19th July 2017

Local literacy charity Beanstalk has joined forces with local schools to ask all those living on Merseyside to sign up today as Story Starters to help local nursery children to develop their language skills and become ready to read. Beanstalk will be training their volunteer Story Starters over the summer so that they can start working in schools with nurseries from September.

Story Starters is a new collaborative project between children’s literacy charity Beanstalk, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and LuCid (University of Liverpool) which aims to give children on Merseyside the support they need to develop their language and reading skills. Research has shown that children who benefit from high-quality support in their early years start school on average three months ahead in their literacy and language skills, compared with children who don’t.

Story Starter volunteers will visit children twice a week and support three children for 20 minutes each. The sessions are fun, interactive and hugely beneficial to the children receiving extra support. The child and volunteer will have access to a box full of books, resourced and games, as well as an additional book every month delivered directly to the trained reading helper and child.

A number of nurseries have signed up for Story Starters and requested volunteers to start in September.

Michael Forber, Headteacher at Somerville Primary School, says “In today’s media-led society conversation is at risk of becoming a dying art. Children that start school with limited vocabulary and conversational skills are beginning their education at a disadvantage. The Story Starters sessions will give some of our youngest children a huge boost and help them become ready to read!”

Ginny Lunn, CEO of Beanstalk, says “Beanstalk is excited to be working with local nurseries on Merseyside on our new programme Story Starters. We know how important it is for children in the early years of their education to get support with their language development, as this enables them to start primary school ready to read and able to thrive throughout their education. We need volunteers to come forward now so they can be trained to start supporting children in September.”

Elaine Rees, CEO of Liverpool Learning Partnership, says “Liverpool Learning Partnership welcomes this initiative as one way to address the school readiness issue facing schools.”

Get involved

If you would to become a Story Starter, please

• Visit storystarters.org.uk
• Call Beanstalk on 0845 450 0301 or
• Email [email protected].

- Ends -

Notes to the editor:

For further information contact Sarah Pickstone, [email protected], 07815 707701 or Steve Hawe, [email protected], mobile 07837 701520.

Images of Story Starters volunteers with nursery children are available on request.

About Beanstalk

• Beanstalk is a national charity that provides one-to-one literacy support to children who struggle with their reading.
• The charity recruits, trains and supports volunteers to provide one-to-one literacy support in primary schools.
• Beanstalk’s trained reading helpers transform the lives of the children they support, turning them into confident, passionate and able readers.
• In the last school year the charity helped over 11,000 children across England, in over 1,400 schools, with the help of over 3,000 reading helpers, ensuring children have the skills and confidence to reach their true potential.
• By 2020-21 Beanstalk aims to help 30,000 children every year, with 8,000 volunteers.

About Story Starters

• Story Starters is a collaborative project that combines excellence in volunteer training and management, high-quality resources and extensive knowledge from two children’s literacy charities with the evaluation methods of a University Research Centre.
• LuCiD is a research collaboration to understand how children learn to communicate with language. More information is available on lucid.ac.uk.
• Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a global programme operating in the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia with more than 1 million children receiving books per month. In the UK, there are approximately 100 partner organisations serving more than 33,000 children per month. For further information please visit imaginationlibrary.com.
• Each Story Starter volunteer provides support for at least two regular hours per week during nursery hours. Each Story Starter volunteer supports three children on a one-to-one basis and uses play, stories and conversation to develop and enrich their understanding and use of language.
• Story Starters has been made possible by players of The People’s Postcode Lottery. The People’s Postcode Lottery Dream Fund chose Story Starters to receive £1million in funding in January 2017.