We are delighted to be joining forces with Baby Week to support families and practitioners across the city get the most out of reading with young children.

On this page you will find information for families, Early Years settings and nurseries. Scroll down to read more.

We know how busy families are. Reading can sometimes feel like another thing to fit in to an already-packed week. So we’re here to help, with some handy tips and information that will hopefully make reading feel like a joy and not a chore!

Using stories to explore emotions is a research-backed way to help children understand their feelings. Linking learning to a character in a book provides a rich context that allows children to really delve in to what each emotion means, looks like and feels.

This supports children’s development of empathy as well as better vocabulary, so they can express how they feel and understand their peers’ feelings too.

Below you’ll find a short guided session to accompany the book ‘The Colour Monster’ to help children take that first step into their Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED).

Did you know that reading with children at home has been proven to support not just academic ability but wellbeing and mental health too?

We know that life with children can be very busy and finding time to read together is tricky. So, we have put together this flyer with some tips and tricks for finding easy ways to read at home.

The Story Project is a programme that uses high quality children’s books to teach the ‘PSHE’ (Personal, Social, Health, Economic) curriculum. As a class, children read our carefully-curated collection of diverse stories, talk about the themes and then take part in activities linked to the learning.