Readingmate was founded by Hannah and James Rix during the first lockdown in the spring of 2020.
Hannah is Head of English at a top SEND school in Norwich and was alarmed at what was happening to some of her kids. The development of some of their reading levels had slowed and others had completely stopped. Hannah put in place plans with parents and devised a feedback system to help parents and children choose what books they should read next.
After discussing the situation together Hannah and James realised that if this was happening at a school as good as the Clare School, then it must be happening country wide, and Readingmate was born to try and help.
2 statistics show the power of reading more than any other:
1. The enjoyment of reading has been reported as more important for a child's educational success than their family's socio-economic status.
2. Over 50% of UK prisoners are illiterate. (Compared to 16.4% of the general population)
These 2 statistics show that reading is a real game changer, it really is a secret weapon for children who want to break out.
We provide free Learning Resources from our website including research based articles, fun activity ideas and up to date video advice on all things literacy and reading.
We also have developed a free reading app which helps parents build the habit of reading within their child. We have also just launched a state of the art recommendation system which spits out recommendations as relevant and unique as your child.
Amazon's recommended age range of childrens books averages out at 3.3 years (eg 4 - 7) where as our unique algorithm is accurate to .1 years. Any child that doesn't love to read, simply hasn't found the right book, we want to make that process for children and parents.
Finally, we have created the bookshop that gives back. Parents can buy a book subscription for as little as £9.99 per month and choose ANY book of ANY value to be delivered to their door. Couple this with discounts on other Readingmate products and monthly giveaways of family days out to great attractions such as Alton Towers, we think it's incredible value.
And as we're the bookshop that gives back, for every book that is bought through Readingmate 10p goes to 1 of our 5 partner charities (BookTrust, Coram-Beanstalk, National Literacy Trust, Real Action and Children's Literacy Charity) and another 10p goes directly to your child's school to fund new reading material and literacy themed field trips.
So take a look at our website, social media and app. Maybe we can be Readingmates?
Details available on request