SME Club supports children’s literacy charity
National small business Network, The SME Club is encouraging businesses across the UK to support national children’s literacy charity Schoolreaders, Race for Reading campaign to raise vital funds to support primary school children with their reading skills. Even before the pandemic, one in four children was leaving primary school unable to read well and school closures have worsened the situation considerably, with disadvantaged children suffering the most. According to the Sunday Times*, this year 1 in 3 children is expected to leave primary education with poor literacy skills.
Jane Whitbread, founder of Schoolreaders comments: “If a child leaves primary school not reading properly, they are unable to fully access their secondary education, which can have life-long consequences. Literacy is the gateway to education, a child needs to learn to read, in order to read to learn.”
James Godfrey, founder of The SME Club said, ‘The SME Club was set up to support the vital small business sector which drives our economy, and we are encouraging businesses across the UK to get behind our future business leaders and owners. A good level of literacy is an essential skill in business and commerce.’ The latest figures showing a third of children leaving primary school with poor literacy skill is a scary statistic and we should all be doing what we can to help.
The charity is encouraging as many people as possible to sign up to the Race for Reading campaign and help make a world of difference to children’s literacy. Participants, either individually or in a team, undertake a sponsored challenge of any form such as running, cycling, swimming or even walking the dog to collectively undertake a virtual circumnavigation of the globe ( 25,000 miles) in 80 days.
Schoolreaders provides volunteers to primary schools to give one-to-one reading sessions with children and is now needed more than ever, with one in ten primary schools in this country asking for Schoolreaders volunteers. The charity has seen a huge rise in volunteer registrations this year and has enough volunteers to be supporting more than 20,000 children with a one-to-one reading session each week.
Jane Whitbread added: “Before the initial lockdown almost 13,000 children were receiving a one-to-one reading support session every week from a Schoolreaders volunteer, and our service is needed more than ever because so many children have fallen behind. Please join us by signing up to our Race for Reading campaign and be a part of supporting thousands more children improve their reading skills.”
RACE FOR READING has been generously sponsored by our corporate partner, Tritax Big Box, the UK’s leading investment company focused on larger scale logistics real estate.
Colin Godfrey – CEO, Fund Management, Tritax Big Box adds: “We are delighted to sponsor Race for Reading 2021. Improving reading skills is key to bringing important social and economic benefits to the communities in which we own logistics buildings. As a partner to Schoolreaders charity, we have seen first-hand the extent to which they are playing an integral role in helping to achieve that, and improving the long-term prospects of many of the UK’s most disadvantaged children.”
To find out more about the campaign, please visit www.raceforreading.org
*The Sunday Times – April 4th 2021 – Boris Johnson fears lockdown illiteracy surge | News | The Sunday Times (thetimes.co.uk)
