A new week, a new book?
The season is drawing to an end but there is still a chance for all Lichties under 12 to claim a free ticket to Gayfield!
All you need to do is pop down to the the Arbroath or Forfar Library or even catch the ANGUSalive’s mobile Library and pick up a reading “Challenge Card” and simply check out and read 4 books. Each book read will be marked with a stamp on the “Challenge Card” and once the young Lichtie has read four books, they will receive a FREE match ticket, while an accompanying adult will be able to purchase a discounted ticket. Children can take part as many times as they like!
This is a pioneering pilot scheme to get more young children to take up reading which has been drawn up by the SPFL Trust and Scottish Book Trust.
Both Arbroath FC and Forfar Athletic have received great support from ANGUSalive The SPFL Trust, Angus Council and the Scottish Book Trust in pulling this programme together.
SPFL Chief Executive Neil Doncaster comments: “The 4-4-2 Reading Challenge is another excellent initiative from the SPFL Trust and Scottish Book Trust that the SPFL is delighted to support. Learning to read is a cornerstone of every child’s upbringing and hopefully the reward of getting to a football match will encourage many of them to take up the challenge.”
Clubs participating in the 4-4-2 Reading Challenge are:
Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC
WHY IS READING SO IMPORTANT?
Reading and writing transform lives.
Reading and writing are the most important factors in reducing the attainment gap, improve mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and dementia, and influence people’s work, relationships and the economy.
Children from deprived backgrounds often do not go on to higher education and are likely to earn less over the course of their lives
By the age of three, children from the most prosperous households have heard 30 million more words spoken throughout their lifetime than children from impoverished households (Source: The Thirty Million Word Gap by Betty Hart And Todd R. Risley)
When they are five, the vocabulary of children from low-income households is typically more than a year behind those from high-income backgrounds (Source: Joseph Rowntree Foundation: Closing the Attainment Gap In Scottish Education Report)
More than 1 in 4 of Scotland’s children are living in poverty and the problem is getting worse (Child Poverty Action Group)
Helping children to develop a lifelong love of reading can reverse this situation, helping to break the cycle of poverty and improve their life chances.
Children who are read to every day by their parents and carers have been shown to be almost 12 months ahead of their age group by the time they start school.
Even reading to children two or three times a week can make a significant contribution to their development.
Scotland is facing a mental health and wellbeing crisis. One in three people suffer from mental illness each year, and the number of people with dementia is set to double in the next 25 years.
Reading and writing for pleasure has incredible benefits for mental health:
Just six minutes of reading can reduce stress by 68%
Reading is linked to preventing and slowing the onset of dementia.
Reading and creative writing improve empathy, communication and self-esteem and reduce anxiety and depression
Reading fiction can model ways of coping with alienation or problems at school, work or in relationships.
Reading creates a greater empathy with other sectors of society and with other cultures, which can help tackle social problems such as xenophobia, sectarianism and racism and create a more tolerant, civic-minded society.
For more information about how you or your child can be involved please visit http://spfltrust.org.uk/442reading/
