With the recent announcement that free school meals will be extended to all children in households on Universal Credit from September 2026, the benefits in areas like Blackburn and Blackpool are expected to go well beyond the lunch table.
For Schoolreaders, a national children’s literacy charity, the change signals a major opportunity to reach more children who need help learning to read.
Currently, Schoolreaders places trained volunteers into schools in the top 20 percent most deprived areas or where more than 25 percent of pupils receive free school meals.
(Image: Lucy Wilcox) The organisation delivers weekly one-to-one reading sessions to over 33,000 children across England, including in parts of Blackburn and Blackpool, where it currently operates in only around 10 percent of primary schools.
With more schools now expected to meet the charity’s deprivation criteria, Schoolreaders is calling for more local volunteers to help close the literacy gap in the region.
Just one in four children in the UK currently leave primary school reading at the expected standard, and children living in the most deprived areas, like Blackpool, are more than twice as likely to fall short of key development milestones by age five, according to UNICEF UK.
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Meanwhile, only one in three children now say they enjoy reading for pleasure, the lowest figure recorded.
Sally Wrampling, Chief Executive Officer of Schoolreaders, said: “Every child deserves the chance to learn to read well. Without reading, learning opportunities are denied, and this can have a lifelong impact.
A quarter of children are leaving primary school not reading to the expected standard. That’s something we’re here to change.
Now that free school meals eligibility is increasing, even more children will have access to this vital support, but we need more volunteers to help us drive the change we’re seeking.”
In the 2023/2024 academic year, Schoolreaders supported over 27,000 children, with 45 percent of those pupils receiving pupil premium funding, nearly double the national average of 24 percent.
(Image: Lucy Wilcox) The charity’s model has shown clear results: internal research reveals that 94 percent of children increased their reading confidence following regular sessions, and 72 percent benefited from spending time with a positive role model.
Sara Cockroft, co-headteacher at Beech Hill Primary School in Blackburn, said: “Deprivation is something we experience at our school. Some children don’t read at home, so it’s important they have access to what we’ve got in school.
“When we looked at the end of last year, where we’d had support from volunteers over that previous year, the children who had received support from Schoolreaders volunteers had made more than the expected progress.
“Schoolreaders build wonderful relationships with students, and that means a lot to us at this school, and the children really value that time.”
All volunteers are provided with training, safeguarding guidance, and reading support best practices, and the charity is encouraging more people in the region to step forward.
With the September 2026 free school meal expansion on the horizon, more children across Blackburn and Blackpool will become eligible for literacy support. Now, it’s a matter of ensuring there are enough volunteers ready to meet them.
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