Rothefield Primary School competition winners at Upper Street Bookshop

PUPILS have been tasked with finding the wackiest location to read as they take part in a competition held by Rotherfield Primary that promotes a “culture of reading for pleasure”.

The children were asked to send in photos of themselves reading in interesting places, with the winners receiving vouchers to spend in Upper Street Bookshop. Rosa Aers, the school’s assistant headteacher, said: “We had loads of pictures of kids outdoors, for example on slides in London parks. There’s something really gorgeous about that because it’s them in their community.”

The four winners took snaps of themselves reading on top of a really high fridge, in a bathtub full of water and soap, hanging upside down off monkey bars, and bundled into a suitcase full of books.

“We had about 80 entries,” said Ms Aers. “It was a much greater response than we expected. It feels like a really great hook for children to have reading on their radar.”

Ms Aers also thanked Upper Street Bookshop for providing the prizes.

“We’re not a school with a lot of money,” she said. “We contacted a lot of the big chains and heard nothing back and Upper Street Bookshop were so gorgeous and emailed back almost immediately and said ‘yep totally great we’ll send some gift vouchers’.”