Celebrating 13 years with the Young Readers Programme

We’re celebrating 13 years in partnership with the Young Readers Programme – the award-winning initiative from our co-owner British Land and the National Literacy Trust, which aims to encourage children to read outside of the classroom.

As part of this year’s celebrations, we welcomed 287 children from St Martin’s Garden Primary School, St Michael’s Junior Church School and Roundhill Primary School to take part in a storytelling session designed to inspire a love of reading.

Children had the chance to listen to stories from a professional storyteller and take part in a range of fun activities, including a craft and bookmark making session. We also gave each child a book of their choice to take home for free.

The Young Readers Programme is especially designed to provide additional support and help with the development of children in under privileged areas by giving them better access to books.

We’ve taken part in the programme for the last 13 years and have helped to support more than 2,690 school children in Bath and seen more than 8,000 books donated across the region.

Research from the National Literacy Trust shows that reading for enjoyment among 8 – 18-year-olds in the South West is at its lowest since 2005 – for almost two decades.