Overview

Every individual pupil enrolled into the programme will be provided with a one-year subscription to a highly engaging monthly non-fiction magazine designed especially for children aged between 6 and 12. What on Earth! Magazine covers the broadest possible spectrum of non-fiction topics ranging from nature, space and science to art, history and sport. The magazine emraces a wide range of reading levels and includes interactive puzzles and games as way into reading the written word in a style that does not feel like school work or homework. At the same time, the magazine touches on a vast selection of curriculum topics, where children can learn through their individual interests driven by a personal choice rather than compulsory study.

Creating an appetite for reading

What on Earth! Magazine is so rich with content that we will be creating a unique quiz championship in which every child who is enrolled into the programme can participate. The quiz will be specifically designed to enable children across the whole reading skills spectrum to be able to compete. Each school will participate in two online quiz heats where all the children compete against each other. The best four pupils from each school will make the school team who will go on to represent the school in an in-personal finals championship to take place in the summer of 2025.

All questions from the heats will be taken from editions of the What on Earth! Magazine that the participating children will have as part of the programme. Therefore, the better they read and know the content of the magazines, the better their chances of success in the quiz!  

Quiz Finals Championship

In the summer of 2025 all participating schools will be invited field its team of four winning contestants. The contest will take place over a half day one morning or afternoon at a venue in the West Midlands area TBD.  There will be prizes for all the participating teams plus grand prizes for the winners. Schools will be encouraged to bring supporters, parents and staff, to make this event a true celebration of having a love of reading and learning about the real world around us. It will be hosted by world history author Christopher Lloyd and school quiz-master John Gordon-Reid. 

Other benefits of enrolment

Schools that participate will also get the opportunity to join in a research project being undertaken by the Reading for Pleasure team at the Open University under the direction of Professor Teresa Cremin. This study will look into the efficacy of using printed magazines as a way of engaging children with a joy of reading for pleasure.  Schools that offer to participate in the study will receive an extra four months of magazine subscriptions FREE OF CHARGE. For more details and/or to register your school’s interest in this study, please email john@whatonearth.co.uk or fill out the registration form by Tuesday June 4th 2024.

Participating schools will also receive a £100 voucher to spend on non-fiction books for their school library. Schools will also be automatically enrolled into the national What on Earth! Magazine Quiz Challenge (takes please in November 2024). See here for more details. 

Which schools can apply and what does it cost? 

Shireland Collegiate Academy already has commitment to the project from 14 different primary schools in the Smethwick and Sandwell area. It is now opening access to the project to other primary schools across the West Midlands who wish to be involved.

Each participating school will have to identify a minimum of 30 pupils to take part (there is no upper limit). The cost per pupil is £39 per pupil. This includes

·       An annual subscription to the monthly What on Earth! Magazine (normally £59.99) for each participating pupil.

·       Two facilitated online quiz heats for all pupils in the school (to identify the team of four who will go into the quiz finals).

·       Participation in the in-person school quiz finals (to take place in summer 2025).

·       A £100 voucher per school to spend on non-fiction books for the school library.

·       Opportunity to participate in The Open University’s Reading for Pleasure research project.

 To register your interest, please complete this form no later than June 4th 2024.  To discuss any of the above please contact  Jen Devany or Anna Atkinson at Shireland Collegiate Academy.