We’re Celebrating 12 years of the Young Readers Programme!

We’re celebrating 12 years in partnership with the Young Readers Programme – the award-winning initiative from our co-owner, British Land and the National Literacy Trust, which aims to encourage children to read outside of the classroom.

As part of this year’s celebrations, we welcomed 190 children from Castleview, Niddrie Mill, and Brunstane primary schools to take part in a storytelling session designed to inspire a love of reading.

Children had the chance to listen to stories from a professional storyteller and take part in a range of fun activities, including bookmark making workshop. We also gave each child a book of their choice to take home for free.

The Young Readers Programme is especially designed to provide additional support and help with the development of children in under privileged areas by giving them better access to books.

We’ve taken part in the programme for the last 12 years and have helped to support more than 2,700 school children in Edinburgh and seen more than 8,200 books donated across the region.

Research from the National Literacy Trust shows that reading for enjoyment among 8 – 18-year-olds in the UK is at its lowest since 2005 – for almost two decades.

Find out more about National Literacy Trust and the Young Readers Programme.

Storyteller Luke Winter joins P3, P4 and P5 for Young Reader's Programme at Niddrie Mill Primary School, Edinburgh.