We work with schools across the country to provide book parcels for children who attract pupil premium funding. This is a service that increasing numbers of schools have asked for recently, as they try to encourage reading for pleasure and want to change attitudes to reading and provide books for those children who may not have access to them at home.
Research by the National Literacy Trust has shown that children who are eligible for free school meals are much less likely to own books of their own. Their study revealed a strong link between young peoples’ reading ability and their access to books at home. They conclude that “without access to books of their own children are less likely to have positive experiences of reading, less likely to do well at school and less likely to be engaged in reading in any form.”