This year 2026 has been declared ‘The National Year of Reading’.
We realised that it was our chance to deepen connections through the power of sharing stories and rediscover the pleasure of reading in all its various forms.
We also realised that when people engage with stories and information in formats that feel right for them (print, audio, comics, digital or shared conversations) they gain confidence, inspiration and hope.
So LEARNING KEYS set up different Reading Tasks from January to March to engage everyone-pupils, parents and tutors!
- Taking pictures of ourselves reading for pleasure in our comfort zones
- Celebrating ‘World Book Day’ on the 5th March in different costumes
- Watching a workshop with writer Annemarie Anang for pupils aged 5-7years reading her book ‘I am Nefertiti’, writing poems about ‘Confidence’ and making our own favourite musical instruments out of recycled materials!
- Watching a workshop with rapper and story teller Alim Kamara for pupils aged 8-12 years; listening to different Rap poems and deciding to ‘go all in’ composing our own raps poems to enter for the National story telling writing competition. We hope we win!
- We enjoyed the story corner magazine packed with fun stories, games and different activities-these were donated to the children in Learning Keys by the Pollards Hill Library from The Book mark Reading Charity Organisation
- We had our very own in-house Reading Adventure competition complete with our book tokens
- Finally, we had our very first ‘Recycling Workshop’ on the 21st March led by the very creative Art Facilitator: Miss Tolu Ashiru
Supported by all the tutors. Lots of questions and answers and hands on experience recycling empty plastic bottles into beautifully decorated plant pots!
It has truly been a very busy, productive but enjoyable first quarter of the year and we look forward to what the next quarter will bring.