The Reader Organisation is considering the possibility of acquiring a property through asset transfer to develop a self-sustaining health and educational centre.  To help us with this process, we wish to commission an individual with relevant experience to produce a short report detailing the financial business model for such a centre.  The individual will be required to:

1. Research

Research the current identified revenue generating opportunities for the self-sustaining health and educational centre  and the income and cost model associated with each of the activities.

Ideally this will be gathered through meetings with owners/managers of existing businesses, however it can also be gathered through desk research.

2. Report

Based on the research and costing information available, produce a short report which details the financial business model for the health and educational centre – this will include the full budget for the project.

Download the detailed job specification here.

Person Specification

The individual will have experience/knowledge of operating a similar centre/enterprise, network to obtain information relating to proposed enterprises and knowledge of profit & loss accounts and balance sheets.

Terms

The Reader Organisation has budgeted 30 days at £120 per day – we have additional budget for travel costs relating to the report. The report is required for 31st July 2012.

Please send CV and covering letter to Michelle Barrett (michellebarrett@thereader.org.uk) by Monday 21st May, 4pm.  Interviews will take place week commencing 21st May 2012.

Tickets are now on sale for The Reader Organisation’s 3rd annual National Conference dedicated to sharing the message of our Reading Revolution: reading aloud together for pleasure.

Day One: Reading to Live Well
Thursday 17th May, 9am-5pm
Day Delegate Rate: £199

The first day of the conference is an information day aimed at commissioners, funders, and potential partners who want to understand ‘how’ and ‘why’ Get Into Reading works.

Highlights include:

• Dr Iona Heath, President of the Royal College of General Practioners, will be giving a keynote address on ‘Imagining the Patient: Literature and Medicine’
• Professor Jonathan Rose, a specialist historian on the book and reading at Drew University, in conversation with Jane Davis

More details about the programme and information about how to book your place are available on our website.

Day Two: Living to Read Well
Friday 18th May, 9.30am-5pm
Discounted day delegate rate: £99

*EXCLUSIVELY FOR SHARED READING FACILITATORS (those who have completed our Read to Lead training courses)*

This second (half price!) day is just for TRO trained facilitator. Highlights include:

• Award-winning poet Lemn Sissay in conversation with Jane Davis
• Practical sessions and masterclasses from TRO staff. 

More details about Day Two’s programme and how to book your place can be found on our website.

The article is available to view on the Press and Articles page on our website.

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.

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.

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.

One of the most recent studies exploring exactly what wonders reading can do comes from an incredibly prestigious source – and has unearthed some astonishing and really quite heartening results . Research carried out by Oxford University has found that poetry is not just, as John Keats would put it, a Thing of Beauty, but also acts as a comforter, makes us feel better and significantly shapes our sense of self and identity; all factors which most certainly count for a lot. In particular it’s the poems that come from our childhood and early adulthood – and especially those we’ve read so much that we’ve committed them firmly to memory and can recite them off by heart – that offer the most consolation to us; and in this way and others, they contribute to making us who we are. Remarkable stuff indeed. The findings of the Oxford study have been backed up by very similar research from the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences at the University of Reading which is looking into the relationship between poetry and memory and specifically, the ways that people remember poems that are personally significant to them. Head researcher Dr Clare Rathbone has identified that poetry that is so well known it could almost be part of our DNA is strongly centred in our individual ‘reminiscence bumps’ – the memories that each of us can most readily recall. Such memories are ingrained into our very beings, and such findings are testament to the ability of poetry to eke them out; most certainly they support the incredibly vital work The Reader Organisation does reading and sharing poems with dementia patients.

It’s not so surprising to discover that poems we know inside out through frequent reading and recitation, ones that we cherish and have poured so much meaning – and of ourselves – into should figure so vividly in our minds and memories, but the fact that collections of words and created images are quite so significant that they connect to or entirely supersede other reminiscences and recollections is quite extraordinary in itself. I know I can let major events pass me by without so much as a second thought months or years down the line (and don’t even attempt to test my long-gone learning of history, science or the solar system), but a line, lyric or vision of a scene glimpsed for a moment can remain as crystal clear as when they first occurred or were happened upon. Summarising what I’d suspect is a rather common occurrence when it comes to what our brain retains is Thomas Bailey Aldrich, in a poem short, sweet and succinct enough to be able to easily commit to memory – which is quite handy, considering.

Memory

My mind lets go a thousand things,
Like dates of wars and deaths of kings,
And yet recalls the very hour–
‘Twas noon by yonder village tower,
And on the last blue noon in May–
The wind came briskly up this way,
Crisping the brook beside the road;
Then, pausing here, set down its load
Of pine-scents, and shook listlessly
Two petals from that wild-rose tree.

Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907)

The study by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development found that children who read with their parents every day or even as much as once a week gained significantly higher marks in exams sat at the age of fifteen. On average, regular reading with parents at home equates to a child getting the same amount of academic benefit they would receive from having six months extra schooling. The most prominent effects of reading on a child’s educational attainment are best felt if parents begin reading with their children when they are young – aged four, five, or six – although the highest-achieving students still receive parental encouragement and input when they are teenagers.

And the best news for busy parents is that the amount of time spent reading with children each day need not eat significantly into a busy schedule – you don’t need to spend hours reading (unless of course, you do have lots of spare time) and quality is better than quantity. The report says:

“The good news [is] that it does not require a PhD or unlimited hours for parents to make a difference. In fact, many parent-child activities that are associated with better reading performance among students involve relatively little time and no specialised knowledge.”

The research also comes as a reading project aimed at school children is proving particularly successful. Booked Up, the government-funded initiative ran by Booktrust which aims to provide a free book to every child starting secondary school in the country, is encouraging over half of all students involved to read books more often. During the first four years of the programme, Booked Up has given a free book to over 2.5 million children in England. It has also boosted enthusiasm and passion for reading elsewhere, with pupils who are involved in the scheme visiting local libraries and bookshops on a more regular basis, buying books for themselves or their family and reading material by authors they had not previously come across.

Despite the success of such reading projects and reading aloud in the home, there is still concern that reading for pleasure instead of for academic purposes is being neglected by schoolchildren. A survey by the charity Booktime has found that a staggering 98% of teachers believe children do not read enough for pleasure at home. Also one in  ten parents shy away from reading to their children themselves, preferring instead to play an audiobook. While any contact with literature is great, there is nothing like a direct reading experience and there really is nothing to be scared of when it comes to reading aloud. Given these different findings, there is no better time to start your own personal reading revolution!