Books Together

What is Books Together?

The Books Together programme works to support parents of young children to read together regularly through a series of informative and interactive sessions. The programme will provide useful tips, resources and ideas to encourage families to discover the joy and fun of reading together.

The project is co-delivered by Coram Family and Childcare and Coram Beanstalk, drawing on our shared expertise as members of the Coram family, and supported by the Mercers’ Company as trustee of the Charity of Sir Richard Whittington. Books Together combines the unique peer-led model of our Parent Champions programme with Coram Beanstalk’s extensive experience of providing effective reading support.

Books Together aims to reach families with young children aged two to five who are most likely to start school with lower levels of emergent literacy than their peers. The sessions will focus on developing reading skills for both parents and children so that becomes a habitual activity in the home environment, increasing children’s literacy skills.

The programme works with parents to co-design, co-market and co-deliver reading courses which engage local parents and their children. This parent-led approach aims to reach the families who face the most barriers, designed by the people who understand these barriers and how to overcome them.

Books Together is delivered in local communities across three interactive sessions. These sessions include fun activities for children and share useful tips and ideas for parents to get children interested in books and reading with their parents at home.

Programme impact

A feedback survey with parents and carers who participated in the Books Together sessions showed that:

100% of parents/carers plan to use some of the ideas with their children

“Amazing session – enjoyed it. So many take home messages. Learnt many new ways to incorporate books as a part of their everyday life.”

Families visited the library more often after the programme

“I haven’t been to that library for a good few years. So now when I went to this session, I renewed my member card, and I got my other children, you know, who haven’t been there, I got them new member cards and I got them to scan it themselves, choose books, that sort of thing.”

After attending the course of three sessions:

• The number of parents who reported that they often or always play games linked to the story, had doubled.
• More parents often or always used objects to make the story more exciting, rising from a third.
• Over half of all parents were often or always talking with their child about what might happen next in the story.

Books Together is supported by