School Reading List is a UK-based book recommendation site for teachers, school librarians and families. Since 2011, we’ve curated year group reading lists, genre and cross-curricular lists, and practical recommendations and resources for primary and secondary settings. Our aim is simple: make it easier for schools to find books that children want to read, and that support a strong reading culture.
If you share that aim, we’d love you to join our booklist curation panel.
What the booklist curation panel does
Our panel supports the creation and maintenance of our core lists, including our primary year group reading lists, our secondary year group reading lists and our genre and subject lists. Panel input helps us keep recommendations current, well-balanced and genuinely useful in UK schools. We’re interested in expertise that strengthens a list in practical ways, including:
- Age and key stage suitability.
- Reading for pleasure and pupil choice.
- Range, representation and breadth of genre.
- Accessibility and inclusion.
- High-quality writing, illustration and information texts.
- Classroom and school library practicality.
We welcome focused contributions. Some panel members support a specific phase. Others contribute specialist knowledge in literacy, inclusion, librarianship or curriculum subjects. If your experience helps us curate better lists for UK teachers and librarians, it is valuable.
Who’s on the panel already
Our panel includes educators and specialists with a wide variety of professional memberships, accreditations and qualifications. These include (among others):
- CILIP Chartership and professional librarian qualifications.
- Qualified teachers and school leaders, including QTS, NPQs and Chartered Teacher Status.
- SpLD qualifications and related literacy and inclusion expertise.
- Professional memberships include NASEN, the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA), the National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE), the National Association for Primary Education (NAPE), Early Education and Coram PACEY.
- British Dyslexia Association (BDA) accreditation and dyslexia-informed practice.
- Links to organisations and networks, including the School Library Association, Youth Libraries Group, Libraries Connected, the Scottish Library and Information Council and CILIP in Scotland.
- Children’s literature organisations and networks, including the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE), the Federation of Children’s Book Groups, the Society of Authors, the Association of Illustrators, EmpathyLab, and IBBY UK.
- Experience supporting reading culture initiatives, including Carnegie Shadowing schemes, local Summer Reading Challenges and Bookstart.
This range matters. It means our lists reflect classroom experience, library expertise and specialist knowledge – all working towards clear, practical recommendations.
Subject and cross-curricular specialists
For our genre and subject book lists, we also draw on curriculum and subject expertise. Panel members include colleagues linked to subject associations and professional bodies, including:
- Historical Association.
- Geographical Association.
- Association for Science Education.
- The Mathematical Association.
- Association of Teachers of Mathematics.
- PSHE Association.
- National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM).
- Computing At School (CAS) and NAACE.
- Association for Language Learning (ALL) and NALDIC.
- Neuroinclusive Education Network (NEN).
- Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT).
- British Association of Teachers of the Deaf (BATOD).
- National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD).
- Association for Physical Education (afPE).
- Royal Society of Chemistry and The Royal Society.
If you bring expertise in a curriculum area, SEND and inclusion, school librarianship, reading leadership, or another specialist strand, we’d love to hear from you.
What you’ll do
Panel members typically contribute by recommending titles, identifying gaps, sense-checking age placement, and improving balance across genre, format and representation. Some members focus on:
Others contribute to a particular strand, such as SEND and accessibility, reluctant readers, poetry, graphic novels, or curriculum-linked nonfiction. The most useful input is often practical: what works well with pupils, what’s being read right now, and what helps schools build collections that children return to.
How to apply to join the year group book list curation panel
Please email us at [email protected] and tell us:
- Your role and setting.
- The key stage(s) you’d like to support.
- Your relevant qualifications, memberships and specialist expertise.
- How your experience would help curate our year group and genre and subject lists.
We read every application and will come back to you if we think there’s a strong match between your expertise and the lists we’re currently developing or refreshing.
Become a Children’s Favourites partner school
Alongside our curated lists, we publish Children’s Favourites booklists – a snapshot of what pupils say they loved reading. Partner schools help by asking pupils about their favourite book, then sharing the results with us. The outcome is a pupil-informed set of booklists that teachers and librarians can use to spark reading conversations, widen choice, and build book buzz across a school.
How to apply to be a partner school
This is open to UK schools. Please email [email protected] and tell us:
- Your school name and type of setting.
- Which key stage phases you’d like to represent.
- Your role.
- A brief note on your context (for example, approximate school size or any specialist provision).
Whether you’re joining as an individual specialist or representing a whole school, thank you for helping us build booklists that are professionally informed, practical for UK settings, and rooted in what children actually choose to read.
