How to plan your Summer Book-nic
The Education North Tyneside Summer Book-nic is an exciting new event to celebrate the the joy of reading for pleasure. It's a brilliant way to promote reading to your students and their families with a relaxed and fun-filled day in your school.
We are delighted that you are thinking of hosting your own Summer Book-nic. Lots of schools from all around the North East will be taking part on 4th July 2025, but if that date doesn't work for your school, feel free to do it on another day.
We've provided you with lots of free materials to help you plan and run your ‘book-nic’, but the whole day is flexible. We want you to be creative, use the resources however you like and make your reading picnic perfect for your school. You might like to hold your ‘book-nic’ on the school field, or indoors. You may choose to invite parents or the wider community to join you. Whatever you choose, we hope it will be the perfect way to engage pupils in reading for pleasure and celebrate everything to do with reading.
No two Book-nics will be exactly the same, but here's a guide for a general structure to planning and running your day.
Have fun, and we hope the sun shines!
Before the day
Step 1 - Sign up!
We want to know who is taking part in the Education North Tyneside Summer Book-nic, so please make sure you sign up your school before you get started.
Step 2 - Promote your involvement.
We've prepared a range of posters, banners and media you can use on your website and social media channels. Let everyone know that you are hosting a Summer Book-nic. Find all the resources HERE.
Please feel free to include us in your social posts by using the following:
- Twitter / X - @educationnortht
- Facebook - @Education North Tyneside
- LinkedIn - @Education North Tyneside
Use the hashtag #ENTBooknic across all channels.
Step 3 - Get your families involved.
We want your whole school community to get involved with your Summer Book-nic. Invite parents to come along, bring a book and a picnic and enjoy some stories and activities with the children. We've prepared a draft invitation letter to send to parents, which you can find on our Media Pack and Celebration Resources page
Step 4 - Pick your main activities.
We've created a range of age-appropriate activities for you to choose from. They cover all age groups from Early Years to Key Stage 3. Pick out what you'd like each class to cover making sure there's plenty of reading time in there.
All age activities
Early Years activities
Key Stage 1 activities
Key Stage 2 activities
Key Stage 3+ activities
Step 5 - Explore our other resources
As well as the main activities, we have also created a collection of other useful resources to help your day go with a swing. Be sure to have a look through everything before the day and decide which parts you'd like to use. You can find it all on our Media and Resources page.
Your Summer Book-nic day
Step 1 - Share the plan
Start your day by gathering the troops and introducing what the Summer Book-nic is all about. We've prepared assembly slides for you to use which can be downloaded and edited if needed. You can find them on our Media and Resources page.
Step 2 - Run the activities
Use our resources to prepare your picnics and story related activities through the day.
Step 3 - Capture your day
Don't forget to capture the fun of the day with lots of photos and videos.
Step 4 - Share your party pics
Please share your wonderful Summer Book-nic pics across your social channels, and be sure to tag us in your posts so we can see what you've been doing. We'll be trying to gather some of the best bits across the day and after the event.
- Twitter / X - @educationnortht
- Facebook - @Education North Tyneside
- LinkedIn - @Education North Tyneside
Use the hashtag #SummerBooknic across all channels.
Please make sure you follow your school social media policies at all times and ensure that all students have parental permissions to appear in images that are shared online.
After your Summer Book-nic
Tell us what you think
We would love to know how your Summer Book-nic went and what you thought of the resources we provided, so we can learn from your feedback and continue to improve what we can offer for future events. We plan to run another Summer Book-nic in 2026, so your feedback will be invaluable.
