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Pearson is increasing its activities around literacy with the launch of a new campaign, Enjoy Reading, that aims to help children become lifelong readers, encouraging parents to expose them to books and make reading enjoyable.
A Read for My School challenge will be open to all primary schools, with Pearson, the parent company of Penguin, making 100,000 books available to win in partnership with reading charity Booktrust and the Department for Education.
Booktime, founded by Pearson in partnership with Booktrust in 2006, is also scheduled to give out 1.4 million books in England and Wales to children going into reception. That project was recently recognised by the City of London, winning a Dragon Award.
Alongside the reading competition, there will be an Enjoy Reading website aimed at parents with tips on getting children reading and offering free e-books for children to read on-screen. There will also be events in schools, including a specially comissioned project with children's laureate and Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson.
A YouGov poll commissioned by Pearson showed that 30% of parents read to their children only once a week or less, while one in six said they never read a bedtime story together. A fifth of parents wait until their child is two or older before they begin reading to them. The survey also found that children were spending three times as much of their time in on-screen activity at home, compared to reading traditional books.
Pearson president Rod Bristow said: "Studies have shown that reading for pleasure is a key indicator of future success for children, but demands on children’s attention and the difficulty of inspiring reluctant readers mean many are missing out. The Enjoy Reading campaign is designed to support parents and schools to inspire children of all abilities into reading. We are also working with authors and experts on finding effective new ways of using technology to help children develop a lifelong love of reading."