World Book Day 2020
News article from March 5, 2020
This World Book Day, we’re making sure every child can access the joys and benefits of reading.
Reading opens up new worlds, expands vocabularies and increases literacy skills. But children facing disadvantage are often prevented from accessing these benefits.
- 1 in 8 disadvantaged children in the UK doesn’t have a book of their own.
- What happens at home matters: children from the most disadvantaged background start school with a vocabulary that’s 19 months behind their more privileged peers.
- Last year, 175,000 five-year-olds started school without the literacy skills they need.
- Without these skills, children that are already facing multiple barriers will be held back at every stage of their lives.
We focus on these issues every day.
We work with the whole family to make them stronger, more resilient and more engaged with their child’s education. Our life-changing work with parents and carers has a direct positive impact on children, getting them in school and ready to learn so they can achieve and thrive on a level playing field with other pupils.
But we’re not stopping there…
Together with the help of our corporate partners, we’ve been ensuring even the most disadvantaged pupils can enjoy World Book Day and feel a lasting positive impact in their schools.
This is just a preview of what we’ve been busy organising for the children and schools we support…
Thanks to ten of our brilliant corporate partners, 16 schools in the SHS network are receiving a range of books for their pupils. This includes 12 primary schools and four secondary schools, one of which is a Pupil Referral Unit. Books range in genre, purpose and age and have been delivered according to the schools’ particular needs as arranged with each Headteacher. Deliveries arrive today and we can’t wait to receive feedback on the impact these books will have.
With all the books some schools are receiving, one SHS Practitioner is setting up a Lunchtime Book Club for the pupils she supports. This will encourage a culture of reading for fun, as well as a welcoming, calming space for disadvantaged children to visit and connect with SHS.
In other exciting news, two of our corporate partners have launched Book Review Competitions with two of the schools in our network. The competitions are aimed at Years 5 and 6 pupils and will encourage reading with various scholastic prizes to be won! We’ll be reporting back in April with an update on our winners and the impact this has made.
Are you a business inspired by the activities our corporate partners are doing to support children overcome barriers to education? You could partner with SHS too.
Want to know how you can support SHS to do more impactful work with families that need it? Donate today and see how else you can make a difference.