Give the gift of story time with dad this Father’s Day
Reading a bedtime story with dad – a magical, powerful ritual, which also brings huge benefits to children’s education and wellbeing: their language and literacy, their behaviour, their self-confidence, and their relationships with their dads.
But for too many of our children it’s just not happening: one UK father in three reads to his young child no more often than once a month. Childhood literacy in Britain is in crisis: in 2012 we were ranked 22 out of 24 OECD countries for literacy, and England is the second most unequal EU country when it comes to children’s reading levels, after Romania.
Together, we can change that. Fathers Reading Every Day (FRED), our home-based ‘reading for pleasure’ programme offered through primary schools and children’s centres gets dads into the reading habit and results in stunning outcomes. Our recent pilot found that FRED children were four times more likely to exceed their school achievement targets than their peers. Their vocabulary widens, their reading improves and so do their behaviour and their maths! A very high number of boys take part and disadvantaged children make the greatest progress of all.
We want to bring FRED to 3,000 children and their dads in the UK this year – which means marketing it to schools before the holidays start.
That’s why we’ve launched a crowdfunding campaign, to raise £5,000 to pay for a big marketing push.
You can find out more about FRED, watch our video appeal by Sir Tony Robinson (Baldrick) and discover our great pledge rewards, here.
Please dig deep. You can donate in your name, in your child’s name, or to salute a loved father. Mark Father’s Day by investing in a present that really makes a difference: The gift of storytime with dad.
FRED supporters
A big thank you to the following people who have kindly donated to our crowdfunding campaign. To add your name here, pledge now.
Tags: Early years, Fathers Reading Every Day, For fathers, FRED, SchoolsMartin Field
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