Mar 26, 2026
Reading is at the heart of Global Learning – critical thinking and empathy-building come from encountering the lives, experiences, views and cultures of others and reading is a brilliant way to get there!
We have these encounters through classroom textbooks, poetry, folk tales, comics, plays and novels. And we have these encounters in a variety of settings: from the classroom to a book club; from bedtime stories to holiday reads; from researching in the library to reading on the bus; or just curled up in the comfiest chair at home.
Despite all of this, a recent survey has found that reading enjoyment and daily reading among children and young people are now at their lowest levels in over 20 years and, in response, the Department for Education and the National Literacy Trust have launched National Year of Reading 2026, a campaign to reverse the decline in literacy.
The campaign has created and curated lots of resources to support their aim and there are also loads of great resources on the NLT website. And at CDEC, we have been championing reading, literacy and storytelling for many years through our resource boxes – get in touch with us to find out more.
And finally, as part of our CDEC team meetings, we regularly share with each other what we’re reading, and we did so recently because we’ve just had World Book Day and World Poetry Day this month and International Children’s Book Day is at the beginning of April. Below are the latest recommendations from the CDEC team!
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We’d love to hear from you about the books you’ve been reading and the impact of reading and literacy in your school.