At Readathon we believe that the ability to listen to, understand, and then retell a joke is a fundamental literacy skill. It’s a brilliant way to engage boys and telling jokes is something that they are often particularly good at! Jokes often include puns and wordplay, and involve an understanding of how language works. They are also, of course, great fun.

We’re asking Readathon teachers and librarians to encourage discussion in class on the joke genre and then get the students to send us in their jokes (old chestnuts, trendy new-minted ones, or ones they’ve made up).

We’re talking to children’s publishers about the prospect of publishing all the jokes we receive in a book. Michael Rosen has kindly already agreed to write the foreword!

If a book does come about, we would like to include students’ names with their joke(s) but - for child protection reasons - not the name of their school although all the schools that take part would be acknowledged at the back of the book. We won’t contact any contributer.

The jokes can be sent to us by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or in the post to: Jokes at Readathon, The Parsonage, St Mary’s, Chalford, Stroud, GL6 8QB.

Jokes should be accompanied by the student’s name, and we want as many jokes as possible, good or bad, to make a bumper joke book!