My experience so far has been overwhelmingly positive and hugely beneficial to my professional and personal development. Much of this is down to the staff and environment here – the work can be challenging but there is a huge sense of achievement when it is completed successfully and I couldn’t have asked for nicer colleagues.

I have been given a wide range of responsibilities, gained valuable experience in different areas of the organisation, and gained new skills or built on my existing ones.

 (Current intern)

Once again, The Reader Organisation are on the look out for four keen, energetic, graduate-level individuals who want to take on a sixteen-week internship with us in our Head Office in Liverpool. Our internships give you the opportunity to gain practical and stimulating work experience as part of a dymanic and growing charity.

These sixteen-week internships are for 25 hours per week (unpaid, but with travel expenses paid).

• Communications Internship: Events and Publications
  (click here for full details)
• Communications Internship: PR and Publicity
  (click here for full details)
• Management Information Intern
  (click here for full details)
• Arts Administration Intern
  (click here for full details)

Previous interns at The Reader Organisation have gone on to take up posts such as Editor at Vintage books, Marketing Manager at Princes Ltd, Digital Executive at a design company, Marketing Assistant at an architect’s firm, Accountant Graduate Scheme at KPMG, and a variety of positions within The Reader Organisation, including our current Communications Assistant, Research Administration Assistant and Development Manager.

How to apply

Please read the job descriptions (above) in full and complete this application form and return by email to jobs@thereader.org.uk or in post to The Reader Organisation, The Friary Centre, Bute Street, Liverpool L5 3LA.

Deadline for applications is 9am on 13^th February 2012. You will be notified if you are to be called for interview by the end of the day on 15^th February 2012. If you have not heard from us by then, you have been unsuccessful. Volume of applications may make replies to everyone impossible.

Interviews will be held at The Reader Organisation Office on 21^st February 2012.

If you have any queries, please call The Reader Organisation on 0151 207 7207.

It’s especially important that children are given the opportunity to express themselves openly, as well as respect and listen to those around them – and we’ve found that literature and shared reading sessions provide a particularly effective outlet for these things to happen. Quite spectacularly as a result of engaging in shared reading 89% of children in schools across Liverpool said that they were more confident discussing their ideas and opinions as a part of being in a group.

Even more encouraging is the fact that 96% of children agreed that they were more understanding towards the ideas and opinions of other people as a result of shared reading. Absolutely wonderful findings, showing that reading isn’t just about academic education - but emotional development too.

As part of their reading sessions, children in three Liverpool schools we’ve been working in have been discovering the connection between literature and life. In our recent evaluation, 76% of children said that they can relate their life to things they’ve read in books more readily as a result of taking part in sessions.

Novelist and flash fiction writer David Gaffney, author of Sawn-Off Tales (2006) and Aromabingo (2007), will be appearing at Spellow Library on Monday 30th January, 6pm-7:30pm. David will be discussing his recent book, The Half Life of Songs.

Then, on Wednesday 1st February, 6pm-7:30pm, Childwall Library will play host to Gladys Mary Coles. Best known as a poet, with publications including The Song of the Butcher Bird (2006) and The Echoing Green (2002), Gladys will discuss her body of work and her debut novel, Clay.

Entrance for both events is free and seating is available on a first come, first served basis. Copies of the authors’ books will be on sale.

For more information about the David Gaffney event, please contact Spellow Library, County Road, L4 3QF; 0151 293 8365.

For more information about the Gladys Mary Coles event, please contact Childwall Library, Fiveways Centre, L15 6UT; 0151 233 2746.

For more information on Liverpool Libraries see www.liverpool.gov.uk.

For more information on regional events, reading groups and suggestions for further reading, see www.time-to-read.co.uk.

Editor: Please not that there was an error in the date of the Childwall event. This event will actually be taking place on Wednesday 1st February.

Our recent evaluation of reading sessions in Liverpool schools has revealed that 80% of children questioned agreed that reading helped them to relax. This is great news – and shows another aspect of reading that is so beneficial to children’s lives.

We have found that engaging in regular shared reading sessions not only makes kids want to read more often but also inspires them to widen their reading horizons – when questioned, 86% of children taking part in shared reading sessions in Liverpool schools said that they enjoyed reading stories and poems that they wouldn’t have normally chosen to read if they were doing so by themselves. Shared reading definitely helps to bring a good variety of literature into children’s personal reading selections.

Salary: £15,000 p.a.

Tenure: One year fixed term

In order to support the continuing growth of The Reader Organisation we are looking for an exceptional individual with great potential, whose role will be to enhance, develop, extend and maintain our key communication tools such as web, printed promotional materials and updates.

The Communications Assistant will work closely with the Communications Manager and other members of the Communications Team to promote positive media coverage, ensure website and social media channels reflect current The Reader Organisation activity and to help plan the promotion of our events and campaigns. As such, you will be involved with writing, editing and overseeing the design of print and online materials such as bulletins, printed materials and the website. You will also provide research and administrative support.

This is a responsible and demanding role which calls for a creative, hardworking, intelligent, experienced, reliable, and flexible person.

Deadline for applications: 5pm, Friday 6th January 2012.

For more information about the job role, the person specification and how to apply, visit our website.

Our recent evaluation into Get Into Reading in Liverpool schools has brought forth some wonderful results which show that shared reading has a significant impact on children, boosting their enthusiasm for books. A staggering 98% of children said that they enjoyed shared reading sessions – very encouraging for bolstering a passion for reading amongst kids.

The festive season has officially begun!

Last night saw The Reader Organisation once again take over the small concert room in St George’s Hall for our annual Dickensian extravaganza, the Penny Readings.

Judging by the reaction from the audience and on Twitter, the night was a resounding success.

“It was a perfect evening”

“The Penny Readings by @thereaderorg was fantastic. Completely surpassed my expectations. So entertaining, accessible and cultural!”

“Maybe only at Liverpool’s ‘Penny Readings‘ d’ya get David Morrissey being Macbeth on the same bill as a ukulele orchestra #splendidtime”

Frank Cottrell Boyce had the audience in stitches, magician Darren Campbell left us dazed and confused, we had some wonderful readings from The Reader Organisation’s very own Angela Macmillan, Casi Dylan and Beverley LaRoc, whilst Raven Sinclair-Edmonds treated us to some…interesting poetry of her own. The musical talents of trumpeter Grace Farrington and pianist Jasmine Scarisbrick were followed by the stunning voice of Lauren Spink, whilst the Wirral Ukulele Orchestra brought the house down with their flamboyant Hawaiian shirts and Santa hats.

Our special guest David Morrissey read a passage from Our Mutual Friend and performed one of Macbeth’s most famous speeches in homage to his recent starring role at the Everyman Theatre.

The evening was rounded off by the traditional rendition of a passage from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol by Professor Phil Davis. No doubt the great man himself would have approved of this early start to his bicentenary celebrations.

Our younger readers weren’t forgotten in all this excitement, as we held our second Ha’Penny Readings earlier in the day. Kids young and old enjoyed an afternoon of laughter and Christmas cheer led by MC extraordinaire Patrick Fisher and his friends from improv comedy group Sticky Floor. The Christmas party attended by Jedward, Horrid Henry and a hungry Tyrannosaurus Rex was the stuff of nightmares!

“Wacky fun!”

Pianist Jasmine popped up again with a wonderful composition of her own, there were more readings by Angela Macmillan, whilst Scream Street author Tommy Donbavand roped in some audience members to help act out a story of werewolves, mummies, vampires and dragons. Two of our Young Person’s Project workers, Samantha Shipman and Anna Fleming, entertained the audience with their favourite festive poems; Anna was especially convincing as a bird from ‘Turkeys United’ demanding ‘No to Cuts!’. There was even a special appearance from Santa Claus, who took time out of his busy schedule to read a little something and deliver a gift to all those readers who fulfilled his ‘naughty or nice’ criteria.

If you were at either event, we’d love to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment below.

A big thank you to everyone who made the day such a special one – time to start planning next year!

Phil has set up the centre to “establish more real world links, rather than just be inside a discipline”, and see analysis of the benefits of reading, in groups or alone, be translated into policy. Amongst us Reader folk enjoying delicious sandwiches were developmental and clinical psychologists, occupational therapists, health scientists, social anthropologists, and doctors.

The Centre will work in partnership with us in a variety of ways, providing a strong link between our practical delivery and their research, in the hope there can be an influence on public policy. This is knowledge exchange at its very strongest and most real. An example of this in practice is the Therapeutic Benefits of Reading in Relation to Depression, which was a collaborative research project between ourselves, the University and the Primary Care Trust, the findings of which were published last year and have fed directly into winning new Get Into Reading commissions and providing a way to measure the quality of group delivery.

CRILS is creating a demonstrable model of practice, which if successful could be rolled out nationally. We’re excited to see what’s in store and in working with the centre to further develop that Reading Revolution…