The Johnson Foundation are proud to be celebrating the end of a successful pilot of our Inspired Reading Programme. Launched in October 2020 in response to the pandemic, our reading and aspiration programme has worked with 7 local schools, supporting 68 children in Years 2, 3 and 4 who were at risk of falling behind with their reading skills and as a consequence their self-confidence. The loss of school contact time will undoubtedly have some impact on children’s achievement……… and if achievement is affected, so too will employment, earnings and lifetime wellbeing.
Our reading and aspiration programme involves an army of amazing volunteers going into school once a week for 2 hours to listen to children read, mentoring and chatting with them on a one to one and inspiring them about their own futures. Many of the children we work with may not have many positive role models in their lives and the programme supports with this too.
As restrictions are still ongoing, we cannot hold the big celebration we originally planned, but we do think it is important to acknowledge how hard the children have worked to improve their reading skills and celebrate their achievements in these challenging times.
As part of the celebrations, we would like to gift each Inspired Reading Child with a reading book of their own, as sadly some of the children we have been supporting don’t have their own books at home.
We would like to appeal for your support to donate a reading book. To make your gift more personal, we thought it would be nice to gift a book that you enjoyed reading as a child and include a personal message inside of why this book was so special to you. The children we support are Year 2 (age 6-7), Year 3 (age 7-8) and Year 4 (age 8-9), so a book suitable to one of these ages would be perfect.
If you would like any info about the programme or would like to donate a book, please call the Foundation on 650 6987 or pop in to see us at Pacific Road Business Hub, Birkenhead, CH41 1LJ.
During the summer we will be recruiting extra volunteers so that we can support more children at the start of the new term in September, along with adding a new school who have approached us for help. If you would like to volunteer, please email Lorraine or Alex at
