Devon's record-breaking children’s reading challenge

A record number of children in Devon returned to school this year as better readers thanks to their local library. Over 8,000 children participated in the Summer Reading Challenge, which is a massive 30% more than took part last year and a new record for the County.

  Councillor Andrea Davis, Devon County Council’s Cabinet Member for Children, Health and Wellbeing, said:    “Reading is a vital part of a child’s development and improving literacy levels amongst our children is a top priority so I'm delighted that schemes like this are encouraging more children to read. 

“The government is putting much more focus to reading for pleasure in schools, so it is fantastic that children in Devon have been able to maintain and improve their reading over the summer holidays with the help of our excellent library service.    “This scheme is designed to have maximum appeal to children, and is a great example of how libraries and schools can work together to prevent the ‘summer reading dip’ and develop a lifelong love of reading for all the family.   “Feedback from parents and teachers has shown that the challenge has encouraged their children to make more visits to the library over the summer, inspiring them to read more and return to school with an improved reading level, which is great news.   “Learning can be lost throughout the summer break but this sort of activity demonstrates that by working together with the support of colleagues in the libraries service, interest in reading and learning can continue.”   Councillor Roger Croad, Devon County Council Cabinet Member with responsibility for the library service, said:   “Olympic fever hit the nation over the summer and for many children the chance to be awarded a gold medal was very appealing, with over 230 new children joining their local library specifically to take part in the Summer Reading Challenge.   “National and local statistics are continuing to show high levels of children's use of public libraries, despite much publicity suggesting that children prefer technology-based reading.  In Devon 28% of all books borrowed from libraries are borrowed by children, which is really positive when you consider that they only make up 15% of the County’s total population.   “In fact during the summer holidays this year we issued over 200,000 books to children, which just shows the impressive amount of reading taking place!   “It's not just young children that benefited from the scheme though. This year the Summer Reading Challenge also enabled our libraries to offer volunteering opportunities to almost 50 young adults across the county, giving them valuable experience in the workplace. They assisted library staff with signing children up to the challenge, creating wall displays, talking to children about books and helping out at craft events.    “Our library service is a valuable resource for the whole community, and the unrivalled success of this year’s event is a strong indication of the value of working together to make a huge difference to our children’s futures.”   Organised by The Reading Agency, the Summer Reading Challenge is the UK’s biggest annual reading promotion for four to eleven year olds and is designed to beat the dip in reading habits which makes it hard for children to get back to their books when they return to school after the long summer break.   Children visiting their library during the summer holidays are encouraged to read six or more books of their choice, collecting incentives and rewards along the way.  It’s not a competition, but a personal challenge within a particular time-frame which offers reading inspiration and incentives to encourage children into libraries.   This year’s theme was ‘Story Lab’, a celebration of story and the imagination, and was linked to the 2012 Olympics as an official project in the Cultural Olympiad’s 2012 Festival.    More than 150 events took place in libraries across Devon to support the challenge, many of which were Olympic-themed and ranged from story sessions and author visits, through to making an Olympic race game or an Olympic torch.   Every child who completed the challenge received a certificate and a medal, and many libraries chose to mark the achievement with a celebration event and medal ceremony.