or call 020 7404 3400
or call 020 7404 3400
Or call 020 7404 3400
As a company deeply committed to nurturing readers from early years onward, we were excited to join the launch webinar for the National Year of Reading. This movement is about cultural change, not just one more programme. It’s about reigniting joy, choice, relevance and belonging around reading for young people that will follow them through life.
The campaign is led by the Department for Education and delivered through the National Literacy Trust a charity dedicated to improving literacy across the UK and the core delivery partner of the initiative.
At its heart, the Go All In approach invites a simple but powerful idea that reading isn’t something to find time for; it’s something that enriches whatever you already love doing.
That applies not just to books in the traditional sense, but also to audio and digital texts, articles, blogs, graphic novels, scripts, and reading that connects with passions, e.g., sport, music, gaming, community, family histories, and beyond.
Rather than imposing reading as a task, the Year encourages reading as part of culture, identity, and exploration, creating a core shift from literacy as a skill to literacy as a joyful experience.
So, as the National Year of Reading 2026 begins, many schools and libraries are reflecting on a familiar but key question:
How do we excite children to read for pleasure and help that excitement last?
Nationally, the conversation rightly centres on reading culture, relevance and belonging. Not as a strategy . Not as a programme. But as a lived experience.
Reading for pleasure matters deeply to the schools, libraries and many of the partners we are proud to work with and because the environments children experience every day play a powerful role in shaping how they feel about reading we are keen to support the National Year of Reading 2026 and to support the schools we work with.
Children become readers for life when reading feels relevant to who they are, connected to what they care about and embedded in spaces where they feel safe, seen and welcome
Open University Press research shows that the decline in reading for pleasure in young people over recent years is not because children are rejecting reading itself — they’re rejecting relevance.
Reading experiences that feel disconnected from their interests, identities or real lives do not develop a love for reading.
When reading is aligned with passion, curiosity and choice, engagement follows.
That’s why reading culture works best when it’s not bolted on, but woven into the heart of school life — including the spaces where reading happens.
Culture is shaped not only by what we say, but by what children see, feel and experience every day.
Libraries and reading spaces quietly communicate powerful messages:
When children are actively involved in shaping their library space, from layout and displays to how books are recommended and talked about, something shifts. Usage rises. Ownership rises. Pride rises.
This is where thoughtful library Wall Art and visual storytelling play a meaningful role. Not as decoration but as culture-setting.
Bespoke Wall Art, designed around children’s needs, interests and identities, helps make reading visible and valued. Done well, it can:
Walls can tell children that they belong here, their interests matter, and that reading is for them. When environments reflect children, they respond not because they are told to, but because the environment invites them in.
The most effective reading environments aren’t imposed; they’re co-created.
When children are listened to, when their preferences shape the environment, libraries stop being rooms children visit and start becoming places they belong to. Visual language, wall design and layout become tools for agency, not instruction.
This is where our work sits: supporting schools and libraries to create spaces that reflect their communities, values and readers, not trends or templates.
Reading for pleasure thrives in environments that feel human, social and inclusive. Spaces that allow for:
These signals matter, particularly for children who may have low confidence or negative reader identities. A well-considered space can quietly reposition them as capable, curious and welcome — without a word being spoken.
As the National Year of Reading invites all of us to Go All In, not by doing more, but by aligning what we already do with intention, for us, that means continuing to focus on environments that support reading culture, reflect children’s voices, reinforce belonging and identity and make reading feel visible, social and valued
Because when reading lives in the walls as well as the bookshelves, it becomes part of everyday life. And that’s where readers for life are made.
We are excited to Go All In – are you?
We’ll visit your school to understand your goals, explain our process and provide you with a no-obligation quote.
