More than 260 children in Harrow are taking part in a national reading initiative designed to make story time fun and boost the number of books read to young children.
Children at Busy Bees nurseries in Harrow, including sites in Harrow, South Harrow and Kenton, have signed up to the ‘Get the Reading Buzz’ pledge, part of a UK-wide programme from Busy Bees, the country’s largest early years education provider.
The aim of the national campaign is to read more than 45 million books with children this year, and to encourage them to enjoy at least four books a day.
In Harrow, more than 260 children are already taking part in the pledge, helping to make reading part of everyday life and encouraging families to read together at home.
Busy Bees says the pledge brings together more than 350 nurseries and over 37,000 children across the UK, all working towards the same goal.
The initiative comes at a time when national figures show a drop in children’s reading for pleasure. Recent data suggests that just one in three children enjoy reading in their free time, fewer than one in five read daily, and one in 10 children do not own a book. The figures also show that only half (50.5%) of parents now read with their child each day, down from 66.1% in 2019.
Busy Bees hopes the ‘Get the Reading Buzz’ pledge will help reverse that trend by making books a fun part of every day, starting with the youngest readers here in Harrow.
Chris Mitchell is the founder and editor of Harrow Online, Harrow’s leading local news platform.
He launched Harrow Online in 2010 as a Facebook page sharing local news and information. Since then, it has grown into a trusted source for breaking news, crime, council decisions, planning, transport, business and community stories across the borough.
Harrow Online reaches hundreds of thousands of readers each month and has a social media audience of more than 200,000 followers.
For news tips, press releases or enquiries, contact Chris at info@harrowonline.org.
