One of the challenges in students’ transition into university is making friends and developing a sense of belonging in a new environment. A sense of belonging is important in order to support motivation, engagement and achievement while at university. This project aims to explore how reading together as part of a group can foster the skills and community necessary to support transition into university. Through a participatory, experiential project of developing a reading group, we will co-design “reading” activities not just using text, but also songs, film, art and other media about education and socialising. The outcome will be the proposal and trial of a series of activities for a multimodal reading group which will be open to all students at XJTLU who are seeking to (learn how to) make friends and develop a supportive community to thrive in university, and in life.