About Children Reading for Life

What does Children Reading for Life do?

Children Reading for Life works to help parents, grandparents and carers nurture, encourage and inspire their children to: learn to read, love to read, choose to read and develop a life-long enjoyment of reading.

Ask any teacher and they will mention a love of reading as a major contributing factor in a child’s attainment, progression and mental well-being throughout their school ‘career’.

Children Reading for Life recognises that developing a child’s love of reading is one of the most important factors in their education, life chances and general well-being.

This is based on a broad range of national and international research as well as 25 years of professional experience.

About me – Polly Atkinson

I have been teaching and inspiring children to read for over 25 years. I have witnessed how being a keen reader helps children’s confidence, self-esteem and attainment in all areas of their lives.
More importantly, I have seen how not being a confident reader can have a negative effect on children’s confidence, self-esteem and academic achievement. If a child is inspired to love reading from an early age, I believe this negative effect can be avoided.

Primary school teacher: 26 years;
English Lead Teacher specialising in children’s reading;
Early Years (EYRs: 0-5 yrs), Key Stage 1 (KS1: 5-7 yrs) and Key Stage 2 (KS2: 7-11 yrs);
Teacher training, West Sussex Teachers as Readers Group Leader;
MA research: Children’s reading and their interests;
United Kingdom Literacy Association: Reading for Pleasure, Book Awards Judge/Group Leader;
United Kingdon Literary Association Regional Representative (South East);
Courses for families (how reading is taught in schools and how to support your child at home);
Regularly attend conferences, literary festivals, presentations etc.

Why is Children Reading for Life needed?

Reading is an incredibly important life skill for everyone. Research shows that those children who choose to read, and have rich reading experiences, achieve greater academic success than those who do not read regularly or enjoy reading. Sadly, recent research* shows that the percentage of children reading for pleasure in their spare time is reducing year on year. This is having an impact on children’s focus for learning, independence, stamina for concentrating as well as mental well-being, critical thinking skills and creativity.

I believe all children deserve the best chances in life and that one of the most enjoyable, affordable and emotionally satisfying ways of achieving this is through reading.

* https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/annual-literacy-survey/