Young Readers Programme

We’re celebrating eight years of the Young Readers Programme at Broadgate

We’re celebrating eight years of the Young Readers Programme – the award-winning initiative from our owner, British Land and the National Literacy Trust, which aims to encourage children to read outside of the classroom, as new research reveals reading for enjoyment among 8 – 18-year-olds in the UK is at its lowest since 2005 – for almost two decades.

As part of this year’s celebrations, we welcomed more than 200 children from William Davis Primary and Thomas Buxton Primary to take part in a storytelling session designed to inspire a love of reading.

The children had the opportunity to enjoy a performance from professional storyteller, Wendy Shearer, and took part in a range of fun activities including learning about copyright law through cakes with Mayer Brown, exploring the wildlife in Broadgate with Q&S and learning about recycling with Recorra. We also gave each child a book of their choice to take home for free.

The Young Readers Programme is especially designed to provide additional support and help with the development of children in underprivileged areas by giving them better access to books.

We have helped to support more than 2,000 school children in London and seen more than 6,100 books donated across the region, since first taking part in the programme in 2016.

A huge thank you to our customers at Mayer Brown, Q&S and Recorra for their generous contributions and involvement in this year’s event.

To find out more about National Literacy Trust and its Young Readers Programme, and how to get involved in the future, get in touch with Sabina Mistura, our Social Impact Manager.