The three-year campaign from Oxford University Press (OPU) is supported by TV personality Alesha Dixon, author Louise Pentland and TV and radio presenter Sonali Shah.
To coincide with the launch of the Raise a Reader campaign, OUP has released new survey findings highlighting reading barriers and opportunities for children and parents. The findings are based upon a survey of 2,000 parents of children aged three-11 and over 300 primary school teachers.
Key findings from the poll reveal:
- 28 per cent of children aged 7-11 want their parents and carers to read to or with them more often.
- 59 per cent of parents wish they read more with their children.
- 84 per cent of parents enjoy reading with their children.
- Three in ten parents find reading with their child a challenge.
In response to the findings, the OUP will be taking Raise a Reader to communities, with a tour in November, visiting ten locations across England with lower levels of literacy.
The reading roadshow will invite parents and children to visit a campervan packed full of free books and reading resources. Parents will also be able to access advice and resources to help break down the barriers to reading for pleasure. The campervan will tour through cities, visiting schools, libraries and bookshops. Oxford authors and illustrators will join the tour at each stop.
As part of the campaign, the OUP has also teamed up with in the National Literacy Trust (NLT) and the Primary School Library Alliance to specifically champion reading across 10 Oxfordshire schools in the first year of the campaign, with the goal of raising a generation of readers in schools and families in the county’s most disadvantaged and under-served communities. These chools will receive a donation of 500 books each and have the opportunity to host author visits, as well as have access to in-person specialist training to help develop effective whole-school reading strategies.
'Creating a love of reading at home will be a fundamental and powerful tool to help close the learning gap.'
Helen Freeman, director of Oxford Children’s Books and Raise a Reader Project Director, said, ‘We know from our previous OUP Word Gap research that children with poor vocabulary skills at age five are four times more likely to have reading difficulties in adulthood, twice as likely to be unemployed when they reach adulthood, and three times more likely to have mental health problems. Therefore, it’s more important than ever we ensure every child and young person has the tools and opportunities to become lifelong readers, and we’re proud to be working with the NLT to provide dedicated reading spaces across schools in Oxfordshire’s most disadvantaged and under-served communities.
‘As our previous research shows: creating a love of reading at home, an activity that can be enjoyed by parents and children alike, will be a fundamental and powerful tool to help close the learning gap opened up by the pandemic.’
TV personality and author Alesha Dixon, who is supporting the Raise a Reader campaign, commented, ‘Reading has been a passion for me ever since I was a girl, and becoming a mum has been an inspiration to pass that love of books on to my own children. I’m proud to support the Raise a Reader initiative so that all children will have the opportunity to get as excited about reading as I am!’