"Pyjamarama is a day where you can go into any classroom and feel joy"

For Lancot School, Dunstable, taking part in Pyjamarama is a big part of the school's reading for pleasure strategy, as well as rewarding students for their hard work throughout the year.

"We do a lot of work on reading for pleasure at this school already, but Pyjamarama plays such a pivotal role in it," says Kayleigh Ronan, the school's English Lead.

"It's about bringing students together in a fun, creative way to make sure they're getting that love and enjoyment of reading. It's a day where you can go into any classroom and feel joy."

Each year for Pyjamarama, as well as downloading the worksheets from BookTrust's Pyjamarama resource hub, Lancot School plans its own itinerary of lively, interactive reading-related activities for students - inviting them to come to school in the comfort of their PJs and bring in £1 to raise money for BookTrust.

The school comes up with innovative ways to encourage students of different ages to collaborate and engage with books and stories.

For example, a "story relay" happens throughout the day, where classes from each year group add their own line to co-create a short story that is read out in assembly at the end of the day. Pairs of students carry the piece of flipchart paper like it's the Olympic torch, dashing excitedly to the next classroom, where more students can build on the story so far.

As part of its Pyjamarama celebrations, Lancot School also allocates time for reading with a "buddy". Key Stage 2 students are paired up with Key Stage 1 pupils, with the older children reading aloud from a book to their younger peers.

"Having an older pupil as a role model that isn't a teacher can be really beneficial for our younger children," says Kayleigh. "It's also about teamwork, which is one of our school values. [It's about] supporting each other on our learning journeys and supporting each other to read better, more fluently and more expressively."

For the school's nursery-age students, Pyjamarama provides a chance to get them on their feet, taking turns to imagine and act out what happens next in a story – placing them right at the heart of a storytelling experience.

"For our early years students, it is really about them being really involved in a story and internalising [story] structures," says Kayleigh. "If we provide those opportunities for them to really get really involved, and to start loving reading, we'll start to see the benefits in their work, in everything they do."

The fundraising element of Pyjamarama also opens up conversations about empathy, and the fact that many children are missing out on having a bedtime story.

Kayleigh says: "Lancot School loves Pyjamarama because it's an opportunity for us to have fun, for us to read, and to raise awareness that not everybody has the same, but how important reading is to every single child."

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