“Read a book and win a pizza”: the vital connections between literacy, school ethos, and mental health

By Catherine Wallace

Catherine Wallace is Professor Emerita at University College London, Institute of Education. She has published a number of books in her field of literacy education, including Learning to Read in a Multicultural Society, Reading, and Critical Reading in Language Education. In this article she draws on her professional background in the teaching of reading to show how schools and teachers create an ethos in which educational success, including literacy development, and robust mental health go hand in hand.

Many years ago I had a secondment in the United States which involved visiting a number of schools. I remember one slogan: “Read a book and win a pizza”. A dubious message I thought at the time. But schools are full of such inducements and promises. They also reflect systems of beliefs beyond particular schools and classrooms and what is valued by the wider society. I thought at the time, and still believe, that UK schools offer rather different kinds of reward systems from US schools, indicative of different cultural assumptions and expectations. 

The encouragement to read, even if linked to a very material kind of reward, is interesting in its assumption that reading is good for you – these days we might even say it’s good for your mental health. An organisation I’ve been involved with for a number of years, The Reader, which is the UK’s biggest “shared reading” charity, is founded on the belief that reading has mental health benefits, helping to lift mood and connect us to others. In short, reading is not just of educational value, but enhances wellbeing, for both adults and children. As the great educator Harold Rosen said: “it is a window on other worlds” (Rosen and Rosen, 1973) – in a way that still cannot be rivalled by the lures of newer technology.  

My recent experience, as a volunteer teaching reading to 7/8 year-olds in a highly culturally-diverse London primary school, has made me more aware than ever of the range of roles which schools are expected to fulfil. That they manage this, often with great success, is testimony to the hard work and ingenuity of teachers. And one crucial role, particularly important since the Covid pandemic, is supporting children’s mental health. I want to link this goal to two key aspects of schooling: one which is broad and connected to school culture, and the other a specific educational goal – the teaching of reading.

School culture

School culture is reflected in artefacts such as school mottos, as well as in a host of signage and images on school walls. What ethos do they represent and how do they relate to children’s mental health? Some years ago, the educationist Robin Alexander pointed out that different cultures of schooling were evident in classroom practices round the world. He noted that “the values of teaching everywhere start with a view of how people should relate to each other”, going on to make distinctions between individualism, community and collectivism (Alexander, 2003). I would argue that an individualistic ideology is embedded in such classroom slogans as “read a book and win a pizza”.

UK education is more community-oriented than in the United States, more likely to address the group than the individual, and more committed to the development of caring and sharing than competition. At the same time, UK schooling falls short of a fully collectivist model, strongly typified, as Alexander claims, in the school systems of Russia and Eastern Europe. A community orientation is evident in the continuing presence of teams and school “houses”; in the idea of joint endeavour – the “we” rather than the “I”. It might be the difference between earning an individual credit or gold star and one for your team or your house, in those schools which continue to have a system of “houses”. A community orientation is relevant to children’s mental health, as there is evidence that mental health is tied to societal factors and systems that shape our well-being. Robust mental health does not exist in isolation but is shaped by the environments, institutions, and social structures we inhabit (see Abedi, 2024). One key social institution is, of course, the school.

Gifford School motto: large enough to be read by the passengers of incoming aircraft

Be Strong, Be Kind, Be Proud

I should like to contextualise issues of school ethos, mental health and literacy with reference to the  school I visit weekly, Gifford Primary School, which has both a strong record on mental health and an excellent academic record. This is despite the fact that many of the children come from poor families and most are from an ethnic minority, often with English as a second language. An above-average number of children are eligible for both school breakfast and lunch. The school motto is emblazoned in large letters on the school building. As the headteacher says, the wording is large enough to be read by the passengers of incoming aircraft approaching the nearby Heathrow Airport! It reads: Be Strong, Be Kind, Be Proud. Of course, slogans and mottos are beside the point if they are merely cosmetic. As one head of an English primary school puts it: “It’s not the actual wording that matters. What matters is whether it resonates around the school. Can you see it in action in the classrooms, corridors and playgrounds? Is it embedded within the culture of the school? Does it provide a hook on which to hang your conversations with children to help them see their future potential in their work?”(quoted in Teach Primary). There is a sense that, at Gifford, the ethos represented by the school motto Be Strong, Be Kind, Be Proud is more than a matter of fancy wording, and the principles it represents are indeed embedded in school life. The Deputy Head tells me that the notions of pride, kindness and resilience inform relations with parents as well as pupils. There is a sense of a wider school community which includes the children’s families and their neighbourhood. That the children themselves are aware of the overall school culture is evidenced in comments from their self-evaluation: “We all follow the school’s values of Be Kind, Be Strong, Be Proud. We really feel like we belong at Gifford! Yes, we all work together. We are all part of the same community. We are all proud to be at Gifford!”

The teaching of reading

My role as a volunteer in the school is to listen to the children reading. But in the course of talking about books we also cover a wide range of matters relating to school and home life – topics often triggered by the books we are reading. Literacy, understood in its widest sense, is about more than the mechanics of learning to read and I have been interested in how the children’s responses to certain texts reflect a wider understanding of social and cultural life. I have also been interested in how the ethos of the school, including its school motto, Be Strong, Be Kind, Be Proud, has impacted on the children’s sense of identity, wellbeing and their experience of being in a supportive school community. I shall take just two examples from many hours spent talking to children about books and the children’s response to them, aiming to answer the question: how far are the key words kind, strong and proud reflected in the texts we read together and are children able to make the connections between the ethos of the school and the values expressed in the books they engage with?

Kind Emma by Martin Waddell is a story about a lonely girl who offers hospitality to a strange little creature who turns up on her doorstep one snowy night. This prompts eight-year-old Nora to share that pupils at Gifford receive “kindness awards”. It is not clear whether these are notched up on one’s personal individual record or are awarded to your class. But it remains different from a physical reward such as a pizza! And Nora tells me that pupils are also awarded credits for being strong and proud. 

Sulwe by Lupita Nyong'o is a story about a girl who has darker skin than her family members. It explores themes of pride in one's identity and appearance, as well as the importance of kindness toward people of all skin colours and visible differences. At one point, Sulwe’s mother says “Brightness is not in your skin my love. Brightness is just who you are”. Weeks later, Zubeida remembers the story vividly, particularly the word “brightness!”  “All her family had a brighter colour” Zubeida said, adding firmly “it doesn’t matter what colour you are.”

Conclusion

The books available to children are of course just one of many sources which convey explicit or covert messages to children about the values of a school. But they help to nurture not just healthy  individuals, but the individual as a member of the school community and, beyond this, of the wider society in the modern age.

References

• Abedi S. posted October 29th 2024 ‘Can we separate individual mental health from the collective’? in Cross Cultural Psychology

• Alexander R. (2003) ‘Talk in teaching and learning: international perspectives’ in New Perspectives on spoken English in the classroom. Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

• Nyong’O, L. (2021) Sulwe Puffin Books

• Rosen C. and Rosen H. (1973) The Language of Primary School Children Penguin

• Waddell M. and D. Roberts (2005) Kind Emma Harper Collins