12 december 2011

Teesside Shopping Park donation helps improve reading skills

Teesside Shopping Park has donated £9,000 to boost the reading skills of primary school pupils from some of the region’s most disadvantaged areas.

The retail park’s donation will help more than 260 children at three local schools: St Bede’s Catholic primary in Stockton, Beech Grove Primary in Middlesbrough and Thornaby Church of England. The Young Readers Programme was developed by the National Literacy Trust.

Children aged between five and nine will be taught how to choose books that interest them. Teesside Park’s contribution will also give the pupils the chance to select three books to take home and keep.

Pupils from Thornaby Church of England School (pictured) were the first to take part in a book selection session hosted by the Park in WH Smith and Asda Living where they got to pick their first books. The other schools will visit the Park in the New Year. The Park’s management will also visit the schools.

Mike Clarke, manager of Teesside Shopping Park, said: “The Young Readers programme is a brilliant initiative. It helps children discover how much pleasure reading books can give. It gives them the confidence to choose a book that interests them rather than a list of what they should be reading.  We were blown away by how energised the Thornaby Primary pupils were by the session we held in the Park.”

The programme will run until World Book Day in March 2012.

Children of Thornaby CE Primary choose their favourite books
L to R: Dave Brown, WH Smith manager, Mike Clarke, manager Teesside Shopping Park and Jane West, deputy manager Teesside Shopping Park and the children of Thornaby Church of England Primary