Every step you take will help change a child’s life story

Did you know… 1 in 4 children leave primary school unable to read well? This already troubling statistic worsens when related to disadvantaged children. The inability to read when starting secondary school can lead to lifelong consequences, such as fewer options for further education, less qualifications, a higher chance of unemployment, poorer physical and mental health, substandard housing and lower life expectancy.

Schoolreaders places volunteers in local primary schools providing one-to-one weekly reading support, so every child has the chance to catch up on vital reading skills.

We are asking you to run, cycle, swim, scooter or even walk your dog and raise some sponsorship. Every little bit helps to give children a brighter future!  

Join in, and together we will journey around the globe in 80 days and make a world of difference to children’s literacy and life-chances.

Join in the Race for Reading between March 31st and June 19th 2023. Everyone’s distance will be combined and together we aim to travel the 25,000 miles around the world in 80 days.

You can take part alone or with a team of friends, family, colleagues or with your children – even a few miles will make a difference. And you could be awarded a sports shirt and fabulous medals!

How to take part

Step 1

Choose whether to take part as an individual or as a team and what your challenge will be. You can complete your challenge over the 80 days or over a shorter period. It’s entirely up to you.

Step 2

Then click ‘Take Part’ and follow the simple steps. You will be able to set your mileage and fundraising goals on your Just Giving page.

Step 3

Share your page with family, friends and colleagues to help reach your fundraising target.

Step 4

Link your Strava to automatically log your activities, or you can manually enter your miles.

“We operate in an extremely deprived area (we are in the top 10% deprived areas in the country) and many of our children come from homes where book poverty is rife, and illiteracy is a common barrier to children being supported at home. All of our children come to us in reception below age related expectations but 50% of our children make fantastic progress thanks to the hard work of our staff. The other half need specific interventions to help make up that academic deficit they come to us with and reading volunteers really do provide great role models to help promote how important reading is with our children. We are open to as many volunteers as you can provide to us as we want to have every child heard every day.”

Schoolreaders Partner School

Thank you to our sponsors

Kindred delivers expert cleaning services primarily for the education sector employing over 1,700 cleaners in schools nationwide. The company has Corporate Social Responsibility at its heart and is committed to supporting charities which make an active difference in communities across the country. Many of Kindred's staff have pledged to take part in this year’s Race for Reading.

Simon Wrenn, Managing Director of Kindred, says, “Kindred is a community spirited company focused on making connections and what better way to unite staff than by racing together to enable more primary school children nationwide to improve their reading skills. We look forward to clocking up the miles for this fantastic cause!”

Maths Circle Ltd has supported Schoolreaders for over four years. An internationally trusted EdTech company who create award-winning maths learning platforms dedicated to helping children acquire fundamental numeracy skills. Their mission is to make maths fun and improve maths outcomes through their engaging programmes Times Table Rock Stars (TTRS) and NumBots. 

Nicola Reddy of Maths Circle says “We’re passionate about maths but also believe in the power of literacy and the joy of reading. Without the ability to read, write and think, subjects such as maths, become a bigger challenge for pupils. Schoolreaders volunteers make such a difference to children’s reading  – and are particularly needed post-pandemic - so we’re looking forward to supporting Race for Reading to increase their number in classrooms nationwide”.

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