When children are given choice over what they read, their motivation, engagement and enjoyment increase significantly.

Children from across our ten schools are being given the opportunity to vote for the books that will form the official Inspire Reading Canon for 2027. 

Melissa Carpenter, Deputy Chief Executive of Inspire Partnership, said, “The impact of discovering a book you love at an early age is huge. By giving pupils the opportunity to choose what they read, we are putting them at the heart of their learning. This sense of ownership drives engagement, builds confidence and helps children develop a lifelong love of reading.”

From now until 22 June every pupil will have access to 12 year group-appropriate texts from which they will be asked to vote for their favourites. The top six titles in each year group will become part of the Inspire Reading Canon.

Whether it is Nursery children choosing between Christian Robinson’s ‘You Matter’ and Jane Newberry’s ‘The Big Green Crocodile’ or Year 6’s choice  between M.G. Leonard’s ‘The Ice Children’ and Matthew Burton’s ‘Go Big - The Secondary Survival Guide’, every book in our long lists has been chosen carefully to meet Inspire Partnership’s high standards while offering a wide range of genres, voices and experiences.

Inspire Partnership’s Canon is our reading spine, ensuring that from Nursery to Year 6 we expose our children to literature that is rich in meaning and vocabulary, valuing representation and building cultural capital.

You can see the full selection for each year group here.

Megan Whitehead, Year 6 teacher, Reading Lead at Inspire Partnership’s West Thornton Primary School (Rosecourt Road) and co-organiser of the reading canon project, comments, “We want to ensure that the books we offer prompt the interest of our children while ensuring they contain quality language and vocabulary, and representation of a diverse range of characters and contexts. All our pupils will be able to find a book they relate to and enjoy.”

Taiwo Bamiro, Assistant Headteacher at Foxfield Primary School and co-organiser of the reading canon project, said, “Teachers across the Partnership will run book tasting sessions, use guided reading lessons and use teaser extracts to give pupils a chance to engage with each book before they are asked to vote.” 

Pupils will also be asked to write reviews of the books to support them in clearly articulating   their reason for enjoying a particular book.

Inspire Partnership will share a selection of the book reviews and the final votes before the end of the summer term.