FORSTER Square Shopping and the National Literacy Trust have hosted interactive literacy events with more than 360 Bradford pupils over the past month, encouraging children to read for fun outside of the classroom.

Children from Green Lane Primary, Westminster Church of England Primary and Barkerend Primary enjoyed a range of fun, literary-themed workshops, including storytelling sessions.

Each child was given a free book and British Land, owner of Forster Square, provided each school with £100 of vouchers to buy books for their libraries.

The events were part of the Young Readers Programme – an award-winning initiative by the National Literacy Trust in partnership with British Land.

It works to improve children’s literacy by motivating them to read for pleasure through a series of fun activities, and gives them chance to choose books to take home and keep.

Since the partnership started in 2011, the Young Readers Programme has gifted over 127,000 books to more than 42,500 children across the country, and has helped encourage more than 1,200 children in Bradford to read for fun outside of school.

Lorraine Lee, from Green Lane Primary said: “A love of reading is something that can last a lifetime. It’s a great way for children to learn new things and fire their imagination, so anything inspiring them to open a book more often is amazing.”

Research from the National Literacy Trust shows that one in 11 children and young people in the UK don’t have a book of their own at home.

Yet those that read every day outside of school are four times more likely to read above the expected level for their age than children who don’t.

Catherine Furlong, centre manager at Forster Square, said: “We’ve been supporting the Young Readers Programme for a number of years now and it’s an event that we always look forward to getting involved in.

“Seeing children from our local community being excited and inspired by books is really rewarding and we hope it has a lasting impact.”