Whatever their strengths, few things prepare a child better for a successful future than a love of reading. Lifelong habits start early and reading for pleasure is a proven and powerful tool for ensuring academic success.
Nene Education Trust, a multi-academy trust of eight schools in East Northamptonshire, has launched an exciting initiative – The Nene Reading Challenge – to provide what have been dubbed ‘texts that tempt’ to get readers of all ages to pick up books. To do so, it has set a target of raising £10,000 to provide each school with a set of books – a collection that has been specially chosen to appeal across the entire school age range, and to give children access to books that will inspire and challenge them.
The appeal is being spearheaded by Julie Bloor, Secondary School Improvement Partner at Nene Education Trust.
She said:
“Research shows that reading has a powerful impact on a child’s academic success, regardless of their socio-economic background. Unfortunately, it is estimated that during lockdown one in every seven children lived in a house with no books. Local libraries have suffered from funding cuts, so we’d like to do what we can to improve the choice available in our school libraries.”
Businesses in the area are being approached to see if they feel able to contribute. Each school needs approximately £1,200 to acquire the books. It may be that a single organisation can cover the entire cost for a school, but any contribution, no matter how big or small, would be gratefully received.
Julie added:
“When children get into the habit of reading – it doesn’t matter if it’s novels, popular fiction, comics, whatever they happen to be interested in – they improve their chances of doing well at school. Businesses need a well-prepared workforce for tomorrow and are often keen to help, but don’t always know how. This is one tangible way they can really make a difference to the chances of our children and create the leaders of tomorrow.”
Any business that can help with The Nene Reading Challenge, can contact Julie Bloor at jbloor@neneeducationtrust.co.uk or Matt Coleman at mcoleman@neneeducationtrust.co.uk
