Drake Circus launches summer holiday reading campaign to support children's wellbeing

Drake Circus has partnered with the National Literacy Trust to launch a new summer holiday reading campaign, as new research reveals that almost half of children (46%) in the South West claim that reading makes them feel better.

The ‘Read More, Feel Better’ campaign is designed to help children across the community to continue reading for fun over the summer holidays, with a selection of top tips and advice for parents on the Drake Circus website, including how to create an effective reading space at home and the best books for supporting children’s wellbeing.

Drake Circus and the National Literacy Trust will also be hosting a live storytelling session for children at 11am on Wednesday 11th August, with three expert storytellers sharing exciting and engaging tales for children aged 5 – 11 years. Keep an eye on Drake Circus’ social feeds for all the details.

The centre has also donated 100 books to Plymouth Foodbank as part of the campaign. This follows a series of donations the centre has made to local foodbanks and charities throughout the pandemic.

‘Read More, Feel Better’ is being delivered as part of the award-winning Young Readers Programme, an initiative run by Drake Circus’ owner, British Land, in partnership with the National Literacy Trust.

Jonathan Douglas, chief executive of the National Literacy Trust, said: “Our research shows that almost half of children across the country said that reading helps them relax and feel better. Not only does this campaign help to support children’s wellbeing, it’s also a great way to ensure their continued literary development in a period of their education which has been so disruptive.”

Greg Lumley, centre director at Drake Circus, said: “The Read More, Feel Better campaign is a great initiative. The events of the last 15 months have meant that we wanted to go even further to provide some support for parents over the summer holidays, and to highlight how doing little things can have such a positive impact.”

In January to February 2021, 42,502 children and young people aged 9 to 18 took part in the National Literacy Trust’s latest Annual Literacy Survey.

Cover Photo by Suad Kamardeen on Unsplash