Teacher Dashboard provides an at-a-glance overview of each child’s reading as well as valuable insights into popular titles and patterns of reading across the class. These insights can then be used to recommend books to other children and to spark and encourage book talk.

In-app stickers and messaging allow teachers to celebrate progress or provide encouragement to individual pupils, while parents can also use the app to log reading time and share messages about their child’s reading directly with the teacher.

Schools that sign up for The Reading Journey receive a support package that includes:

• An introduction to the app.
• Online training on The Reading Journey approach, with tools to help schools audit, develop and review their practice.
• Access to termly network meetings.

The Reading Journey is available as a whole-school annual subscription. The cost varies according to the number of pupils.

Cost: From £695 ex VAT to £1295 + VAT for new schools. From £235 ex VAT to £595 ex VAT for resubscribing schools.

About Just Imagine: Just Imagine was established in 2010 by Nikki Gamble, a former teacher and university lecturer and author of Exploring Children’s Literature: Reading for Knowledge, Understanding and Pleasure. The literacy consultancy provides training and resources for schools in the UK and abroad to help them develop outstanding reading and writing practice, where stories and literature are placed firmly at the heart of learning.