Our North Devon Schools Reading Programme
Photo credit: Appledore Primary School
According to the National Literacy Trust, twenty percent of 11-year-olds do not currently achieve the success in reading and writing expected of their age, and this figure can be considerably higher in areas or social and economic deprivation.
In a recent survey of 8000 pupils conducted by the NLT it was found that disadvantaged children were twice as likely to have ten or fewer books at home and had more negative attitudes to reading, were less able to find books to interest them, and were likely to find reading boring.
To counteract this trend, and help prepare children for the inevitability of adult life in an information age - where literacy is imperative for their future livelihood - BookRelief UK coordinates extra-curricular reading programmes for year 6 kids at local schools. We began these at Appledore Primary School and East-the-Water Primary School in October 2007 with the NLT's Reading is Fundamental (RIF) programmes. Over the 2008/09 school year we ran a similar programme with the same two schools and also added St Mary's CofE Primary School in Bideford.
We are now working to expand this programme - which allows each participating pupil to choose one book per term on a subject of their choice. The books they choose are theirs to keep - thus instilling a sense of pride in book ownership.
We believe that reading should be fun - and should hold a child's interest and attention: so we will work with participating schools to arrange a series of author or storyteller events over the school year. To encourage more participation from the writing community, we are now inviting local authors - published, unpublished - or just plain aspiring and looking for an audience - as well as storytellers with an interesting tale to tell - to join a programme that will help us deliver more author and storyteller events.
Our Books Overseas Programme
Photo credit: Phil Pugsley - Amigos International
We hate to see books go to landfill - especially when there are book famines in many developing countries. To counter this we have begun a programme to collect, sort, store and ship appropriate used educational and reading books to needy schools, colleges and libraries in third-world countries. To do this effectively we work in conjunction with groups such as Barnstaple-based Amigos International, London based African Revival, the Gesar Foundation and Glad's House - an orphanage in Mombasa, Kenya.
We are always happy to hear from othger organisations and groups who work at a grassroots hands-on level to deliver aid projects in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere in the developing world - and if their projects include the provision of educational, reading or children's books we will be pleased to help supply these.
Our Books Overseas Programme also provides a number of opportunities for volunteers to help us in our local endeavours. We need help from people with a car or van who can from time to time assist in collecting books and delivering them to a suitable place for storage, as well as help with sorting and cataloging books and in packing them for shipment.
If you are interested in donating suitable books for our Books Overseas Programme, please click through to our Book Donation Guidelines below.