Woodham Academy has been running Readathon for several years now, and has embedded the annual charity event into its reading curriculum for Y7 students. As part of their Guided Reading studies learners are encouraged to secure sponsorship in exchange for reading a quantity of books, e-books, stories and magazines over a period of a week.
Although part of Readathon’s growing appeal is its focus on home-reading, Y7 pupils at Woodham Academy should find this task as easy as A B C as they are already expected to read for 35 minutes every night as part of their homework. Readathon began in 1984, and is the largest reading event in the country. Since its inception it has raised over £25 million for seriously ill children. The money is divided amongst several charities which support young people and their families during times of stress and anxiety, including the children’s cancer specialists CLIC Sergent, children’s hospice charity Together for Short Lives and Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity, which currently funds 15 specialist paediatric nursing posts in NHS hospitals in the UK.
Readathon is itself a registered charity, providing 100,000 hospitalised children with story tellers and books each year. And how have the young learners taken to the task? Ella Draisey says she is keen to raise money for kids in hospital, because they might have nothing to do and could be ‘upset and bored.’ Ella’s friend Aimee is in agreement, and adds that raising money for Readathon is kids-play, as they are good at emptying their parents’ pockets; furthermore, she declares, you can even do so whilst sitting in the bath. India is so confident of her ability and thinks she can raise £10.
And what advice did these Woodham Academy students have for their peers? Help Children! Raise money! Badger your family! You have been warned.
