Readathon: How Children and Young People Are Engaged and the Benefits to Reading--Findings from Our Annual Literacy Survey. National Literacy Trust Research Report

Read for Good's sponsored Readathon gives children in schools a purpose to read, combined with freedom to choose what they read, on their own terms, free from assessment or evaluation. The sponsorship money helps to provide a regular supply of new books and storyteller visits to the UK's major children's hospitals and supports school libraries. This report shows that compared with pupils who had not taken part in Readathon (80.6%, N = 26,020), either in this year or previous school years, pupils who have participated in Readathon (19.4%, N = 6,267): (1) enjoy reading more; (2) are more likely to read something in their free time daily; (3) have on average higher perceptions of their reading ability; (4) read a wider variety of materials, such as poems, non-fiction, fiction, lyrics, text messages and websites, in their free time at least once a month; (5) have more positive attitudes towards reading, for example they are more likely to agree that; reading is cool; more likely to agree that they carry on reading even when they find it difficult; and more likely to agree that there are lots of things they want to read; (6) are more likely to use the school library; and (7) report higher life satisfaction.