National Reading Challenge – Team Read

The National Reading Challenge is a programme devised and funded by a charitable body, which takes place during the school summer holidays (end July – mid Sept) on an annual basis.

All local authority libraries throughout the UK have signed up to the scheme and it is run on a national basis with shared promotional materials from a central pot. Each year there is a different theme and this year it is sport, entitled ‘Team Read’. The scheme is set to take place at 104 libraries in Kent and 11 mobile units. The programme targets 4 -11 year olds of all abilities.

Typically in Kent, 17,000 Key Stage 2 children begin the challenge, but only around 40% to 50% finish all six books, which is the number the Challenge looks to encourage children to read. Through the Kent 2012 Campaign’s Cultural Olympiad, we are looking to encourage not only more children to read all six books, but to get more ‘bookish’ young people taking up sport, and more ‘sporty’ young people to enjoy reading! A range of activities are planned to support this being achieved, including informing parents when their children sign up about all local sports clubs but particularly encouraging them to understand/seek out accredited clubs, arranging visits by Sporting Champions (i.e. known adult athletes) and Sporting Ambassadors (secondary school aged young people – two per School Sport Partnership) to support the roll out and take up of the Reading Challenge; encouraging sporty young children through schemes like Step into Sport to link in with existing young people volunteer schemes within libraries; and exploring the possibility of linking successful participants in with free one-off access to local leisure centres/clubs.

For further details please contact Margaret.brockman@kent.gov.uk or marvin.miller@kent.gov.uk