Our story

You can usually find us in one of two places - getting our sweat on, or curled up with a book in hand. We've decided to do something useful with the things that we love, and get active to help more children learn to read.

So we thought we'd do a trek.  But then we thought that wasn't enough... 

So we thought we'd do two treks.  And then volunteer at a Nepalese school. 

Trek 1: Hadrian's Wall Path.  90 miles in four days, coast to coast.  Obstacles: surviving British summertime, the dark and dangerous towns of Newcastle, Carlisle and Once Brewed (ok, the last one isn't as bad...), carrying enough snacks. 

Trek 2:  A four day trek across the Helambu region of Nepal.  Obstacles: temperatures of -10 at night, Earthquakes, tigers, carrying enough snacks. 

The problem

• 60,000 children in England left primary school last year
  (July 2015) unable to read and write properly.
• Many of these children will never catch up. Left behind
  at an early age, secondary school is an even greater struggle. They are four times more likely to truant and 5 times more likely to be excluded from school.
  
• 8 million adults in the UK have no useful literacy- they
  could not look up a plumber in the yellow pages, fill in a job application or even use the internet.
• There are proven links between illiteracy and
  unemployment, poverty, social exclusion and antisocial behaviour.

About Beanstalk

• They provide long term one-to-one support to
  disadvantaged children aged between 6 and 11.
• Beanstalk recruits volunteer reading helpers from the
  local community, fully trains and supports them and places them in local primary schools.
• Each reading helper works with three children and works
  one-to-one with each child twice a week for a whole school year.
• The sessions are designed to help children develop
  reading, writing and communication skills in ways that are fun and spark their imaginations. They also improve confidence and self-esteem.
• Beanstalk works through 17 area offices in the top 25%
  most disadvantaged regions in England. They are currently supporting over 10,000 children through 2,900 reading helpers working in 1,400 schools. The 17 area offices are based in Birmingham & Warwickshire, the Black Country, Stoke & Cheshire, Shropshire, North East London, North West London, South East London, Inner London, West London, East Kent, West Kent, Northamptonshire, West Yorkshire, West Pennine, Durham, Manchester and Merseyside.
• Beanstalk allows disadvantaged children to develop the
  skills they need to become confident and literate for life; their support helps children to learn better in class and fulfil their potential in childhood and into adulthood.

How your magic beans can help

• Approximately £5 will pay for a week’s literacy support for a child who is struggling to learn to read.
• It costs Beanstalk just £305 to provide a year’s life-changing literacy support to a child in need who will receive on average 70 sessions.