Dear Parents & Carers
From 27 February-29 March, we are supporting World Book Day’s Share A Million Stories campaign, championing the importance of sharing stories and for the chance to win £1,000 of books for our school.
Why Share a Story?
Sharing a story for just 10 minutes a day can have a lasting impact on a child’s future and can help to create readers for life.
How can you take part?
Your child will have receive their Share A Million Stories Reading Record for you and them to tick-off how many stories they’re sharing at home (including audiobooks, magazines, comics or graphic novels). We will collect them at the end of the month to add to our school total (we will be logging how much we read at school too) which feeds into the live national total. We’re counting HOW MANY people the stories are shared with, so the number of ‘stories’ is equal to the number of people listening, e.g. sharing a story with an adult for 20 minutes = 4 ‘stories’, as 2 people have shared a story for 10 minutes each.
Why is this campaign so vital?
- Sadly, reading for pleasure is in decline: only 29% of 0-13s read for pleasure daily (down from 30% in 2017). Children’s Reading for Pleasure: Trends and Challenges, Egmont, 2019
- The number of parents sharing stories with their children is also in steep decline: only 56% of 3-4-year-olds are read to daily or nearly every day (v. 69% in 2013).
- Fewer than 19% of 8-10-year-olds are read to daily or nearly every day (down from 25%). Understanding the Children’s Book Consumer Nielsen, 2018
So, let’s boost reading for pleasure back up! There are so many benefits to sharing stories together:
- It boosts creativity and imagination
- It’s a calming, bonding experience that improves well-being
- It builds empathy and closeness
- It’s great fun for everyone involved!
World Book Day needs ALL of our support and we look forward to helping them reach their goal of one million stories shared nationwide – and the opportunity to win an amazing new supply of books for our school worth £1,000! Find out more at worldbookday.com/share-a-million-stories.
Thank you for taking part! Please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions.
Miss S Bartlett
