Utilising a combined approach of their physical library and a Sora digital library to meet students where they are
Queensbridge School, located in South Birmingham, is a mixed comprehensive with a richly diverse student population. With a higher percentage of students with special education needs and a quarter of pupils receiving free school meals, ensuring every student has equal and ample opportunity for academic achievement, no matter their circumstance, is paramount. It’s one of the reasons school librarian, Mrs. Caroline Chilton and whole school reading lead, Mrs. Alice Paetel, have ensured all students have access to a robust collection of ebooks, audiobooks and magazines with Sora, the student reading app from OverDrive and a subscription to Secondary EbooksNOW – a handpicked collection of digital books shared among participating secondary schools.
Prior to adopting Sora, there were challenges Chilton and Paetel were looking to solve in students’ reading experiences. Some students had limited access to reading materials at home and there was a greater need to engage reluctant readers in general. The school sought to modernise its approach to reading, aligning with students' tech-driven lifestyles, while also ensuring inclusivity for all learners.
By providing a digital library, students not only have more access to books, but access to the right books for them. More than 300 students at Queensbridge use Sora to customize their reading experience and choose titles that interest them – whether it’s by subject matter or format. The school can incentivise students with a reward-based tracking system within Sora, drawing a wider appeal to reading for pleasure. Furthermore, Sora can be accessed on both school and personal devices - in ebook or audiobook format - for reading anytime, anywhere.
Formats like magazines and graphic novels have been a great way to support pleasure reading. Physical copies of graphic novels can be expensive, and Mrs. Chilton shares she can pique students’ interests by purchasing just the first few physical copies in a series and then turn them on to Sora to finish reading the series digitally. Once in Sora, they begin to discover even more titles that keep them reading.
Staff have been able to seamlessly integrate titles on Sora into their classroom as well. “Sora has been a great resource for staff to read themselves or use extracts within lessons; especially with the new introduction of magazines,” said Chilton, “They have been used in our whole school focus on Disciplinary Literacy across the curriculum in staff training.
Chilton and Paetel have shared the variety of ways they’ve been able to engage students with Sora, including a Sora book club as well as dedicated tablets for Sora within the library that students can conveniently access during social periods. Once a week for half an hour, Queensbridge students have DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) time where audiobooks are often played as an alternative format to further reading engagement. They also utilise popular trend, BookTok, to appeal to students and feature a “BookTok made me read it” display of titles available in Sora trending on TikTok.
Feedback on Sora has been overwhelmingly positive, with particular appreciation for its role during periods of remote learning. Usage of Sora remains constant among students, with no decrease in physical lending rates, supporting OverDrive’s belief that traditional and digital reading resources are needed to work hand-in-hand to help foster a love of reading. Queensbridge School's partnership with Sora continues to support their dedication to both academic achievement and strong embedded values of respect, rigour and responsibility.
If you are interested in learning more about Sora, contact our UK team at discoversora.com/global.
