How to run a readathon for your school
A step-by-step plan for parents' associations: dates, sponsorship, logging books, prizes and saying thank you.
Updated 5 October 2026
A readathon gets children reading and raises money for the school at the same time. Children collect sponsorship for every book they read over a few weeks. Here's how committees run one without it taking over their lives.
Six weeks before
- Agree the dates with the principal. Three to four weeks works well; World Book Day in early March is a popular start.
- Decide what counts: books, chapters or minutes. Books are simplest for younger classes.
- Agree how sponsorship will be paid: cash in an envelope, the school's payment app or a bank transfer. Keep it to one or two options.
- Pick a fundraising goal and what it's for. "New books for the library" or "the yard" makes it real for families.
Two weeks before
- Set up a readathon page so parents can log books by class. Classes love seeing their total climb.
- Send home sponsorship cards for younger classes; older classes can print their own.
- Line up prizes. Book vouchers from a local bookshop go down well and keep the focus on reading.
- Consider a book swap during the readathon so every child has something new to read.
During
- Share the class leaderboard in WhatsApp groups once or twice a week. Don't overdo it.
- Remind parents how to log books and how to pay sponsorship.
- If logging is slow, extend the end date by a week rather than chasing.
After
- Give a final reminder to log and to hand in sponsorship by a set date.
- Announce the total and the top classes, and thank everyone, including the teachers.
- Write up what worked in your handover notes, so next year's committee doesn't start from scratch.
Free to print: a reading log for each child, and certificates for the top readers.
On primaryschool.ie, committees can set up a readathon page in a few minutes. Parents log books from their phone, with no names and nothing to install. See how it works.