Scottish Book Trust, the national charity working to change lives with reading and writing, has launched a series of free workshops, available online and in local libraries, designed to help those who support and care for people living with dementia.
The charity runs Reading is Caring, a programme which provides personalised training on creating shared, sensory reading experiences to those caring for someone living with dementia – whether that’s a partner, relative, friend or professional carer. Reading is Caring is designed to ease daily challenges by creating special moments of connection, sparking positive memories and relieving stress.
A Reading is Caring participant, caring for her mother who lives with dementia, said: ‘Reading is Caring was fantastic. The stories bring mum into the here and now. She laughs, she’s interested and engaged. I get a glimpse of her personality again, which is lovely for both of us.’
Now in its third year, Reading is Caring has been proven to provide a consistent, connective activity for family, friends, and professional carers to use at every stage of the dementia journey.
People in Edinburgh and the Lothians who support someone living with dementia can attend a two-part workshop series online, or head along to one of the drop-in sessions at Craigmillar Library and Musselburgh Library.
These free workshops provide the knowledge and tools needed to share reading with someone living with dementia. Scottish Book Trust provide personal support throughout and after the training to help tailor the experience to the unique needs of each person, removing barriers to participation at every stage of their dementia journey.
Musselburgh Library workshops:
Monday 27 February: 3–4pm
Monday 6 March: 3–4pm
Monday 13 March: 3–4pm
Monday 20 March: 3–4pm
Monday 27 March: 3–4pm
Monday 3 April: 3–4pm
Craigmillar Library workshops:
Thursday 2 March: 10.30–11.30am
Thursday 9 March: 10.30–11.30am
Thursday 16 March: 10.30–11.30am
Thursday 23 March: 10.30–11.30am
Thursday 30 March: 10.30–11.30am
Thursday 6 April: 10.30–11.30am
Online workshops take place regularly and can be found on Scottish Book Trust’s website.
While reading was the only core subject which saw attainment levels improve in 2022, (at Key Stage 2, 75% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, up from 73% in 2019. 28% of pupils reached the higher standard in reading, up from 27% in 2019[2]), the National Literacy Trust’s Annual Literacy Survey shows that the number of children who say they enjoy it is in serious decline.
Reading for pleasure is not just a ‘nice to have’, it is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income.
However, reading for pleasure is at its lowest levels in 18 years; fewer than one in two (47.8%) children aged 8 to 18 said they enjoyed reading in 2022, the lowest level since 2005. This is even lower for children growing up in poverty; fewer children and young people who receive Free School Meals (FSMs) said they enjoyed reading compared with their peers who do not receive FSMs (43.8% vs. 48.8%). The percentage-point-gap between these groups has more than doubled from 2.1pp to 5pp, between 2020 and 2022.
The cost of living is putting the biggest squeeze on family budgets in years and creating further barriers to reading for pleasure, with almost two thirds (64%) of parents saying they currently have less money to spend on books for their children than before. 500,000 (1 in 15; 6.5%) children in England aged 8 – 18 say they don’t own a single book, which rises to one in 10 (9.7%) for those eligible for Free School Meals. Over one in five (22.4%) pupils receiving free school meals said that the book they ‘bought’ with their World Book Day book token was the first book of their own.
This year, the charity World Book Day has focused on a large number of initiatives and provided guidance to ensure anyone can take part and experience the joy and inspiration of reading, regardless of household income.
This includes ideas for no or low-cost costumes or costume swaps, book swaps or other free activities in school or community groups. There is also advice on how to fundraise more inclusively, focusing more on reading over other aspects such as dressing up.
Fewer boys than girls said they enjoyed reading (45.6% vs. 54.9%) and fewer than 3 in 10 (28.0%) children and young people aged 8 to 18 said that they read daily, the second-lowest level since the National Literacy Trust survey began. Boys who receive Free School Meals had the lowest levels of reading enjoyment, with just 2 in 5 (39.8%) enjoying reading; a drop of 6.5 per cent since 2020.
Children and young people who take part in World Book Day activities enjoy reading more compared with their peers who don’t take part – 63.8% vs 48.4%, while 54.7% read more books as a result of World Book Day.
Parents surveyed by the charity said that 50% of children find reading more fun because of World Book Day, 48% make more time to read and 49% feel they have more choice in what they read because of it. Children who are the most engaged with literacy are also three times more likely to have higher levels of mental wellbeing than those who are the least engaged (39.4% vs 11.8%.)
In its 25th year in 2022, World Book Day distributed 50 million £1 book tokens through schools, nurseries, magazines and partnerships, to enable children to get a book of their own, for free.
Cassie Chadderton, CEO of World Book Day comments:“World Book Day exists to encourage more children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to benefit from a life-long habit of reading for pleasure. Many families are facing financial challenges so we want all children, families, schools and communities to feel welcome to celebrate the joy of reading in ways that work for them.
“There are lots of affordable, inclusive and of course, enjoyable ways to create joy and excitement around reading. Dressing up is a great way to encourage children to read, and we’ve shared ideas for other fun activities and resources to help schools, nurseries and families to work together to create a World Book Day where everyone feels included. The joy of reading cannot be underestimated in terms of improved wellbeing and the improved life chances it can lead to.”
Jonathan Douglas CBE, Chief Executive of the National Literacy Trust, said: “World Book Day is an important moment to inspire and delight children with the wonder of books and a powerful platform to reinforce the importance of building literacy skills for life – this is even more essential during times of economic hardship.
“Economic studies have shown that reading for pleasure can result in children getting better GCSEs, in turn boosting their lifetime earnings and raising the UK’s GDP. In the future, my hope is that more children will grow up to be adults who read and that reading and books are part of their world.”
Edinburgh’s school libraries have been awarded funding for a progressive anti-racism project, as part of the 2022/23 School Library Improvement Fund (SLIF).
Administered by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC), on behalf of the Scottish Government, the Fund supports creative and innovative projects within the school library sector in Scotland.
Available to all state-run nurseries, primary schools and secondary schools with a library, this year’s funding priority was given to applications which focused on supporting anti-racism and racial equality.
The £200,000 2022/23 SLIF has been allocated to a total of 18 initiatives across Scotland, including the ‘The Library is Anti-Racist’ project in Edinburgh.
The funding will support the creation of an anti-racism toolkit and collection of travelling resources for Edinburgh’s school libraries to ensure the service is diverse, inclusive and reflective of the school and its wider community.
This brings the total investment from the Scottish Government to £1.5m over the lifetime of SLIF, playing an important role in helping school library services achieve the key aims of ‘Vibrant Libraries, Thriving Schools: A National Strategy for School Libraries in Scotland 2018-2023’ – the strategic document for the development of school libraries in Scotland.
Congratulating the successful applicants, Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “School libraries play a key role for young people by providing access to educational resources, supporting learning and helping to close the poverty-related attainment gap.
“The School Library Improvement Fund continues to support creative and innovative projects in school libraries.
“The anti-racism focus of the projects will allow school libraries to engage with pupils on the importance of belonging, inclusion and social justice.”
Schools can apply via individual or collaborative applications with SLIC accepting up to two individual approaches per local authority and an unlimited number of collaborative applications to ensure equal opportunities across Scotland.
Pamela Tulloch, Chief Executive of SLIC, said: “School libraries play a valuable role in education and learning, and ensuring every young person has the chance to fulfil their full potential.
“Projects funded through programmes like SLIF help to improve and expand the services school libraries can provide, so it’s great to see such strong applications coming in from schools eager to further develop these resources.
“We’re particularly proud to award support to those advocating for anti-racism and anti-discrimination through this year’s Fund and we can’t wait to see these initiatives come to fruition.”
For more information on The School Library Improvement Fund, visit:
With the colder months of the year now upon us the city council has announced the official launch of a network of Warm and Welcoming Spaces across the capital.
Council Leader Cammy Day formally launched the initiative yesterday during a visit to Royston Wardieburn Community Centre.
Council venues such as libraries, community centres, museums and galleries, alongside partner and community spaces, will put on free activities for a variety of age groups and provide a space where people feel safe, warm, and at ease.
In certain spaces residents will be able to access information to help alleviate food/fuel poverty and other support available to them.
At this stage, there are more than 60 Warm and Welcoming Spaces across the city. The council ia also working with a network of partners to provide and promote further spaces.
Residents will be able to find out more about the initiative and find their nearest ‘Warm and Welcoming Spaces’ via an interactive map on a dedicated webpage.
Please also visit our dedicated home energy page for advice on how to keep your homes warmer, save money or if you’re worried about your bills.
If you are an organisation and want to get involved in Warm and Welcoming, please email us on warm.welcoming@edinburgh.gov.uk
Council Leader Cammy Day said: “We are now in the midst of one of the most challenging winters in recent times with the cost-of-living crisis, rising energy prices, and inflation. Many of our residents will rightly be concerned about heating their homes in the months ahead.
“The Warm and Welcoming Spaces initiative brings together a host of spaces across the city where people can connect with others, learn new skills, and relax.
“These spaces are also key in combatting social isolation, boosting mental health and welling, and allowing people to access services and support in a respectful and friendly manner.
Biddy Kelly, Managing Director at Fresh Start, said: “As we head into what we know will be a difficult winter the need on our communities is ever growing. That is why it has been so important that we work collectively to ensure that we have community spaces, both statutory and in the third sector open and that people are aware of where they can go and when.
“Working in this collaborative manner ensures that we have places open that people feel supported in a dignified manner and where they can access a wide breadth of services and support. The co-ordinated Warm and Welcoming website will allow both staff and people access on site to find vital information.”
Ian Brooke, Deputy Chief Executive of Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations Council (EVOC), said:“The voluntary sector always plays a part in supporting communities during difficult times and will have a key role to play in the Warm and Welcoming Spaces programme.
“Our shared priority is to offer meaningful opportunities for people to gather together within their own community, activities that can also help combat issues of social isolation, loneliness and mental health.
“Our priority to Edinburgh’s voluntary sector is getting cash into people’s pockets, as the primary solution to combatting the issues of poverty that have been worsened so much by the current cost of living crisis.
“The Warm and Welcoming spaces programme is and must continue to be supplementary to that.”
Library Services teams in East Lothian and Inverclyde have been recognised for their outstanding contributions to their local communities by picking up the top prizes at Scotland’s leading sector awards ceremony.
The Scottish Library & Information Council’s (SLIC) awards for ‘Library Service Excellence’ and ‘Project of the Year’ were handed out on Friday (28 October) at a ceremony in Glasgow, with the East Lothian and Inverclyde teams pipping three other shortlisted library service teams in each category for the prestigious accolades.
The awards recognise the commitment, creativity and value libraries across Scotland offer the people and communities they serve, acknowledging exceptional innovation and service design between the period from June 2021 to June 2022.
SLIC Chair, Professor Ian Ruthven, who led the awards judging panel (which included Ruth Plowden, Writer/Fundraiser/Chair Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust and Catherine Salmond, Editor of The Herald) said the quality of entries for the 2022 competition had been exceptional.
“We were all really impressed by the range of innovations and commitment to local communities shown by the nominations. What was characteristic of each of the entries was this strong relationship between libraries and their communities; identifying local needs, working with communities to use the skills of libraries and library staff to improve people’s lives, and putting libraries at the heart of their communities.
“So often when reading the entries, we thought ‘only a library can do this’.
“Last year we found it hard to select a winner, so this year we created two awards, one for ‘Project of the Year’ and one for ‘Library Service of the Year’. This only made it harder…so for the first time, we have a winner in each category and a highly commended award. Huge congratulations to all involved.”
East Lothian’s Library Services team had been shortlisted for the SLIC ‘Library Service Excellence Award’ for their activities on the theme of ‘championing the local community’.
East Lothian is served by 12 local branches, six secondary schools, a local history centre and a Library HQ. Between July 2021 and June 2022, the service welcomed 4,584 new members and facilitated 243,538 loans (an increase of 60 per cent from the previous year) across local sites.
Their entry described East Lothian’s commitment to involving the whole community, notably through the creation of two new Community Librarian posts. The entry also highlighted clubs, events, author visits, imaginative use of digital and other activities which together delivered a thriving local library service.
Shetland Libraries (who were highly commended), High Life Highland Libraries and Inverclyde Libraries were also nominated in the category.
In the SLIC ‘Project of the Year’ category, the Inverclyde Libraries team had been shortlisted for their focus on sustainability ahead of and linked to the COP26 Summit in Glasgow.
The project aim was to stimulate long-term public engagement in the lead up to and following COP26, and it was described as ‘inspirational’ in the way in which it grew the sense of community.
It linked the ‘local’ to the ‘global’ through author events, involving members of the community, including those in the prison population who are not often included in climate conversations, and contributed to the circular economy through lend-and-mend hubs.
The judging panel felt the project was ‘a powerful and cohesive project that acts as a model for others.’
Aberdeen City Libraries (who were highly commended), East Lothian Library Services and Falkirk Libraries were also nominated in the category.
The 2022 Awards were open to all SLIC members, with the winners receiving a trophy and cash prizes for their success.
The Awards were sponsored by Innovative who provide comprehensive technology suites for public libraries.
Maths Week Scotland returns for its sixth and biggest-ever annual event from 26 September to 2 October 2022. This week, pupils, community groups and families in Edinburgh and the Lothians will be enjoying an exciting range of maths-themed activities and events across local schools, science centres and museums.
Part of the Scottish Government’s drive to encourage positive attitudes to numeracy and maths, Maths Weeks Scotland is developed and delivered by National Museums Scotland. This year, the Small Grants Fund – a partnership between the Edinburgh Mathematical Society, the Glasgow Mathematical Journal Trust and the Scottish Government – has supported 67 different classroom activities for schools across the country to encourage pupils to think about maths in a creative way.
The theme for 2022 is the beauty of maths, focusing on the creative and inspiring side of the subject, and how maths plays a vital role in art, music and design. School pupils across Edinburgh and the Lothians will be encouraged to think about maths in a creative way through activities such as art and sculpture exhibitions, budgeting projects, and outdoor learning.
Science centres and museums across Scotland have also received support from Maths Week Scotland for large-scale family activities and workshops as well as programming for schools and community groups that encourage innovation and participation while linking maths with the arts.
Alongside in-person events, Maths Week Scotland has created a fun online programme to inspire and intrigue people of all ages, from schools and educators to families and adults. The virtual programme includes using coding to create art, ideas for hands-on classroom activities, and a mathematical art workshop by mathematician Lucy Rycroft-Smith with a free kit posted to participants.
The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh is organising an exciting programme of maths-themed family events, including free art exhibition (2 October) and a schools programme of renewable energy workshops.
Lauriston Castle in Edinburgh is launching the ‘Maths Attack’ trail around the estate to teach pupils about how to use and make their own set of Napier’s Bones – a calculation device for multiplying large numbers.
Edinburgh’s National Galleries of Scotland is showcasing Scotland’s art through a mathematical lens with an online resource for schools and gallery visits to Modern One.
The University of Edinburgh is organising an exciting programme of events, with a display of geometric illuminations and optical illusions at James Clerk Maxwell Building (1 October) as well as virtual (27-28 September) and hands-on (1 October) maths activities for families. The university is also providing workshops for teachers and educators to inspire ideas for practical maths activities in the classroom.
Museum on the Mound is hosting online and in-person ‘Money Maths’ workshops to explore different money around the world.
On 29 September, Surgeons’ Hall Museum is arranging school workshops on using investigating bones and surgical equipment as well as a drop-in session for the general public on 1 October.
Stockbridge Library and Moredun Library are hosting Bookbug sessions and art activities for individuals and families.
Katie Oldfield, Maths Week Scotland co-ordinator, said: “We are thrilled to be launching Maths Week Scotland for its sixth consecutive year with such a bang.
“Mathematicians often refer to the subject as ‘beautiful’, and our aim is to inspire families, schools and community groups in Edinburgh and the Lothians to view maths in a new way and to find it in unexpected places, such as art and music.
“We are so excited to be bringing back more interactive, in-person events at schools and public venues across the country. It’s brilliant to see that so many schools have devised fun and engaging activities for pupils to discover how creative maths can be.”
The schools programme is core to Maths Week Scotland. Schools and community projects receiving grants in Edinburgh and the Lothians are:
Edinburgh:
· Ferryhill Primary School – Skatepark Maths: Pupils P1-7 will create their own skateparks for finger skateboards
· Edinburgh Council Libraries: Three primary schools exploring outdoor space at Newington Library
· Bruntsfield Primary School: Creation of an exciting outdoor learning space
· Gilmerton Primary School – Financial and Budgeting: Pupils will be given a budget and go shopping for ingredients to create a nutritious meal
· Number Berries Maths Play Club: Mini Exhibition of art and sculptures inspired by manmade structures and nature
· Corstorphine Primary School: Beauty of Maths exhibition
Lothians:
· Cedarbank School: Exhibition of numeracy themed artwork created by pupils and their families
· Polkemmet Primary School: Beauty of Maths art exhibition for families
· Pinewood School – Maths Week Scotland Sale: Materials will be purchased to craft items to sell at a Maths Week Scotland sale to practice recognising coins and budgeting
Maths Week Scotland is supported by winner of The Great British Bake Off 2020, Peter Sawkins.
Maths Week Scotland has a supporting year-round programme for schools, families, adults, and community groups. This is part of an ongoing drive to transform Scotland into a maths-positive nation through raising the profile of maths and encouraging enthusiasm for maths across the country.
National Museums Scotland is working with a wide range of organisations and collaborators to support and deliver Maths Week Scotland activity across Scotland.
For a full list of contributors and to view the whole programme, visit:
Get ready for Gadgeteers, arriving online and in your local library this summer.
Science is all around you! What do you love doing? Are you a brilliant baker? Or a mega music fan? Are you the tech wizard amongst your friends? Join the Gadgeteers for the Summer Reading Challenge to discover the amazing science and innovation behind the world around you, including some of your favourite things!
Curious? Perfect! Your imagination can unlock endless possibilities… We’re teaming up with Science Museum Group for a very special science-themed Challenge that will inspire you to use your imagination and creativity!
Gadgeteers will feature amazing books, awesome rewards, and plenty of ideas for cool experiments and activities to discover the science all around you. The Challenge will be brought to life by top children’s writer and illustrator Julian Beresford.
Are you excited to join the #Gadgeteers this summer? Keep an eye on our blog for all the latest Summer Reading Challenge news!
