Love reading? Sit down with some Espresso and a good book
New collaboration addresses falling reading standards through online learning.
3rd September 2008
Espresso Education, the award-winning online curriculum service, has teamed up with www.Lovereading4schools.co.uk the online independent book experts to encourage children to find books, appreciate good stories, and enjoy reading, all through an online learning environment.
This initiative also supports the Year of Reading and provides a reading legacy schools can use for years to come. The recent drop in the number of 14-year-olds attaining the required reading standard has prompted fresh concerns that children need more encouragement to pick a book and get stuck into a good read.
With TV, mobile phones, the internet and computer games attracting the attention of media-hungry children, the traditional ‘book’ appears to have been sidelined. Yet, research continues to prove that children who develop a love of literature and enjoy reading will do better in school and achieve greater success later in life.
From September, teachers and pupils in over 10,000 schools using the Espresso Primary service will have access to new ‘Lovereading with Espresso’ modules. Within the modules, KS1 and KS2 students will be able read ‘Opening Extracts’ and explore items like high-quality jacket images and author biographies for twenty-four new books each term. At launch, example titles will include classics such as The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks and more contemporary titles such as The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo and The 100 mile an hour Dog by Jeremy Strong. The module supports teachers in their lessons by encouraging pupils to:
- discover new authors,
- explore writing styles, and
- improve reading aloud.
Together, these benefits will help instill in children a love for books and reading for pleasure.
Mike Spooner, Head of Espresso’s Primary Service comments: “The ‘Lovereading with Espresso’ modules provide the perfect complement to our many existing reading resources like our modules on Authors and Book Reviews. We are delighted to be able to offer our users such a wealth of inspirational reading matter through this partnership.”
Peter Crawshaw, Director and co-founder of Lovereading added: “Espresso and Lovereading4schools are wonderfully complementary and we hope that making these books easily available through the Espresso software will act as a catalyst to ignite a love of books and literature in school children.”
-ENDS-
Notes to Editors
1. Lovereading Ltd
Lovereading Ltd was co-founded by Peter Crawshaw, former Senior Manager at Book Club Associates, Louise Weir, former Marketing Director of Hodder Headline and Hugh Salmon, a strategic marketing and communications consultant. Launched in September 2006, Lovereading4schools.co.uk offers a unique way for schools to distribute reading lists to parents and encourages schoolchildren to read more. The site has already proved outstandingly popular, and over 3,500 schools now enjoy its benefits.
Lovereading4schools.co.uk is free to use, and registered schools can use specially created Template Reading Lists for each academic year from Year 1 to Year 9.
As well as being popular with schools, Lovereading4schools.co.uk has been enthusiastically endorsed by Jacqueline Wilson, author and ex Children’s Laureate.
For further information on Lovereading or to acquire screen grabs please contact:
Peter Crawshaw, Director Lovereading Ltd
Email: peter@lovereading.co.uk, phone 020 7967 7222
About Espresso Education
With over 10,000 subscribing schools using its resources, Espresso Education is the leading digital curriculum service in the UK. Espresso is a cross-curricular library of high quality, video-rich teaching resources that stimulates learning, supports teachers and raises standards in the classroom. Espresso combines full-screen videos, multi-media activities, learning paths & reviews, cached websites and printable resources into engaging modules, all directly aligned to curriculum objectives. The weekly news service features exclusive ‘News Bites’ video reports and interactive Telegraph news articles, drawing on topical events to bring learning to life. Espresso updates its modules and news service weekly, giving schools access to the freshest, most relevant resources available in schools today.
Espresso is the winner of the BAFTA for Learning Primary in 2007 the BETT Special Award for Inclusion in 2008.
For further information on Espresso Education or to acquire screen grabs please contact:
Heidi Delaloye, Marketing Manager, Espresso Group
Email: hdelaloye@espresso.co.uk, phone 020 8237 1209
