Improve reading skills with the proven intervention that motivates young readers through choice.

TextNow® is an innovative reader engagement programme that motivates young people to become more confident and able readers. The TextNow programme provides structured one-to-one reading sessions for 20 minutes each weekday for ten weeks, supported by trained coaches, a starter library and an awards scheme. This regular and focused one-to-one support aims to encourage a young person’s interest in and enjoyment of reading.

Watch the video to see participants and writers, including Andrew Motion, Anne Enright and Daljit Nagra, talking about TextNow

Not only is the programme unique in its effectiveness, but it is suitable for a wide range of young people with low levels of reading attainment and who are at risk of detachment from education.

TextNow can be used in local authorities, schools, colleges, short stay schools and other alternative education provision, with children in public care and young people in other settings.

Independent evaluation of TextNow has found that average reading ages, when calculated across all educational settings, improve by 18.7 months over the course of the programme. (The reading age gains in mainstream secondary schools averaged more than 27 months in 2010-2011.) Attitudes towards reading, confidence and frequency of reading also improve significantly.