Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers Summary of Findings 2019–2024

June 2024

The name Pūtoi Rito

The name Pūtoi Rito comes from the harakeke (flax) plant. The ‘rito’ is the young shoot at the centre of the plant, and represents young readers. Pūtoi Rito is the harakeke woven together as a community to support the rito.

Acknowledgements

The National Library acknowledges Te Puna Foundation who provided funding for Pūtoi Rito between 2019-2024, the National Library staff who worked on the initiative, and all the partners, participants, researchers and supporters who helped to make Pūtoi Rito a success. We know many of you will continue to champion reading for pleasure in your communities. We particularly acknowledge the children and young people who, along with their families, are discovering new books, reading to each other, talking about what they read, and cultivating their love of reading.

Pūtoi Rito at a glance

Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers is a community partnership initiative led by National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa which provides children and young people in communities across New Zealand with opportunities and support to develop a love of reading. This initiative was developed in response to the declining literacy rates in New Zealand, growing research into the benefits of reading for pleasure, and the disparity of access to support for reading.

This report shares the context for Pūtoi Rito and the findings that emerged from the initiative’s first five years.

Research shows that:

Having the skill to read is much more powerful when it’s paired with the motivation to read.

There is a positive correlation between reading for pleasure and improvements in literacy, as well as development of vocabulary, knowledge, sense of belonging, imagination and wellbeing.

There are enabling conditions and strategies that work to encourage young people to read. Without these, many young people are less likely to develop a love of reading.

New Zealand has:

Literacy challenges and declining engagement with reading.

A lack of equal opportunities to develop a love of reading.

A unique cultural and national context that needs to be considered when responding to challenges and opportunities.

Pūtoi Rito demonstrated that:

Given the right conditions and opportunities, all young people can enjoy reading and gain the benefits of reading for pleasure — across different settings, diversity and cultural factors, ages and abilities.

Building a culture of reading works best when it is a collaborative effort between schools, libraries, families and communities and makes the most of the national and local resources and connections available.

Proposed regional and national actions are:

To work together across the library and education sectors, and with communities, to effectively embed the strategies shown to be successful in Pūtoi Rito.

To build investment and develop sustainable partnerships that best utilise New Zealand’s resources and expertise at scale.

To continue to develop the New Zealand evidence base on the value and impact of reading for pleasure on literacy and broader outcomes.

Reading for pleasure sets young people up for success

Reading is a vital foundation for academic achievement and participation in society. Most people, from parents to policy makers, understand the importance of literacy. What’s less understood is that reading for pleasure can boost a wide range of literacy and wellbeing outcomes for children and young people.

Having the skill to read is much more powerful when it’s paired with the motivation to read. Reading for pleasure sustains and grows the skill of reading.

Children who engage in reading for their own enjoyment – not just because it’s required – see many future benefits and flow-on effects. Multiple studies show a positive correlation between reading competence and behaviours associated with reading for pleasure.[1] More broadly, reading for pleasure plays a significant role in young people’s development of vocabulary, knowledge, sense of belonging, empathy, imagination, and connection with family and whānau. The benefits of reading for pleasure continue into adulthood. A study published in 2018 by UK think tank Demos found that people who read for 30 minutes a week were 18% more likely to report higher self-esteem than non-readers.[2]

“Pleasure readers have higher literacy, advanced academic performance, some improved health and wellbeing outcomes, greater cultural, political, social, and economic participation and so on.” — Auckland University of Technology Education School researchers, 2021[3]

“PISA data consistently shows that engagement in reading is strongly correlated with reading performance and is a mediator of gender or socio-economic status (measured by the PISA index of economic, social and cultural status [ESCS]” — OECD, 2021[4]

The International Literacy Association defines reading for pleasure as “to read freely, voluntarily, and with delight”.[5] Reading for pleasure is part of a virtuous cycle of reading — the more children enjoy reading, the more they will read, leading them to become better readers which enables them to enjoy reading more.[6]

“Students who enjoy reading, and make it a regular part of their lives, are able to improve their reading skills through practice. Better readers tend to read more because they are more motivated to read, which, in turn, leads to improved vocabulary and comprehension skills.” — OECD, 2019[7]

Despite the benefits of reading for pleasure, a number of New Zealand studies point to a steady decline in students enjoyment of reading over the past 15 to 20 years. In the 2018 results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), more students said they read less often and only if they have to, and fewer students read fiction, non-fiction, magazines and newspapers.[8]

New Zealand is facing literacy challenges

Literacy rates among children and young people in New Zealand have been declining steadily for the past ten years. Recent data shows that currently only 56 per cent of Year 8 students are at the expected level for reading.[9] This is highly concerning as literacy is a strong positive success factor for a productive and happy life and a key enabler for participation in the increasingly complex world.

The recent PISA report showed the average reading score of New Zealand students at age 15 significantly declined between 2000 and 2018.[10] Research points to ongoing disparities, with Māori and Pasifika students and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds facing greater reading challenges.[11] As Professor Stuart McNaughton, Chief Education Scientific Advisor to the Ministry of Education, notes “the differences don’t start there. They emerge before school”.[12]

“In our study [Growing Up in New Zealand] the only potentially modifiable predictor of ‘flourishing’ developmental health status that we identified was daily parent-infant reading.… this would ideally include gifting books directly to infants, a widely used strategy to promote early reading and which has been shown to boost multiple developmental outcomes among infants from disadvantaged communities.” — Russell et al, 2022[13]

Creating equal opportunities to develop a love of reading

There is work underway across the country to address the literacy gap and ensure all children learn to read proficiently. These efforts to improve the reading skills and abilities will be enhanced and strengthened by efforts to address the conditions and factors that influence engagement with reading.

There is a growing body of research about what works to increase children’s reading engagement. These enablers include having positive reading role models and access to a wide choice of high quality and enticing books including in languages spoken at home. These enablers are unevenly distributed in New Zealand. For example, many families have limited access and connections to books and libraries. Teachers are not always supported to consider or incorporate effective reading for pleasure activities in their classroom practice. School libraries have an important role to support young readers but they are not mandated and the budget available for library spaces, collections and staffing is discretionary and variable.

The National Library has a long-standing role to encourage reading engagement in school communities, alongside its work to provide library services, resources and capability support for schools. Reading is one of the three long-term strategic priorities for the National Library, along with Knowledge and Taonga.

In the context of declining literacy, growing international research on the benefits of reading for pleasure, and disparity of access to support for reading, the National Library launched the Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers (Pūtoi Rito) initiative in 2019. Pūtoi Rito aims to provide children and young people in communities across New Zealand with the opportunities and support they need to develop a love of reading. The initiative is part of the National Library’s wider work to build a nation of readers and sits alongside Te Awhi Rito Reading Ambassador programme and He Pārekereke National Conversations on Reading.

Pūtoi Rito tests the following hypothesis:

IF we:

• work together with local and national partners,

• build reading for pleasure capability and culture in communities, libraries and schools, and

• take a connected interdisciplinary approach to the complex problem of creating reading cultures in communities, THEN

• reading engagement will increase, and there will be improved outcomes for tamariki and rangatahi.

Everyone should have the same opportunities to develop a love of reading, and prior to Pūtoi Rito there was very little research that demonstrated what works to improve children’s love of reading in a New Zealand context. Pūtoi Rito was designed to maximise the enablers and tackle barriers in different settings and areas of the country.

Pūtoi Rito creates cultures of reading

This report covers the first two phases of Pūtoi Rito, which took place between May 2019 and June 2024. Over this period, community projects and research activities were carried out to test reading for pleasure approaches in communities and develop sharable insights.

The first two phases of Pūtoi Rito were funded by Te Puna Foundation, an independent charity established to support the work of the National Library. The Foundation received funding specifically for this project from the government and through a strategic grant from the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme. While the community projects have been completed, Pūtoi Rito activities will continue as part of the ongoing work of the National Library.

Six projects took place in communities across Aotearoa

Between 2019 and 2024, the National Library partnered with six New Zealand communities on collaborative, co-designed projects aimed at raising reading engagement of children and young people through the distribution of books and other activities. Project partners worked together towards locally-specific goals and delivered interventions to meet community needs and aspirations. The projects took place in Dargaville, West Auckland, Tauwhare, Huntly, Canterbury and South Dunedin.

Partners included individual schools, Kāhui Ako (communities of learning), libraries, iwi, social services and government agencies. The National Library initiated projects in communities where there were identified challenges along with leadership and readiness to work in collaboration. The communities were selected to test approaches over a wide range of different contexts, age groups and locations. The scale of projects ranged from a single school through to a whole community.

“The partnership approach not only enabled project and community capability but, given the iterative and generative nature of the project, also allowed us to exceed the project and community capability.” — Partner, School Project

“One of the most important relationships that we have within the working group and of course the partnership is one with mana whenua. This means that we’ve also got a really strong engagement I think.” — Partner, Community project

Project activities varied depending on community needs but had common elements

Pūtoi Rito tested strategies that had been shown to be successful to positively influence conditions for reading. Each project had a different focus and vision depending on the needs and aspirations of the community. However, there were common characteristics across all projects, including co-design with communities, raising awareness of reading for pleasure, support for the adults in children’s lives to encourage reading, and the provision of curated books to young people and families.

The projects removed barriers to accessing a wide variety and diversity of books, including in languages spoken at home. More than 38,000 new and near-new books were provided free of charge, including more than 5,000 in te reo Māori, Pacific languages and world languages. In the community-wide projects, books were provided in many places where young people and families go in their daily lives. This included making books available through local businesses, at community events and through many support organisations. The projects also connected communities to existing services provided by schools and libraries.

“The (bilingual) books in both English and te reo (Māori) are the most popular. The parents like to be able to share their identity and language with their pepe even if they are not that confident or fluent themselves. There is pride – affirmation – in who they are, and they are able to learn together.” — Interviewee, Canterbury project

There was also a focus on normalising books and reading by making reading visible in schools and communities. The projects provided opportunities for teachers and families to learn about their influence as role models and strategies to support and engage young people with reading, including developing their reading choices and identity. The projects were strengths-based to build positive associations with reading. The projects took a developmental approach, meaning they could respond flexibly to community needs and opportunities, and evolve over time.

“School staff observed increased student agency resulting from access to new books, teacher enthusiasm, being read to more often, and opportunities to read for pleasure themselves. Some described a collective excitement and momentum around reading and talking about books that often typifies flourishing communities of readers.” — Researcher, Dargaville project

There were multiple research components showing the projects had positive outcomes

Independent qualitative research was commissioned for five of the six projects, along with additional research components including a literature review and a case study report on teachers as readers. Through the research component of Pūtoi Rito, professional researchers from a range of organisations built a rich picture of the challenges and strategies that had impact in the communities.

All the research reports show the success of the collective impact evidence-based approach. The projects changed attitudes and understanding, increased reading engagement and sowed the seeds for sustainability and ongoing impact in the project communities.

“Most (89%) whānau said they read the books they had been given, with some having read the books many times… Parents said it increased the number and range of books available to them which made reading to their children ‘more enjoyable and less of a chore’. Older children were reading to their younger siblings.” — Researcher, South Dunedin project.

All the research reports that were written for phases one and two of Pūtoi Rito are on the National Library’s website.

Pūtoi Rito and the research have had flow-on effects nationally and internationally. It has contributed to the growth of cross-sector interest in reading for pleasure as an area of focus and has strengthened the research base in New Zealand. The National Library has engaged with the Ministry of Education and others in the education, literacy and library sectors, and contributed as partners in related research initiatives. Since working on Pūtoi Rito, some of the commissioned researchers have further specialised in reading for pleasure.

Tools and resources were developed that can be used by other schools, libraries and communities

The National Library produced a series of reading frameworks and tools, which were tested and refined through the community projects. These are available on the National Library website for anyone to download and use. The resources include the School Reading Community Framework, Teachers Creating Readers Framework, School Reading Culture Review tools, Reading Identity Cards, videos and a number of blog posts and interviews with people working on the community projects and supporting research.

The resources are on the National Library’s website.

Summary of the community projects

South Dunedin

Project overview — Whole-community large-scale project in South Dunedin
Dates — August 2019–December 2023
Ages — Children 3-7 years; expanded to 3-11 years
Vision — To strengthen the South Dunedin community by reading together.
Partners — Dunedin City Council, including Dunedin Public Library and UNESCO Dunedin City of Literature; Ministry of Education Otago/Southland Regional Directorate; Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou and Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki; and Methodist Mission Southern.
Research report — South Dunedin Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers Project, Alex Woodley, Point & Associates, 2024

Huntly

Project overview — Focused project with teachers and students from one secondary school.
Dates — January 2020–July 2021
Ages — Students aged 13-18 years
Vision — Huntly College is associated with reading.
Partners — Huntly Secondary College
Research report — A changing story of reading at Huntly College, Auckland University of Technology School of Education, September 2021.

West Auckland

Project overview — Kāhui Ako project working with teachers and library staff from five primary schools.
Dates — December 2019–June 2021
Ages — Students aged 5-13 years
Vision — Teachers nurture the joy of reading.
Partners — Massey Primary; Royal Road School; West Harbour School; Colwill School; Lincoln Heights School; Ministry of Education Auckland Regional Directorate
Research report — Making Reading for Pleasure Visible in Five Primary Schools from Te Kāhui Ako o Tiriwā, Auckland University of Technology School of Education, 2021

Canterbury

Project overview — Regional project for young people with high needs.
Dates — November 2020–June 2023
Ages — Children and young people aged 2-18 years.
Vision — To weave a whāriki of support to inspire a love of reading among tamariki and rangatahi in care, or on the edge of care.
Partners — Kingslea School Regional collaborators: Oranga Tamariki; Ministry of Education; Youth and community support services; Christchurch Public Libraries.
Research report — Canterbury Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers Project, Alex Woodley, Point & Associates, 2023

Dargaville

Project overview — Whole community project centred on schools and libraries in a regional town.
Dates — January 2023–June 2024
Ages — Children aged 5-13 years
Vision — Reading with our children to promote wellbeing and to strengthen connections in our community.
Partners — Dargaville Intermediate; Selwyn Park School; Te Kopuru School; Dargaville Public Library Associated schools: Dargaville Primary, Tangowahine School, St Joseph’s School
Research report — Dargaville Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers, Sue McDowall, NZCER, 2024

Tauwhare

Project overview — Small project with teachers and students in one rural school.
Dates — July 2023–June 2024
Ages — Students aged 5-13 years
Vision — Growing a love of reading and a strong reading culture.
Partners — Tauwhare Primary School

Read the Pūtoi Rito research reports and further information about each project

Impact of Pūtoi Rito in the project communities

In line with the research findings from across the six projects, we saw:

• strengthened connections and growing community support for reading for pleasure

• increased access to books that were being taken home, read and shared, including books in home languages

• more support for the cultures and identities of children and young people, their families and communities through reading

• more parents and caregivers enjoying reading to their children, and children enjoying reading

• positive impacts on relationships and wellbeing of children, young people and families

• school staff rediscovering a love of reading, inspiring readers, providing opportunities for students to read for pleasure

• raised awareness and increased use of libraries.

“…stakeholders interviewed believe that providing appealing books matched to the interests, language and capabilities of young people is helping inspire the joy of reading. Those interviewed say many of the young people are talking about and recommending books to each other. It is sparking a virtuous cycle of reading for fun…. And this is now occurring intergenerationally. Young parents too, many who were not read to themselves and have low confidence reading aloud, are reading to their babies. They believe the project is seeding a community of readers.” — Researcher, Canterbury Project

Growing a nation of readers

What we learned about what works in New Zealand

Overall, Pūtoi Rito demonstrated that given the right conditions and opportunities, all young people can enjoy reading and gain the benefits of reading for pleasure – across different settings, diversity and cultural factors, ages and abilities.

A number of strategies and approaches worked across all of the Pūtoi Rito projects, which generally align with previous findings. For example, the projects highlighted the importance of providing access to books that reflect New Zealand’s cultural context and diversity, and building on existing strengths, resources and connections in communities.

Building a culture of reading works best when it is a collaborative effort between schools, libraries, families and communities and makes the most of resources and connections available.

Insights and actions for schools, libraries and communities

The table below shows findings about what worked well across the projects across four key themes. These insights and actions can be used by schools, libraries and communities wanting to foster reading for pleasure in their areas. They are also factors to be considered for regional and national actions.

Providing a range of high-quality books	Reading together and reading role models	Supporting readers in schools and libraries	Community collaborations
Children and young people need agency to choose what they want to read. If they have wide and free choice they will be more motivated to read	Encourage reading as a collaborative and social activity – talk about books, provide opportunities for young people to read together and share their ideas	Reading engagement requires continuous focus and leadership by schools and libraries	Community-wide projects need an anchor – for example, a library, Kāhui Ako, school or community organisation
Make a wide variety of books available in languages that families speak at home including te reo Māori, Pacific languages, world languages	Reading together builds relationships and provides ways to talk about difficult or traumatic life events and improve wellbeing	Reading for pleasure needs to be explicit in school and library policies, planning and culture; removing barriers to reading, for example, by having generous lending policies	It takes time to build understanding and local partnerships – creating reading cultures is a long game
Providing plentiful good quality new or near-new books shows young people they are valued and important. Provide a mix of fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, ebooks, books for neuro-diverse students, books for different reading levels, picture books and chapter books	Teachers are important role models – ‘teachers as readers’ bring their own reading identity to their teaching, and through sharing this they support and grow young readers and help them to build their own reading identity	Libraries are important infrastructure that provide sustainable, equitable access to books, reading activities, services and environments	Develop models for library-sector collaboration across the network of national, public and school libraries to make it easier for young people to have access to a wide range of books, services and resources for reading for pleasure
Make books visible in the community – in unexpected places as well as in expected places like schools and libraries	Provide reading experiences for young people, for example, visits by authors and illustrators, attending festivals and events	The views and voices of students should be incorporated into efforts to build school reading cultures from the beginning	Positive framing of reading initiatives creates engagement and motivation
Adult assumptions and bias of what young people should, or might want to, read can block children from developing a love for reading	Young people of all ages, and adults, enjoy hearing books read aloud	Teachers need professional support to engage with reading for pleasure tools and resources, and further develop their evidence-based knowledge and practice	Having strong collective responsibility and buy-in means schools and communities are driving their own solutions, and initiatives are sustainable into the future

“Part of what is required is for schools to make a shift from seeing reading aloud and modelling reading for pleasure as an incidental part of the programme to a valued school- wide approach that is consistently visible to students.” — Partner, West Auckland project

The next steps for strengthening cultures of reading

In addition to actions that can be taken at a community level, the National Library has identified national and regional level actions to strengthen cultures of reading for pleasure in New Zealand. These are:

• to work together across the library and education sectors, and with communities, to effectively embed the strategies shown to be successful in Pūtoi Rito

• to build investment and develop sustainable partnerships that best utilise New Zealand’s resources and expertise at scale

• to continue to develop the New Zealand evidence base on the value and impact of reading for pleasure on literacy and broader outcomes.

“Access to books matters, but it is everything around those books that is so important. It is the parents, the teachers, the community coming together, being role models, showing enthusiasm, building on the strengths of parenting. It is about adding to what families are doing in a really positive way” — Partner, South Dunedin project

Appendix: Pūtoi Rito Research Reports

Research reports from five Pūtoi Rito Projects 2019-2024

South Dunedin Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers Report, Alex Woodley, Point & Associates, 2024

Dargaville Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers, Sue McDowall, NZCER, 2024

Canterbury Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers Project, Alex Woodley, Point & Associates, 2023

A changing story of reading at Huntly College, Auckland University of Technology School of Education, September 2021.

Making Reading for Pleasure Visible in Five Primary Schools from Te Kāhui Ako o Tiriwā, Auckland University of Technology School of Education, 2021

Communities of Readers Literature Review Report and Summary

Reading for Pleasure: for the Collective Good of Aotearoa New Zealand and A national agenda on reading for pleasure: a summary of insights from Communities of Readers initiative, AUT School of Education; Principal investigator, Dr Ruth Boyask; Co- investigators, Celeste Harrington, John Milne, Daniel Crouch; Sept 2021

Teachers as Readers, Supplementary Research

Teachers as Readers, NZCER; Lead researcher, Sue McDowell; Sept 2021.

Phase 1 Insights Report

Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers Phase 1: 2019 – 2021 Summary and Insights Report, National Library, April 2022

References

1. Cremin, T. and Scholes, L. Reading for pleasure: scrutinising the evidence base – benefits, tensions and recommendations, Language and Education Special Issue Paper, 2024.

2. Hillhorst, S., Lockey, A. and Speight, T. A Society of Readers, Demos, 2018.

3. Boyask, R., Wall, C., Harrington, C., Milne, J., Couch, D. Reading for Pleasure: For the Collective Good of Aotearoa New Zealand, National Library of New Zealand, 2021.

4. OECD (2021), 21st-Century Readers: Developing Literacy Skills in a Digital World, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris/

5. International Literacy Association, The Case for Children’s Rights to Read, 2018.

6. National Library of New Zealand, Help your child become a reader,

7. OECD (2019), PISA 2018 Results (Volume II): Where All Students Can Succeed, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris,

8. Education Counts, PISA 2018: Reading in New Zealand - Reading achievement and experiences of 15-year-olds, 2019.

9. Hon Erica Stanford, Transforming how our children learn to read, Beehive website, May 2024.

10. Education Counts, PISA 2018: Reading in New Zealand - Reading achievement and experiences of 15-year-olds, 2019.

11. Office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, Changes needed to address drop in literacy levels, says Chief Education Scientific Advisor, 2020.

12. Ibid.

13. Jin Russell, Cameron C. Grant, Susan Morton, Simon Denny & Sarah-Jane Paine (Tūhoe) (2022): Prevalence and predictors of developmental health difficulties within New Zealand preschool-aged children: a latent profile analysis, Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Download the Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers Summary of Findings 2019–2024

Download the Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers Summary of Findings 2019–2024 (pdf, 1.30 MB)