{"id":96454,"date":"2026-01-25T17:37:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T17:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/96454\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T17:37:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T17:37:14","slug":"initiatives-launched-to-strengthen-reading-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/96454\/","title":{"rendered":"Initiatives launched to strengthen reading culture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"A picture of a child reading a book. It has a blue front and reads 'Felicity wishes'\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1242\" height=\"698\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img w-full w-full h-auto\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/756b7fd6913b655b7489e63eccfb9bbf.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Reading Island Network has welcomed the National Year of Reading [PA Media]<\/p>\n<p>Two initiatives have been launched in Jersey to help strengthen the reading culture on the island.<\/p>\n<p>The Reading Island Network has welcomed the UK government&#8217;s National Year of Reading and said it will launch an island-wide survey of primary and secondary pupils&#8217; reading habits, and specialist training for teachers and library staff.<\/p>\n<p>The network, formed in 2025, brings together schools, libraries, charities, and cultural partners to strengthen reading for pleasure across Jersey.<\/p>\n<p>It is hoped the survey will provide a picture of how children in Jersey read today, and the training will build local expertise and ensure staff have the latest tools to &#8220;inspire young readers&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Rob Ward, Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning, said: &#8220;Reading sits at the foundation of learning, opportunity, and wellbeing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The National Year of Reading gives us a powerful moment to deepen our commitment to helping every child in Jersey experience the joy of reading.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The work of the Reading Island Network, especially its research and training programme, will give us a clearer understanding of what our young people need and how we can best support them to become confident, enthusiastic readers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Re-engaging children&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Cris Lakeman, CEO, Every Child Our Future, said: &#8220;As we celebrate the launch of the National Year of Reading, we are also marking the tenth anniversary of our work to improve children&#8217;s access to books and reading opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While we know there has been a worrying decline nationally in children reading for pleasure, we are hopeful this can be changed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;By re-engaging children with high-quality, relevant books and giving them plenty of opportunities to talk about what they enjoy, we can help reading become something they choose.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Follow BBC Jersey on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bbcjersey\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:X;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\">X<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bbcjersey\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\">Facebook<\/a>. Send your story ideas to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aol.com\/articles\/mailto:channel.islands@bbc.co.uk\" data-ylk=\"slk:channel.islands@bbc.co.uk;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">channel.islands@bbc.co.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>More on this storyRelated internet links<img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769362634_363_.gif\"\/><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Reading Island Network has welcomed the National Year of Reading [PA Media] Two initiatives have been launched&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[47319,47316,128,130,129,47317,47315,47318],"class_list":["post-96454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-children-reading","tag-national-year-of-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-reading-culture","tag-reading-habits","tag-reading-opportunities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}