Who we are Why we made Storytime How we work with schools Literacy initiatives
ABOUT US • Launched and self-funded by three friends in 2014 to give the UK its only story magazine • Read by over 20,000 children in more than 50 countries • We’re a social enterprise • We are used by parents, schools, councils and literacy organisations • Proud to be the leading magazine for Looked After Children in England
WHY WE MADE STORYTIME • To offer choice – giving parents, carers and teachers the option of a magazine that helps to improve literacy • To encourage more parents and carers to spend time reading to and with children. • To work with schools, councils and other organisations to use Storytime to improve the literacy of children and parents from disadvantaged backgrounds • To promote literacy as a powerful tool to combat poverty. Adults unable to read were once children who didn’t know how
WHY A MAGAZINE?
FAMILIAR & ACCESSIBLE • Part of everyday life for most families • Children may not have seen adults in the home reading books.. • But they are likely to have seen them reading magazines
MORE LIKELY TO BE READ Magazines are the most commonly read form of literature amongst children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. What do 50% % of Children children read 40% outside of school? 30% (source: National 20% Literacy Trust, 2016) 10% 0% % of Children
VARIETY • A range of literary forms within a single issue • Higher chance of finding at least one thing to engage a reader
LESS TIME COMMITMENT • Parents & children can read a complete story or article in a short period of time • No need to put huge chunks of time aside
PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT • Parents that don’t read books with their children, may feel able to read a magazine • Any reading intervention carries a much better chance of success if it can be reinforced by parents
OWNERSHIP • The moment of excitement when a child get something in the post addressed to them • This is their magazine!
HABIT FORMING • The routine of something arriving every month can start to become a habit • The first step to developing a life long love of reading
MULTI-FORMAT • A great many magazines exist in digital format as well as physical • Boys in particular are twice as likely to read something on a smartphone or tablet than in physical form
WHAT’S INSIDE EACH ISSUE?
A WIDE RANGE OF STORIES • Fairy Tales • Poems • Contemporary Tales • Fables • Myths & Legends • Folk Tales • Tales from other cultures • Brilliant Illustrations
FAMILIAR STORIES Well known stories, or stories where there is a recent film adaptation, give kids a familiar starting point.
NEW FAVOURITES But there are a host of new favourite stories to discover too!
DIVERSITY • We showcase tales from a range of countries and cultures in each issue • We want every child to see themselves represented in the pages of Storytime • We also make sure we feature a variety of gender role models
ACTIVITIES, PUZZLES & COLOURING • It’s not just stories – each issue has loads of activities to break up the stories and to keep children engaged
BONUS DOWNLOADS • Every month we make extra games, masks, colouring-in, craft activities and much more, which we put on our website for free for anyone to enjoy.
WHAT’S NOT IN EACH ISSUE Adverts Plastic Toys
WORKING WITH SCHOOLS
SCHOOL DELIVERIES Schools use us for: • Class Storytelling • Guided Reading • FSM children • Children with English as a second language • Looked After Children
ACTIVITY PACKS & LESSON IDEAS • All of our schools get a bonus teaching resource pack each month, linked to a story in each issue • Contains 15-20 pages of lesson ideas, fact sheets, quizzes, activities & more • Bonus packs are free for anyone to access from our site.
MAGAZINE MAKER We have a Magazine Maker pack for teachers that they can run as a class activity, getting kids involved in making their own magazines
“They have really enjoyed doing it. What was also so great was how willing they were to edit and improve their writing (they usually find this a real drag). Thank you so much for getting us started”
POETRY COMPETITION • Last year in conjunction with Brian Moses, we launched an annual poetry competition. • Become a published poet in the pages of Storytime. • The brief was to write us a poem about an animal
We received over a thousand entries – including many from Looked After Children
And our eventual winner…
READING SUPERSTARS • We’re currently trialling our reading mentor initiative in a couple of schools • Encouraging older children to become ‘reading superstars’ to read to younger children • All it needs is a willing volunteer as a facilitator • We can provide reading mentor certificates, badges, advise on how to set the club up, and even some décor for the reading space
OTHER INITIATIVES • Discounted subscriptions – for volunteers and service users of a range of charities including: – Doorstop Library – Cornerstone – Reading Force • Discounted subscriptions for teaching assistants • Audio versions for RNIB service users
INITIATIVES TO SUPPORT LOOKED AFTER CHILDREN
OTHER MAGAZINES! “I have encouraged staff to use some of the PP funding to buy magazine subscriptions for their young people on topics that they are interested in – I have ordered Jacqueline Wilson magazines, Cricket magazines, and Match of the Day for specific young people”
MAKING NEWSPAPERS FAMILIAR “I regularly encourage carers to have newspapers around the house – leaving them on coffee tables etc. make them accessible, even if young people only read the front page occasionally. “
LISTENING BOOKS “ I have organised for young people aged 5 - 13 who cannot read through disabilities or learning needs to have membership packs delivered to them for Listening Books.” Listening Books providing postal or internet based audio books to over 50,000 people of all ages, providing access to audio books appropriate to intellectual age. This helps to increase an understanding of vocabulary and develop oral literacy skills Plus to simply access the pleasure of being read a story
TALKING PARTNERS “We use a lot of talking activities: are you aware of packages like Talking Partners? This is really helpful.” Talking Partners is a programme designed to improve the way children communicate, enabling them to be independent and skilful speakers and listeners. It's a targeted, 10 week intervention that can be used with a whole class, small groups or individuals. Trained partners work with pupils, using activities that have been specifically designed to support the development of oral language skills required for academic success in the classroom. Adaptations of this model can be made for where a 'little and often' approach would be more appropriate.
FICTION EXPRESS Fiction Express for Schools e-books are published in weekly episodes each Friday on their website. At the end of every cliffhanging episode readers are given voting options to decide where the plot should go next. The winning vote is then conveyed to the author, who then writes the next episode, according to what the readers chose.
FICTION EXPRESS The idea is to get readers engaged with the plot and with the author, to use prediction to try and guess what happens next, and to be involved in writing activities – writing the next episode - and seeing how it compares with the actual, for example. Each weekly episode is accompanied by teacher resources containing lesson ideas, comprehension questions and suggestions for extension activities in drama, art and ICT.
READING ROLE MODELS “The most important factor for me in increasing reading for pleasure is that the people around the children are ‘reading role models’. Bedtime stories where the children read to adults; evenings where everyone reads at home; discussions about what adults within the household have read at work/in the newspaper etc. can be really influential in seeing reading as something that everyone does.”
ASKING QUESTIONS “Carers need to be empowered about how to ask questions about what their children are reading to see if children can understand character motives, and encourage empathy with characters and their situations.”
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