Hampshire school encouraging kids to read as we enter the Year of Reading
The National Year of Reading's a UK-wide campaign that hopes to boost reading for pleasure
A Hampshire school's encouraging more people to read with their children as we enter the Year of Reading.
The National Year of Reading's a UK-wide campaign that hopes to boost reading for pleasure.
Sarah Barclay's a Schoolreaders volunteer at Portsdown Primary School and reads with the children there every week.
She said: "It's engaging with really young people of the future.
"I think that children deserve as much help as they possibly can have.
"There are so many distractions there now, and if they can just have a quiet moment, and I can help give them that, why wouldn't I?
"What surprised me, and I have two children who are now young adults, is how incredibly clever children are, and how quickly they benefit from just a tiny bit of extra reading.
"It's extraordinary and it's like they're just waiting to be watered in a way."
Portsdown Primary School are encouraging their kids to read with Schoolreaders volunteers in school, parents and carers outside of school, and through a book vending machine, which acts as a reward to children for good work.
It comes after it was revealed levels of reading for pleasure are at a record low.
Schoolreaders connects over 3,500 volunteers to reach 35,000 children providing reading sessions every week in the hopes to help build essential literacy skills.
They aim to reach 1.5 million reading sessions across 2026.