But, amid all the hurly-burly of tests, exams and assessments, it's also important that children should experience the quiet thrill of total immersion in a favourite book, magazine or comic.

Sheffield schools are being invited to help their youngsters share that special feeling through involvement in the National Year of Reading.

By completing a checklist of 10 different objectives, schools can receive an official accreditation for their work to promote the pleasures of reading.

Loxley Primary is one of the first in the city to achieve that goal – having found that many of the requirements were already common practice in school.

English co-ordinator James Marshall said all schools knew good reading skills were the key to success in almost every other subject on the curriculum.

"But, for us, reading for pleasure is very important too, it is something we want to see the children take on to secondary school and for the rest of their lives," he said.

At Loxley, teachers read to their classes for at least 10 minutes every day, and the school features a poem of the week and an author of the month.

There are regular contacts with the local library, pupils welcome authors into school, and there are initiatives to involve parents in their youngsters' reading.

"We've also set up a book club which has been running for two terms at lunchtimes, where children can not only read books but are encouraged to read material online, on blogs and websites," James said.

"They can also chat online at home and at school – I recently updated my own home page and the children came on to chat with me about it straight away. It's all about using informal language."

At Loxley, classes always have a class book on the go, which is read to them in episodes. And once a year there's a Book Week too.

"It's important to read to the children, as some of them are reluctant to read themselves. By listening they can get sucked into it," James said.

"My current book is The Wreck Of The Zanzibar by Michael Morpurgo, which is full of exciting stuff about shipwrecks and the Scilly Isles. Jeremy Strong is also very popular. His books are very funny and they're enjoyed especially by the boys.

"Boys are often not big readers and so I can form a bit of a role model for them. They like to read what interests them, like newspapers, football match reports and the like – reading like that for pleasure is just fine, and it's better than being hooked up to an X-box for hours."

Time was when comics and magazines might be confiscated in class, but no longer.

"We have spells of quiet reading and bringing in a comic is just fine," James said. "It might be something that they want to share with a friend and that spreads the word, too.

"Boys love football magazines and other current favourites are the Simpsons, Futurama and, of course, Doctor Who. It's about whatever gets you going.

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