This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Home Reading Initiative launched
10/08/2002
Introducing children to books at an early age is one of the best gifts any parent can offer.
That's the message from Education Minister Cathy Jamieson, who turned the first page of a Home Reading Initiative today with the launch at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
The first stage of the Initiative, designed to encourage more parents to read to their children, is a leaflet for parents highlighting the benefits of reading and some techniques to make it a more valuable and enjoyable experience.
A Home Reading Co-ordinator will also be appointed to oversee the three year campaign along with an army of "Reading Champions" who will encourage parents, carers and children to get the most out of reading.
Ms Jamieson said:
"Reading is an essential skill that enables young people to access education and employment as well as being a source of pleasure and entertainment. The reading children do out of school is invaluable in helping them develop their literacy skills.
"The Home Reading Initiative specifically aims to support this very important element of home reading. The pleasure of sharing a reading experience with a parent or other carer should be part of every child's memory.
"Initial research shows we have a positive foundation to build on. Parents appear to be reading to their children about five times a week but it is mostly mothers who do the reading. This could lead to children thinking that reading is not something that men do. The research also indicates that children from better off families are more likely to be read to.
"As well as getting the general message across to all parents that reading at home is a valuable experience, we are looking to encourage reading in homes where books are less commonly found.
"We are also trying encourage fathers and male role models to take part in reading at home. This will help capture the imagination of boys - this could be anything from reading the latest Harry Potter book to studying a football programme at the match on a Saturday afternoon."
The Home Reading Initiative comprises of:
- A leaflet for parents, which gives guidance to parents of children between the ages of 0 to 8 on the benefits of home reading and some techniques to make it a more valuable experience
- An Advertising Campaign starting in November which will raise the profile of home reading and encourage parents to become involved
- The Appointment of Reading Champions to encourage parents, carers and children to develop the skills of reading at home
- A web site which will contain more information to help parents and ideas on how to develop local projects to support home reading that will launch early in the new year
- A small grants scheme which will make £300,000 available from April next year to support small local projects such as book sharing clubs
- A Home Reading Co-ordinator who will be appointed towards the end of the year to drive forward this Initiative
Ms Jamieson continued:
"The leaflet is the first step to engaging with parents and children and highlighting the positive experiences that reading can bring. "The Home reading Co-ordinator, who will be appointed later this year, will drive froward the Initiative and look for innovative ways to capture the imagination of children and parents alike and show them the pleasure and rewards that can be found by simply reading a book.
"We also want to create a list of Reading Champions - people who are interested in helping raise literacy levels among our young people. Reading Champions are not expected to become 'experts' in home reading. They will work with the Co-ordinator and give their time to try and stimulate interest and enthusiasm for home reading and encourage parents and carers to get the most out of reading with their children.
"The number of people agreeing to become Reading Champions has been very encouraging - Fred Macaulay, Kirsty Wark and the Singing Kettle's Gary Coupland are just a few of the people who have already signed up to support the Initiative.
"The world of the written word should be accessible to children. We all have a role to play in giving our children the best possible start in life. Reading books and learning from that experience is fundamental to achieving that goal and great fun can be had in the process."
Anne Fine, Children's Laureate and author of, among many other books, the Flower Babies and Madame Doubtfire also attended the launch.
She said:
"Anyone can share a book with a child. Even parents who've never learned to read give sheer delight by making up stories to go with the pictures. And they often astonish themselves as, coming at large easy texts for the first time in a more relaxed fashion, things fall into place at last.
"I think, as this initiative takes off, one of the other things that is going to astonish everyone who is drawn into it, is what a difference it makes in family life to how well everyone one gets to know one another."
A number of initiatives have already been developed to encourage home reading that this Initiative will build on.
These include:
- Work in Pre-School/Primary school environment. Many nursery schools, classes and playgroups operate very successful "lending libraries" where parents borrow books and other resources.
- The Early Intervention Programme. The Early Intervention Programme (EIP) was launched in 1997 to raise standards of literacy and numeracy in the early stages of primary school. The Scottish Executive has committed £56 million over the five years of EIP from 1997-2002.
- Support for Parents. The Scottish Executive has also committed £15 million over the three years from 1999/2000 to 2001/2002 to an Excellence Fund initiative encouraging parents' involvement in their children's education.
- World Book Day/National Poetry Day. World Book Day is an initiative by the book industry to promote books and reading taking place in March each year. The main feature is the distribution of free £1 book tokens to every schoolchild in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The Scottish Executive has provided a small grant to assist in the administration of both these events.
The parents' leaflet Reading Together will soon be distributed, via Education Authorities, to schools, community centres, libraries and health centres.
There are a number of initiatives aimed at tackling the problem of low literacy and numeracy levels among some adults including:
- An investment of £22.5million over 3 years to raise levels of adult literacy and numeracy in Scotland, with 80,000 people expected to receive help during this period
- setting up a new research and development centre within Communities Scotland
- establishing 8 national pathfinder projects
- developing a training programme for tutors
- establishing a new curriculum for adult learners
Family literacy is an excellent example of effective lifelong learning. Parents learn how to help their children to develop their skills, while extending their own abilities.
The Home Reading Initiative will build on work in the classroom already underway to help improve attainment levels.
An army of Reading Champions will encourage parents, carers and children to get the most out of reading.
The level of involvement of each Reading Champion will depend on their individual preferences and time commitments but could include:
- Visits to schools
- Attend book/reading groups
- Speaking at parents evenings
- Participation in the Executive's advertising campaign
- Contribute to the Home Reading web site
- Highlight their own home reading techniques, favourite books as a child, what books they read to their own children
Response to the Executive's invitation to become a Reading Champion have been positive. So far the following people have signed up:
Children's writers/ authors:
Des Dillon
Matthew Fitt
Joan Lingard
Diana Hendry
Alison Prince
Scoular Anderson
Catherine MacPhail
Jonathan Meres
Aileen Paterson
Margaret Ryan
Andrew Wolfe
Scottish Media Group:
Andrea Brymer - Grampian TV
Grant Lauchlan - Movie Juice
Louise White - Scottish Television
BBC Scotland:
David Robertson, Newscaster
Abeer Parkes, Newscaster
Fred Macaulay, Entertainer
Tam Cowan, Entertainer
Children's Entertainer:
Carry Coupland - The Singing Kettle
The National Statements to improve literacy and numeracy were launched in June 2002.