Running a Book Club: Encouraging Pupil Participation

Once you have decided on the purpose of your book club, the logistics and funding you now need to think about how to encourage pupils to join, Here are some of our tips for encouraging pupils to join and attend. 

Ways to Encourage Pupil Book Club Participation

• Give your book club a name and send out invites to younger pupils.

• Take part in free virtual author visits. BookTrust sometimes arrange these or take a look on social media.

• Invite any parents to share books that they love.

• Involve pupils in book choices.

• If you want to choose the book yourself, hide the text and read out the blurb. Consider wrapping the books, so your pupils have the excitement of opening up the text.

• Think about different texts you could read. Some schools run comic book clubs for example.

• Consider watching book trailers.

It will take time to find out what works with your pupils. Remember that different pupils will have different interests and books that they like. Pageticker, our online reading record, helps teachers recommend and assign books to multiple pupils. Find out more here.