or call 020 7404 3400
or call 020 7404 3400
Or call 020 7404 3400
We attended the launch of Our Lady & St Joseph Primary School Wall Art project.
This wonderful school won the prize through their participation in the National Year of Reading Go All In campaign. And Promote Your School donated the bespoke, literacy Wall Art project.
National Literacy Trust selected the winning school in a random draw from all those who used the self-reflections toolkit before the Spring term. The self-reflection toolkit is designed to help schools, early years settings, and educators evaluate and reimagine their reading-for-pleasure cultures.
Our Lady & St Joseph were certainly deserving winners, as they continue to embed reading into everything they do!
We were thrilled to attend the launch of their Wall Art project. And to spend the day with teachers at the school, members of the National Literacy Trust and a very special guest author – Tọlá Okogwu.
I was delighted to celebrate with Our Lady & St Joseph Primary School, the 2026 National Literacy Trust Wall Art winners.
We loved creating the Wall Art designs for the school hall and it was lovely to see the final installation in real life. I’d also like to make special mention of the reading ambassadors at OLSJ. They fed in brilliant ideas for us to incorporate in the Wall Art design.
What a fantastic day – and an inspiring school!
The Wall Art launch began with a speech from Ellie Prince, Headteacher at Our Lady & St Joseph Primary. She talked to the pupils about why they won the Wall Art prize. And she shared her pride at their active participation in the National Year of Reading; Go All In Campaign.
Then Andrew Ettinger, Director of Education at the National Literacy Trust, congratulated the pupils. He explained why the National Literacy Trust is celebrating a National Year of Reading and how the Go All In campaign is encouraging children across the UK to discover stories in everyday activities.
Lisa Savage, Promote Your School’s Director was up next. As a former teacher, Lisa enjoyed the chance to chat to pupils in a school setting. She encouraged them to look closely at the Wall Art designs and discover all the hidden treasures that aren’t immediately visible on first glance. Lisa also explained that each visual prompt can spark pupils’ imaginations and curiosity. Then, she suggested pupils put their creative ideas to paper and use them as the basis for storywriting.
Finally, another really special moment. Children’s author Tọlá Okogwu kept the children enthralled as she walked them through her journey from childhood to becoming an author. She discussed what inspires her to write her books and how her family plays a big part in the process. Pupils participated with genuine enthusiasm and excitement as Tọlá helped them create their own story, using the Wall Art as a prompt. It was a hugely enjoyable part of the day, with one pupil exclaiming; “this is the best day of my life!”.
Tọlá Okogwu is an award-winning and best-selling author of beloved children’s books. She believes it’s important for children to read books that are reflective of their own experiences, as well as other cultures, and she seeks to create these opportunities through her books and wider writing.
Tọlá is a passionate advocate for children’s literacy and representation. In fact, she has donated over 1,700 books to Bookmark’s partner schools. Driven by her commitment to getting children reading for pleasure again, Tọlá founded the Read Bold, Wide and Beyond initiative, which launched in the National Year of Reading 2026. The initiative encourages children to read;
We enjoyed spending a morning with our lovely partners at National Literacy Trust. The partnership came about when we reached out to NLT last year, wondering if we could donate a literacy Wall Art prize to support their National Year of Reading campaign.
Since then, we’ve worked together closely to agree the terms of the Wall Art prize draw. NLT were keen to use the Wall Art prize as an incentive to encourage schools to utilise the self-reflections toolkit. And they certainly did! Over 6,500 schools registered to take part. And every school that registered automatically entered the Wall Art prize draw.
Both our team at Promote Your School and the National Literacy Trust team felt that a random prize draw was the fairest way to select a winner. But we’re delighted that the winning school; Our Lady & St Joseph Primary, are such eager and active participants!
Our Lady and St. Joseph Primary School centers their curriculum on the philosophy; ‘Architects of a better world‘. It’s about empowering pupils to make a positive impact on those around them. So, we applied this philosophy to our bespoke designs.
To begin, we linked the philosophy to reading – taking role models from society and visually representing how they use reading to become architects of a better world. Each of these role models has a connection to reading. This was either through their research in a specific field, or through the books they have written themselves. We then added quotes that connect reading to the philosophy. This shows how reading can empower people to become architects of a better world.
The closer pupils look at their Wall Art design, the more they’ll discover. We featured objects that will remind pupils of their favourite stories – all set against a beautiful woodland backdrop. This creates a calm and serene ambience in the school hall.
A selection of Year 6 pupils at Our Lady and St. Joseph Primary School are reading ambassadors. These pupils promote a reading culture at the school, supporting and encouraging other pupils to read for pleasure.
The reading ambassadors played a big part in feeding into the design brief. They chose a list of books to reflect on, which we included in the design. Through the designs, the school was keen to boost pupils’ imaginations so they can become storytellers and create their own reading journeys. Once again, this ties in to the National Year of Reading, so closely aligns to the reason we donated the literacy Wall Art project to support the campaign.
At the reveal day, Andrew Ettinger spoke to pupils about the National Year of Reading and why it’s so important to Go All In on reading!
Andrew reminded pupils that the Go All In Campaign continues to the end of the year. So there are still lots of chances for schools to embed reading into everything they do and encourage reading for pleasure in pupils of all ages. Schools sit at the very heart of bringing the campaign to life. And the Go All In website is packed with resources and ideas so you can leverage the focus being put on reading this year.
Their free learning platform has everything you need to take part, and it’s never too late to join!
We’ll visit your school to understand your goals, explain our process and provide you with a no-obligation quote.
