Bust out them reading glasses, dads — You've got some work to do.
On Saturday 15th of September representatives of Read On Nottingham launched a new initiative at the Nottingham City Homes Fun Day to inspire children from across Nottingham to read more frequently, handing out a total of 600 free books and bookmarks to the 1,600 attendees.
The campaign calls upon all dads, granddads, step-dads, and uncles to post a selfie on social media of themselves enjoying story time with the little ones in their life, tagging it with #ReadOnNottingham. There is no specification for the book, so this could be the latest adventures of Tracy Beaker or The Gruffalo, or alternatively the adult could dust off one of their own copies of A Series of Unfortunate Events, the Fantastic Five books, or the Wind in the Willows. Feeling adventurous? We hear that War and Peace will keep the little'uns occupied for a month or two.
Not only does this allow for some quality family time (not to mention providing dads an opportunity to work on their famous selfie game), Read On Nottingham are even offering prizes for the winners of the competition. Alongside a bundle of books, one lucky family will also bag themselves a pair of tickets to a Nottingham Forest match, and all entries will appear in a gallery shown on the Read On Nottingham website.
The idea behind the introduction of this competition is to encourage more male family members to share time and stories with their children, which in turn will help impact their learning as well as their well-being. This follows research conducted by the National Literacy Trust which showed that fathers often spend less time reading with their children than mothers do, and that children ultimately see their fathers reading less frequently than their mothers; as a result of this, it is widely considered that the lack of the presence of a reading male role model, could contribute to the literacy gap achievement between boys and girls.
Nottingham Hub Manager Emily Landsborough has spoken in regards to Read On Nottingham’s selfie campaign, stating that, “we were thrilled to be part of the Nottingham City Homes Fun Day where we had the chance to gift more books to children. It was the perfect opportunity to introduce our new Dads Reading Selfies competition and inspire male family members and carers to share stories with their children. We know that if a child sees a role model enjoying reading, they are more likely to enjoy reading themselves, helping them to develop the literacy skills they need to succeed in life.”
Read On Nottingham is working with several local partners to deliver bespoke programmes to help improve literacy levels. As part of Read on Nottingham’s ambition to get more people reading they have given away more than 3,000 books to families to inspire them to spend more time reading together.
If you'd like to get involved, take a selfie with you, your child, and whatever books you're currently reading with the hashtag #ReadOnNottingham.
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