My son has just started secondary school, his homework was to pick a book to read for ten minutes at school today. This was really easy for him as he loves reading and finds it all too easy. Reading has opened up a whole new World to him, he can immerse himself in fantasy and it helps him to relax. But not all children are this lucky with 130,000 children in the UK every year leaving primary school not reading as well as they should. This figure includes 40% of all children from poorer backgrounds (read the report here). We need to break the vicious cycle that keeps people poor generation after generation. This is why Save the Children have launched the Read on Get on Campaign.
Save the Children are determined to ensure that every child in the UK gets a fair start to life. Reading is the key to unlocking a child’s full potential and one of the best routes out of poverty for the poorest children. In the first few years of school children who fall behind badly in literacy never catch up; leaving school without basic reading skills or good qualifications: Almost all children (93%) who leave primary school without good reading skills fail to achieve five good GCSE results five years later. This then has devastating consequences for their future – of low or no pay, as they lack the skills to make them eligible for so many jobs. They may be reliant on benefits, which to even access them means being able to read and fill in forms (or have the skills to have someone to do it for you).
Read on Get on is a national mission for all children to be reading well by the time they leave primary school. This commitment must be realised through long term educational and social support pre-school and throughout primary school. Save the Children’s Born to Read first programme is in partnership with Beanstalk (formerly Voluntary Reading Help) who have 40 years’ experience in helping children learn to read. They are giving the poorest children in the UK the reading skills they need for a better future. Born to Read recruits and trains volunteers to work in primary schools with children who have fallen behind with their reading. By the end of 2018, expert one-to-one tuition will help 23,000 children’s literacy skills and life chances.
How you can help:
Support the Campaign – follow on Twitter Save the Children UK Beanstalk
Friday 12th September 2014 – join us for a Misspelling day – spell incorrectly on social media with a link directing them to the petition or the campaign, in order to drive awareness.
Volunteer to be a Reader Helper (2 x 90 minutes a week for 1 year – travel expenses paid)
Sign the Petition – to get Political leaders to make lasting change for every UK child to be a confident reader.
Buying a virtual gift to help UK children read well
Beanstalk also know how important the home learning environment is so are supporting parents to help develop their children’s reading skills at home. If your child is struggling at home Beanstalk have help for parents and carers. There are many ways of engaging children in stories – and indeed bringing the books to life. We have had a lot of fun with The Gruffalo for his 15th anniversary this year.
See these other Blog posts on helping Children to Read:
How I encourage my Children to become Happy Readers who Love Books
10 Top Tips to Help Your Child when Reading a Book together
This is not a sponsored post. Images copyright of Save the Children.
Great campaign. It is shocking how many children can’t read, they need support
This is such a great campaign . Will definitely donate and check it out.
Such an important campaign – reading is an essential skill, and not only that but it provides a great deal of pleasure.
This is such and important campaign. Every child deserves to do well and their achievements in life shouldn’t be defined by their background and childhood circumstances.
This is so important. Access to books is so crucial. and makes such a difference. Really great campaign.
I can’t believe so many children can’t read. This is a great campaign. Being able to read is an essential life skill
So important and I am a reader helper locally x
I have such happy memories of my childhood, reading Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree and The Secret Seven. They are still among my favourite stories and I’m so excited to be sharing them with my sons now. It’s shocking that children are missing out on the magic that reading can bring.
I live in a deprived area and believe or not loads of children that start in nursery without having even seen a book! I have already signed the petition
What an amazing campaign! Reading is definitely key to getting of to a good start with education
We have always had loads of books and newspapers around the house just as I did growing up. Many parents think that teaching their children to read is solely the job of teachers and won’t listen to their children read at home. I’m not sure you can change attitudes like that.
What a brilliant campaign and so important; I had no idea that so many children leave primary school unable to read. How awfully sad. My own memories of childhood feature reading a lot.
What a great initiative. It’s shocking to understand how many children can’t.
such an important campaign. I worry about how many children I meet at secondary school with such low levels of literacy.
It’s so sad to think that children still leave school without being able to read, thank you for sharing the campaign
Amazing campaign. Reading with children is so key to their futures – both academically and also unlocking their window to the world. x
Fantastic idea! Reading is a fabulous gift everyone can enjoy! 🙂 x
Great post and such a brilliant campaign. It is so important that ALL our kids leave school being able to read x
Just an important campaign. Books are our biggest treasure in this house. We have hundreds and love them all.
Amazing campaign. My eldest is just starting the route of learning how to read. exciting and scary al at once.
great campaign, we love to read and have always read to our three -thankfully they all love reading as much as we do
It’s understating it to say that this is important. Reading shapes people.
Fantastic campaign from Save the Children. It makes me so sad that children don’t have the opportunity to escape into a book. When I was a child, books were my escape from the rest of the world and I honestly don’t know how I would survive without them.
This is a great idea. All mine apart from one have loved books….we tried everything with him but they just didn’t interest him at all
This is such a good campaign, thanks for sharing .x
I’m glad that there is a program like this! Reading is such an important basic skill, and still, so many children are deprived of it.
A fantastic campaign. I’m shocked at the low levels of literacy. My children all love reading, we read together a lot. Parents have to be educated that this isn’t solely the responsibility of the schools.
Lovely post Joy and a great cause. Thanks for featuring our posts too. xx
Reading is such an essential skill it is a great campaign to back. Thanks for sharing the info xx
What a brilliant campaign – so important. I know from my son how much his confidence was affected when he struggled with his reading. With a lot of support from the school, he’s now ahead of his classmates, loves reading and more importantly, his confidence has increased massively x x
A great campaign – will check it out and join in x
Thought provoking post – a brilliant campaign that I will be checking out soon. Thanks for posting this.
What a brilliant campaign! Reading is so important and can help with so many life skills. It really does have a knock on effect to many other aspects of life and well being.