Nursery World - Boris Johnson and Peter Andre launch under-fives reading scheme

The London Mayor and singer Peter Andre have launched a new literacy project to support three-to-five-year-olds in the capital.

The scheme, run by the National Literacy Trust, will recruit 500 volunteers to work with 2,000 families in London to help children before they start school.

A group of 360 ‘literacy champions’ will give one-to-one intensive support to children who have been identified by nurseries, social workers or health visitors as needing help with learning development. Over eight weeks, the volunteers will encourage parents to read to their children and teach them games to boost speech and language skills.

A further cohort of 140 volunteers – ‘reading ambassadors’ – will visit libraries and reading workshops to take part in existing literacy schemes.

The project is part of the Mayor of London's wider volunteering programme Team London, which will be launched later this month.

Boris Johnson said, 'Improving childhood literacy unlocks a myriad of opportunities and bestows a life long passion for learning. It is desperately unfair that hundreds of children in our city enter education struggling with the basic language and learning skills they need to succeed in the classroom.

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