History of Bookstart
Bookstart is the national programme that encourages all parents and carers to enjoy books with children from as early an age as possible.
Bookstart is administered by the national independent charity Booktrust. It is a public and private partnership and is sponsored by over 25 children’s publishers as well as Red House Books. Bookstart is funded by the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In England, central funding is provided by Sure Start – the Government’s programme to deliver the best start in life for every child.
Bookstart began in 1992 in Birmingham with a pilot project involving 300 babies. Booktrust commissioned Prof. Barrie Wade and Dr Maggie Moore to undertake research into the effects of early book-sharing on child development. Wade and Moore found that Bookstart children began school with significant advantages and with higher attainment in all aspects of the pre-school, nine baseline assessments.
Research findings
Wade & Moore undertook an observational study, where parents shared a book with their children, of 2-3 years, and compared Bookstart families with a non-Bookstart sample.
- 83% of Bookstart parents read the whole text compared with 34% of non-Bookstart parents
- 64% talked about the story, compared with only 24%
- 43% encouraged the child to join in, compared with 17%
- 68% encouraged the child to make predictions, compared with 38%
- 68% of Bookstart children looked at books as one of their favourite activities
- 21% for children who had not received Bookstart
- 75% of Bookstart parents said they usually bought books as presents for their children compared with 10% for parents who had not received Bookstart
- 43% of Bookstart parents took their children to the library at least once a month compared with 17% for parents who had not received Bookstart
See more information on research here.
The evidence persuaded Sainsbury’s PLC to sponsor Bookstart as their Millennium project in 1999–2000 enabling Bookstart to achieve national recognition for the first time. Following the association with Sainsbury’s PLC, Bookstart was hampered by a lack of secure funding for a number of years. All this changed, however, in the July 2004 spending review when the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, announced funding to extend the Bookstart scheme to enable universal provision of free books to every child at three key stages: Bookstart baby pack for children up to 12 months, Bookstart+ aimed at toddlers and My Bookstart Treasure Chest for 3 to 4 year olds.
This expansion represented both an unprecedented opportunity and an enormous challenge: to reach 2.1 million children and their families every year. Consultation with partners led to resounding support for the extended programme from children’s publishers who contracted to support Bookstart for a further three years.
Bookstart today
The Bookstart programme today is founded on community partnerships and comes in two parts. The first offers the wonderful Bookstart packs of free books and guidance materials. However, the Bookstart packs are only half of the gift to children and their families; the second, more lasting, gift surrounds the enjoyment and benefits of book-sharing. It is here that the enthusiastic endorsement by local professionals (through regular activities in libraries, clinics and early years settings) is essential in realising the full potential of the Bookstart message: for every child in the UK to develop a lifelong love of books.
Partnership
Bookstart works in partnership with libraries and early years settings to run a number of projects for babies and young children including: the Bookstart Book Crawl, the Booktouch scheme for blind and partially sighted children and Bookstart Rhymetime activities. Rhymetime has developed into an engaging, exciting activity loved by parents and children alike. The premise is simple: rhymes and songs are a fun way of helping children acquire language skills, involving the support and encouragement of parents and carers, and are great building blocks for future learning.
Bookstart has developed enormously in recent years, not least in meeting the challenge of expanding the logistical operations required to provide sufficient provisions to each region of the UK. Our redeveloped website currently offers information and materials to download for parents and carers seeking to further develop their family’s Bookstart experience.