Earlier this week Andrew highlighted the growing success of the Imagination Library in the UK during a debate in Parliament on children's early year’s development and school readiness.
The Imagination Library is a free book-gifting programme for young children aged 0-5 and children registered receive an age appropriate book, posted direct to their home, every single month until their fifth birthday.
It was started by Dolly Parton in East Tennessee with the aims of promoting reading for pleasure from a very young age and to make reading and book sharing a family event. The programme is unique in its sheer scale and frequency of books – with up to 60 books per child over a five-year period. The Imagination Library nationally posts a book each month to more than 27,000 registered children and has already delivered over one million books in the UK!
Andrew introduced the scheme locally to the constituency with two schemes covering the constituency – the North Lincolnshire Imagination Library and the Goole & Snaith Imagination Library.
The North Lincolnshire scheme is funded by the Council and they have committed to continuing this funding again this year. The total number of children registered to date with North Lincolnshire Imagination Library Scheme is a staggering 11,912! This equates to 87% of the total under-fives population across the county and over 3,767 children have now already graduated from the scheme having reached their fifth birthday. Since the scheme was launched in February 2013, an incredible 230,984 books have been gifted to children across North Lincolnshire with this figure rapidly increasing month on month.
Andrew raises all the money for the Goole & Snaith Imagination Library scheme himself and works with the local Children Centres to identify the children who would most benefit. Whilst smaller in size, this scheme still supports a large number of children locally and has provided over 2,200 books to registered children since it launched in October 2012.
Andrew says, “I’m incredibly proud of the success of both of these schemes locally. We have thousands of children registered across the constituency and the Imagination Library is helping them to develop a love of reading as well as improving literacy skills and school readiness.
“I know from my experience as an infant schoolteacher how important it is that children read at home and how much better prepared they were when they turned up at school having actually opened and read a book, and read with their parents or carers. Sadly, for too many of the children I used to teach this wasn’t always the case and the Imagination Library will make a huge difference locally.
“In 2015, 70% of our five-year-olds in North Lincolnshire were judged to have achieved a good level of development by the time they arrived at school, compared with just 53% in 2013, so we can see the positive impact that efforts locally are having on children’s ability and opportunities for the future. The Imagination Library works closely with other partners and Children’s Centres to make sure that children and families locally get the best support possible.
“North Lincolnshire Council have been especially supportive, particularly through the leadership of Baroness Redfern and Councillor Rob Waltham, and I am delighted that funding for this scheme has been guaranteed again this year.
“I look forward to continuing to support and work with the Imagination Library both locally and nationally as the scheme continues to grow.”
You can watch Andrew’s contribution the debate here: http://goo.gl/G7bgUu
Or read his speech here: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2016-07-12/debates/16071238000001/EarlyYearsDevelopmentAndSchool-Readiness#contribution-16071238000071
You can also learn more about the Imagination Library via their website: http://uk.imaginationlibrary.com/
