Picture it, it’s July 2021 and I’ve just started a new job in the Books Council of Wales’ Children’s Books and Reading Promotion department. I love children’s books, this job is an excellent fit for me, I’m enthusiastic and I want to well, but if I’m honest, I was also feeling rather overwhelmed with how much I had to get to grips with. And that was before I found out about RT=RP!

Differently to other strategic partners who run their groups in-house, we teamed up with South East Wales Education Achievement Service (EAS) and their fantastic English Language and Literacy Curriculum Partner, Catherine McMahon, to run our group. Blowing my own trumpet alert: we make a good team! Being in the education service, Catherine was perfectly placed to advertise the project effectively and ensure every school knew about RT=RP and their brand new, local group. As the registrations came, which we were updated on weekly by the RT=RP organisers, we became more and more excited that this was really happening. And that feeling of being overwhelmed you ask? It was still very much there, but I was trying to put a positive spin on in and frame it all as lots of chances to learn.

Now then, let me tell you about the RT=RP conference. What a day! Catherine and I both went – yes, we were allowed out of our offices – and we didn’t want the day to end. As well as having fantastic workshops, we heard Aiden Chambers himself read John Burninghm’s Granpa to us as he worked his Tell Me magic on the full theatre of conference goers; we were hypnotised by Onjali Q. Rauf’s passion, warmth, and experiences; and Katherine Rundell almost had me in tears as she spoke about the importance of children’s literature and teachers.

When the day of our launch meeting came it was cold, dark and raining torrentially, but Catherine and I welcomed our reading teachers; we were off and everyone was excited. We all know that the last few years have been tough and fraught with Covid-induced difficulties and so many plans have had to be changed. Our group was no exception, and was disrupted by Covid in different ways, but we carried on as best we could and managed to hold all but one of our meetings in person.

The RT=RP year flew by. Together we read and discussed five fantastic books, the teachers in our group forged connections between their schools as they shared ideas and plans; two teachers even got their years 5 and 6 book groups together over Teams! The support we were given by the RT=RP gang in Cheltenham was phenomenal all year round and we knew that we always had a team to turn to any time we had a question or a puzzle.

I’m so glad that I’ve been involved in RT=RP, our group meeting very quickly became something I really looked forward to. I’ve learnt so much from the project and from Catherine and the teachers in our group. Seeing our teachers visibly relax during our meetings after busy days in school as well as the smiles on their faces as they left said it all – books are great, talking about books with others is even better. Sharing those books with your pupils in school afterwards? That’s the sprinkles on the cherry on the icing on the cake.