What is Education Scotland Endorsement?

A programme which has been endorsed by Education Scotland demonstrates that it is informed by the national model of professional learning and links effectively to the relevant professional standards and current policy context.

Endorsement provides those who design, deliver and commission professional learning programmes, as well as those engaging in professional learning, assurance that programmes offer relevant, significant and sustained quality learning. Such experiences develop depth of professional learning, knowledge, skills and understanding which ultimately impacts on the quality of learning.

Endorsed programmes have successfully passed through a robust set of criteria and you can find out more about the process of endorsement.

Scottish Book Trust - Learn how to build a reading culture at your school

If you’re a teacher in Scotland, chances are you might have engaged in professional learning recently with a focus on reading. Excellent! For pupils, becoming a regular reader is associated with a wide range of far-reaching benefits, like improving attainment across a range of subjects and supporting children and young people’s well-being. However, how much of your regular professional learning is directed towards nurturing reading for pleasure in children and young people?

The OECD report that reading for enjoyment is the single most important indicator of a child’s future success and finding ways to engage pupils in reading may be one of the most effective ways to leverage social change (OECD, 2002; 2010). Yet, reading for pleasure is in steady decline in the UK. The recent PISA survey of 15-year-olds indicates that over 70% of girls and 80% of boys in Scotland said, ‘I don’t read or I read less than 30 minutes a day’. Worrying data to say the least!

With assessment in schools often focusing on a narrow set of reading competencies and skills, rather than on readers’ identities, engagement and pleasure (Cremin, 2020), it could be that the professional learning available for teachers has been centred on enhancing reading skill rather than reading will in our children. There is a reciprocal relationship between skill and will, and both need nurturing. It is vital that teachers have the opportunity to engage with professional learning which centres on the theories, pedagogies and environments associated with fostering positive readership so that children can enjoy the many benefits of reading for pleasure (Lynch, 2023). The research shows that it is teachers who will make the difference; teacher enthusiasm and teachers’ stimulation of reading engagement are the teaching practices most strongly (and positively) associated with pupils’ enjoyment of reading (PISA, 2018).

At Scottish Book Trust, we see teachers as the drivers of change in developing and sustaining reading for pleasure in children and all our programmes and professional learning are designed with this principle in mind. To support your professional learning, we have developed a brand-new research-informed course for primary teachers, endorsed by Education Scotland. The course aims to improve teacher knowledge in reading for pleasure pedagogies to help children to achieve the very best they can in life. Interested in finding out more? Check out our Developing and Sustaining Reading for Pleasure (Primary) course or e-mail schools@scottishbooktrust.com.