Evidence – How Storytime Improves Literacy
We are extremely proud to be publishing a magazine that helps children improve their literacy. Every year we survey the parents, carers and teachers of our readers to find out what impact receiving Storytime has had on both time spent reading and, crucially, reading enjoyment.
From our reader survey we know that only 36.4% of readers who have just started receiving Storytime manage to read for the recommended 20 minutes a day or more. After one year this has increased massively to 64.4%
What’s even better is that the proportion of reluctant readers (classed as those who spend under 20 minutes a day reading) who now enjoy reading more since receiving Storytime has also increased – 70.1% of those surveyed. This increases to 84.6% when we look at children from the most deprived backgrounds.
Success Stories – What People Are Saying About Storytime
“I had some lovely feedback at a meeting on Monday, I had two new children who have come into care in the last 6 months, both are delayed with their reading due to moving schools many times. Now in care and having a 30 minute drive twice a day to school, the carer said in a recent meeting that the Storytime magazines have really helped engage them, they now use them to read on the travel to school and really, really enjoy getting them sent to them in the post. Thought this was lovely and wanted to share.”
“I wanted to say thank you. This is finally the magazine I have been looking for. My son is 7 and has Autism. Reading has always been a challenge and he simply does not “get it “. I have tried magazines, books, comics, part works, you name it and he is not interested. I saw this and while not holding out much hope, thought I’d give it a go.
Wow.. I’m sat in the car waiting to collect my eldest from college and he has not put your magazine down since I gave it to him 15 min ago. This might not seem much on face value but it’s an amazing feat for him. I think it’s a combination of the story been broken into pieces with awesome pictures, good sized print and fantastic quality paper, (he is smoothing it as he reads it), it’s not too bulky like a book but also not too flimsy like a magazine. The mix of visual stimuli is really well balanced and not too intense. Thank you so much for this”
“I just wish it had begun sooner! My daughter enjoys every single story and has used a couple of the fables in her school homework assignments. To me, it is head and shoulders above the other flashy plastic wrapped mags that scream from the shelf. The STORIES are the gifts, not the Octonauts sea monster or Peter Rabbit’s pea shooter!!”
“Thank you for such high quality artwork and variety of stories! My son’s vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds because we read this magazine together.”
“Am very pleased with it. I really look forward to reading the stories with my child, especially ones that have Knights or the Greek myths as they really capture his imagination. Keep up the good work.”
“We as a family love them! They’re great. Thank you so much for making them. Best kids Magazines I’ve ever bought for the little ones.”
“Each issue is highly anticipated and then enjoyed for several nights reading a story each night together for bedtime. It has become a fun tradition each time the latest inspiring issue arrives!”
“It’s absolutely brilliant. I asked my in-laws to subscribe for my daughter as her xmas present. Every month my daughter squeals in excitement when it arrives. Thank you.”
“Great good quality publication that fuels my children’s desire to read for pleasure and introduces them to other genres of story/writing. We love it!!”
“My granddaughter takes EVERY opportunity to tell me how much she loves getting her envelope EVERY month so a gift WELL CHOSEN – Thanks!”
“The whole family enjoys story time very much. We have bought the subscription for a friend’s child as a bday present and we intend to buy it for other children too. One thing I’d like to stress is please do NOT include plastic toys as I think it’s important to encourage children to buy the magazine without the incentive of horrible and cheap plastic toys. I hope the majority of parents buying your lovely magazine would agree with me. The reason why we all love it is because it’s about stories, reading them, sharing them, speaking about them, laughing with them. Thanks”
“I have tried lots of other magazines for my children and they have been read / worked through and then recycled. We have kept all our copies of Storytime as they want to read them over and over.”
“As a family we love beautiful books and it’s amazing to at last find a magazine that lives up to the quality of children’s literature available. No toys, no ads and no pink tack. Just quality tales with beautiful and enhancing illustrations. Thank you!”
“Its lovely to see a magazine just to encourage children to get into reading. At present my little boy isn’t able to understand some of the stories as they are for older children (he is only 2 so mostly likes the fairytales), but I know that in years to come he can go back and read the stories. Its an investment in my child’s literary future.
I personally love the tales from around the world as its so nice to hear stories from other countries that otherwise would be difficult to get hold of here. Also my son loves looking out for your envelopes. He gets very excited when he sees them and knows its for him! I haven’t seen another magazine like this and I think you fill a much needed niche. Its so refreshing to see a magazine that solely focuses on engaging children with the fantastic world of books. Keep up the good work!”