HUNDREDS of families have enjoyed a mass “bedtime story” as part of a scheme to help boost reading in Bradford.

The BD5 Bedtime stories events see children and their parents from nine schools from the area descend on the National Science and Media Museum to take part in reading themed activities and workshops, as well as pick up free books.

This year marked the third time the event has been held, and around 1,200 people are estimated to have attended.

It was held on Thursday evening, after the museum was closed to the public.

This year the event had a twist - while previous years have focused on stories and fiction, this year the focus was on science and non-fiction.

The event is a collaboration between the schools, the National Science and Media Museum and Bradford City Library.

The day saw Tony De Saulles, of ‘Horrible Histories’ fame, delighting the crowds with interactive drawing sessions based around science.

Children got to take part in animal workshops thanks to the visiting Zoolab, and Jon Chase helped children discover their inner-rap artist with his science inspired lyrics. There were also story sessions from Nadia Shireen and Stacey Kelly.

In City Library there was an event for pre school children.

A spokesman for the National Science and Media Museum said: “Bedtime Stories is something that we’ve been involved in developing alongside a network of schools in the BD5 area. It’s important to encourage families to read together and improve literacy levels - inviting them to take part in all these fun activities in our museum and the city library is a great way to do that.”

Every family that attended the event was given a ‘Bedtime Stories’ goody bag filled with books and other reading goodies. Organisers hope the goody bags will help to cement the impact of the event by encouraging children and their families to continue reading when they get home.

Reading every evening, even for just 10 minutes per night, can dramatically improve children’s reading ability, as well as establishing better family relationships and positive memories of books.

A number of companies helped support the event by adding to the goody bags, including The Book Trust, Madeleine Lindley, Kemira Chemicals, Charlesworth Press, Rewards4Schools, Scholastic, and ARM Grab Hire.

Bradford City also donated club annuals.

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Fiona Phimister, a teacher who helped organise the event, said: “The day seemed to go really well, all the families and kids enjoyed it. It was a really lively event.

“There was a great performance by the BD5 choir, which includes children from Years 5 and 6 in the schools. That was lovely.

“We hope it encourages more families to read together at bedtime. If just one family reads together more because of this event then we have done what we set out to achieve.

“In the past it has been a bit more story based, this time it was more about non-fiction. Reading happens in all aspects of life, not just when you are reading stories, so we wanted to prepare children for that. In all jobs reading skills are highly valued, so it is important you give children a love of reading.”