“10 by 10” sparks a love for reading in more than 1,000 children in Telford and Wrekin

Telford & Wrekin Council has announced a successful summer in its libraries, as over 1,000 children across the borough joined the Summer Reading Challenge by reading six books.

The Summer Reading Challenge, which ended Mid-September, is part of the council-run “10 by 10” programme, encouraging primary school children to explore ten enriching activities by the age of 10.

This year, over a 1,000 children between 4 and 11 years old took part in the Summer Reading Challenge.

The theme was ‘Ready, Set, Read’ and children received incentives, such as golden stickers, as they completed each book as well as a medal and certificate if they completed the challenge.

Over 300 young bookworms across the borough joined the library for the first time to take part in this challenge.

Councillor Shirley Reynolds (Lab), Telford & Wrekin Council's cabinet member for Early Years, Children and Young People, said:

“We want all children in our borough to have the best start in life, to experience new things.

“Our council-driven 10 by 10 initiative supports them to do this. As part of 10 by 10, we are delighted that so many children took part in the Summer Reading Challenge this year.

“We hope that the Summer Reading Challenge has managed to inspire a love of reading for life for many children, sparking their creativity and confidence and contributing to their future learning and development.

“It is wonderful to see how proud children are of their medals and certificates and how much they enjoyed choosing and reading the books this summer.

“I would like to thank everyone who got involved and made the Summer Reading Challenge such a success - including the staff from all our Telford and Wrekin libraries and of course, the children and their families who participated with such enthusiasm.

“We want reading to be accessible to everyone which is why we offer a range of resources in our Telford and Wrekin Libraries - including audiobooks, digital copies that can change the font and colour of background for easy reading, braille copies were made available for our Summer Reading Challenge certificates as well.”