Reading Ambassadors blog:

Bronze Charter Award!

Our fantastic Reading Ambassadors recently came together for a very special event at St Mary’s Stadium, where they proudly received our school’s Bronze Reading Charter Award! This celebration was part of the Southampton Reading Charter, which encourages schools to embed a love of reading at the heart of everything we do.

As part of the celebration day, we were thrilled to meet the amazing author Onjali Q. Raúf, who introduced her brand-new book, The Game- a story all about chess! Onjali shared some fascinating facts, like how chess originated in India, moved through Persia, and how the game (and the pieces) have evolved over time. She also spoke about inspiring women in chess, including the incredible fact that the current UK chess champion is a girl who is just 9 years old!

Every pupil received a copy of The Game to read along with Onjali, followed by a brilliant Q&A session about her books, including The Boy at the Back of the Class, which is one of our core texts in school.

After that, we were presented with our Bronze Reading Charter plaque and had a celebratory photo taken. Onjali kindly signed our books and gave us all a signed photo for our libraries.

It was wonderful to celebrate not just with our partnership schools, but also with 39 other schools across Southampton who also achieved their Bronze Charter — what an incredible city-wide achievement! It was especially heart-warming to see former Year 6 Reading Ambassadors, now in Year 7, continuing their ambassador roles at secondary school. 

We are incredibly proud — but not stopping here! Our sights are now firmly set on the Silver Reading Charter, and we’re excited to keep developing our reading journey even further.