Coming soon...

15 April to 28 June 2013

Want to give reading a boost across the whole school and improve home-school links at the same time? Our new competition for the summer term, delivered in partnership with the fabulous Night Zookeeper project, will give you a platform to engage even your most reluctant readers and hard-to-reach parents.

Further information and resources will be available from this page when competition launches at the start of the summer term, but in the meantime read on to find out more and register to take part…

How does it work?

The Night Zookeeper Reading Torch is a reading challenge that uses the tried-and-tested idea of collecting points for reading both at home and at school.

Welcome to my zoo.

Well, it's not exactly my zoo but at night, when everybody else is asleep and it's just me and the animals, I like to believe it's mine.

Perhaps I should introduce myself. I am the Head Night Zookeeper. While most people are at home in bed I am hard at work with the animals in my Zoo. I bring them their food, clean their enclosures, replace their bedding and make sure they are all happy and well looked after.

This is no ordinary zoo, my zoo has animals that you will not find anywhere else in the world. Join me on my nightly rounds and you will see for yourself...

Your pupils are Night Zookeepers about to embark on their after-hours rounds of the Night Zoo, and in order to visit all their magical animal friends, they need to power up their special Reading Torch to full beam to guide them along their way.

Every 15 minutes your pupils spend reading will give them another 10,000 watts of power for their reading torch to help them through their rounds of the zoo. Along the way they will encounter wonderful creatures such as the Time-travelling Elephant and the Spying Giraffe!

Once a pupil has collected 360,000 reading watts (and therefore read for 9 hours), they have powered their reading torch to full beam and successfully completed their rounds of the Night Zoo, and can be entered into a national prize draw to win some brilliant prizes.

What supporting resources are available?

Every school that takes part in the Night Zookeeper Reading Torch will be able to access a whole host of resources to support them in running the competition. These resources will be available to download at the start of the summer term.

Promotional poster

Request your free printed copy of our Night Zookeeper Reading Torch poster to help you raise the profile of the competition in school. Request your copy

A video introduction from the Head Night Zookeeper

Engage your pupils with the competition from the off by showing them this clip from the Head Night Zookeeper, in which he explains the competition and challenges your pupils to get reading. Coming soon

Reading Torch power manual

Pupils can track their progress by logging their 15-minute blocks of reading in this one page double-sided booklet. Coming soon

Reading Torch bookmark

Get your pupils to make their very own Reading Torch using this bookmark template. Coming soon

Fun activities relating to the Night Zoo animals

As well as getting your pupils excited about reading, this competition provides some great opportunities for making cross-curricular links and developing other aspects of literacy. We’ll be publishing some great downloadable resources for you to use alongside the competition here soon.

What are the prizes?

Each pupil who completes the challenge can be entered into a prize draw to win a whole host of prizes for themselves and their school:

For the school

A subscription to www.nightzookeeper.com, a very special visit from the Head Night Zookeeper himself and a class set of National Geographic for Kids books.

For the pupil

A family trip to their local zoo or wildlife park, a brand new ereader, £50 worth of book vouchers AND a Night Zookeeper t-shirt and torch.

Three lucky runner up pupils (chosen at random) will also win a Night Zookeeper t-shirt and torch.