Welcome pupils back, help them to settle into the routine of a new school year and kickstart your Reading for Pleasure campaign with this selection of booklists and resources.

Starting school booklists and resources

• Booktrust and Books for Topics both have Starting School booklists featuring a selection of picture books for children starting in reception or nursery.
• The National Literacy Trust has created teaching resources based on picture books Ruby’s Worry and Ravi’s Roar by Tom Percival to help young children settle into their new nursery or classroom environment and develop their language and literacy skills. The lesson plans are available to download with the NLT’s free membership.
• Get ideas on how to use stories and rhymes to support the transition from nursery to primary school with Scottish BookTrust’s Bookbug programme.

Back to school booklists and literacy resources for primary schools

• Plan a Back to School Booknic to bring your school community together through reading after the summer break. Visit the OURfP website for ideas and resources to help you.
• Explore the selection of Back to School picture books from Books for Topics. The chosen titles work across the whole primary range and have been grouped into useful themes such as community, making friends and being yourself.  You can also explore the New Beginnings booklist for more recommended books to share with children at the start of a new school year.
• Download a week of ready-to-go English lesson plans for KS2 pupils from Reading Rocks. The resources are based on The Super Sunny Murder Club, a collection of short crime and mystery stories by a range of authors. The resource pack includes a planning document, pre-recorded author videos and a daily writing challenge that explores a different aspect of crime-writing to support pupils to create their own story. Free with registration.
• Bring your whole school community together at the start of the new school year with a picture-book-based literacy project using the award-winning Power of Pictures resources from CLPE. Download detailed teaching sequences for EYFS, KS1 and KS2 that support the development of children’s visual literacy, reading comprehension and creative writing skills, all based on a high-quality picture book. Teaching sequences available to download with CLPE’s free membership.
• Explore the reading, writing and oracy activities for pupils aged 4-14 in the National Literacy Trust’s New Beginnings teaching pack.
• Explore a range of classroom strategies and examples of practice to help you get to know your new pupils as readers on the OU Reading for Pleasure website and download a free pupil reading survey.

Books and literacy resources for secondary schools

• Find recommended reads that explore the transition to secondary school from Books for Topics and BookTrust.
• Former SLA Librarian of the Year Lucas Maxwell shares a list of 50 titles that he recommends to new Year 7 pupils.
• Explore the reading, writing and oracy activities for pupils aged 4-14 in the National Literacy Trust’s New Beginnings teaching pack.
• Create a community around reading in the autumn term and enable all new Year 7s to choose a book to keep by signing up for Bookbuzz, BookTrust’s subsidised book gifting programme for secondary schools. Registration for this year closes on 19th September.
• Download a set of My Transition Journals from Scottish Book Trust to support pupils as they start secondary school. The journal includes a mood tracker, space for recording new experiences and favourite books, as well as blank pages for some creative doodling.
• Explore a range of classroom strategies and examples of practice to help you get to know your new pupils as readers on the OU Reading for Pleasure website and download a free pupil reading survey.