St Erth Community Primary School in Hayle has been crowned the winner of Devon and Cornwall’s One Million Minutes reading challenge.

Over 1,300 children took part in the competition which challenged primary school classes to read for as many minutes as they could in just one week.

The competition, run by award-winning education charity Achievement for All, took place from Wednesday, June 22, to Wednesday, June 29, and involved 44 classes from across the two counties.

All 44 classes in Devon and Cornwall managed to read for a fantastic 231,306 minutes during the week-long challenge.

But it was Fistral Class from St Erth Community Primary School topped the leaderboard with 16,744 minutes, winning the school a reading corner packed full of books worth over £1,000, from Peters Books and Furniture.

Erika Bloxam, teacher of Fistral Class, said: “The children have come into school every day eager to tell me about what book they have read at home and who they read to. We give out certificates for children who read at home at least four times a week and this is the first time I have ever been able to hand one out to every member of the class.

“One of my very reluctant readers has been keen to stay in at break times to sit in the reading corner and even asked if he could take his book out at lunch times. I have never seen him so engaged, it has been wonderful to see him get so excited about reading.

“I went out to tell the children the news that we had won (they had been asking me all day)! They were so excited, they were cheering and high fiving each other. I can’t tell you how proud they are. This morning when I arrived at school I had a little note on my desk which said: ‘To Miss Bloxam, I have had so much fun in the reading challenge. I would love to do it again. Also I LOVE BOOKS!’”

Chief executive and founder of Achievement for All, Professor Sonia Blandford, said: “A recent report by Unicef revealed that the UK was ranked 25th out of 37 countries in reading. Shocking figures that we want to change. Reading is a such an important part of our daily lives and research shows that reading for just an extra ten minutes a day can have a huge impact on a child’s education. We designed the One Million Minutes challenge to be fun and engaging for children, parents and teachers alike, and encourage children to pick up a book and really enjoy reading.

“Huge congratulations to St Erth Community Primary School for winning the Devon and Cornwall challenge. We are delighted so many children took part and hope everyone enjoyed it. Every single class read for a significant amount of minutes and that alone should be celebrated. We hope that although the week is over, the challenge has gone some way to instil a lifelong passion for reading.”