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  1. Our charity
  2. Our work

Our approach

Coram Beanstalk wants all children to choose to read.

There is a wealth of research showing that when we read because we want to – not because we are being told to or feel we have to – it makes a significant difference to how successful we are in education, how good we feel and how well we do in life. Coram Beanstalk have been putting a 'reading for pleasure' approach to work since 1973: we were doing it successfully long before it came – rightly – to such prominence in academic and educational circles.

For children to choose to be read to and to read themselves, they need the experience to be positive: enjoyable, satisfying, and involving… and for what they are being asked to do to be within their grasp.

Put simply, Coram Beanstalk equips adults and young people to 'do reading' better with children because the more children encounter confident, capable and inspiring support with their reading – at home, in school and in life – the more they are likely to get on and stay on the path to becoming a reader.

So, we enthuse and enable people to put best practice, based on half a century of experience and the latest evidence, into action:

  • Our volunteers – who provide consistent support to children who have fallen behind and need more intensive or longer-term help to change their attitude to reading and build their reading skills, ability and confidence.

  • School schemes and peer mentoring programmes – which bring the motivation of the wider school community, and of older students, to help ensure that children at risk of falling behind or becoming reluctant to read stay on track.

  • Professionals and wider community groups – who want to understand how a reading for pleasure approach can enhance their own practice.

  • Parents, grandparents and others who help children with their reading at home – who want to get even better at doing it.

And we do this from early years, through primary education and into early secondary, by helping children develop their key pre-reading skills, as they are learning to read and as they go on to become effective readers who, rather than disengaging because other uses of their time seem more attractive, continue to choose to read independently because they know it brings value to their lives.

One-to-one reading support – from all quarters - changes children’s lives: most dramatically the lives of those children who would otherwise be excluded from the benefits and pleasure that reading can bring.

Find out more about volunteering

Find out more about our reading support programmes and training courses for schools

Find out more about our training courses for parents

Donate to help us reach more children

Published: 1st September, 2015

Updated: 29th September, 2020

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Coram Beanstalk is committed to safeguarding the welfare of children and young people and requires all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Copyright © 2019 Coram Beanstalk. Coram Beanstalk, Coram Campus, 41 Brunswick Square, London, WC1N 1AZ. Registered Charity No. 296454 (England and Wales). Registered as a company limited by guarantee in England and Wales No. 2101719.
All images are from Coram Beanstalk’s stock image library and are for representation only. Names in case studies have been changed to protect identities. All rights reserved.
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This website is administered by Coram Beanstalk as lead partner in the Story Starters programme. Coram Beanstalk is committed to safeguarding the welfare of children and young people and requires all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Copyright © 2017 Coram Beanstalk. Coram Beanstalk, Coram Campus, 41 Brunswick Square, London, WC1N 1AZ. Registered Charity No. 296454 (England and Wales). Registered as a company limited by guarantee in England and Wales No. 2101719. All images are from Coram Beanstalk’s stock image library and are for representation only. Names in case studies have been changed to protect identities. All rights reserved.

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With schools resuming full service from March 8th we are preparing to work with schools to provide much needed support to children. Our reading helpers will return as soon as both schools and volunteers are ready. We also have other ways to support so if you are interested please contact us here