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27 July, 2026
The UAE Reading Miles Challenge: What Happened When Our Students Started Reading for Fun
This year, we launched something we'd been excited about for a while. The Around the UAE Reading Miles Challenge invited children from FS1 to Year 5 to discover the joy of reading while virtually travelling across all seven Emirates. Every morning, before the first lesson had even begun, the library filled with children. Some were returning the book they'd finished the night before. Some were choosing their next one. Others arrived clutching a completed Reading Miles Challenge card, proud and ready for what came next. More than a few asked if they could stay an extra ten minutes just to earn another 500 miles. That's when we knew something special was happening. What our students achieved 932 students completed the challenge. Together, they travelled 25,664,000 Reading Miles. They spent 8,554 hours and 40 minutes reading — the equivalent of 356 days, just nine days short of a whole year. Those are extraordinary numbers. But the thing that stayed with us wasn't the miles. It was watching children become completely absorbed in a story, recommend a book to a friend, push themselves to try something longer or harder than they'd attempted before. It was seeing confidence grow quietly, one page at a time. What made it work None of this happened in isolation. Behind every Reading Mile was a partnership, between our library team, our teachers and our families at home. Every bedtime story read together, every chapter shared on the sofa, every encouraging word and every signature on a completed challenge card played a part. The reading community we built this year wasn't just inside school. It lived in your homes too, and that made all the difference. What comes next Reading for pleasure is one of the most powerful habits a child can build. Not because of what it does for their grades, but because of what it does for them. It builds curiosity, grows empathy and gives children a way into worlds they'd never otherwise encounter. We're incredibly proud of every student who took part. And we're already looking forward to where next year's challenge will take us.
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