Anglian Water is joining the fight to help children in its region learn to read.

Currently, one out of every four children, in the average class in England, leaves primary school still struggling with reading - and Lincolnshire is one of the worst performing areas in the country.

Now, the water company is teaming up with national literacy charity, Bookmark, to help change that.

Hundreds of books will be donated to 10 schools along the route of one of Anglian Water’s flagship projects - a new £400million water main network that will help move water from the wettest part of the region in North Lincolnshire to the driest parts of Essex, where it’s needed the most.

Additionally, members of staff will work alongside children as reading volunteers, to improve their life chances.

The volunteers will read with the same child twice a week. Some will also help create “story corners” in the schools to give youngsters a space to read.

Five of the schools are in Lincolnshire, where work on the new water main network is already underway, while another five – in East Anglia – will be announced later this year.

The five Lincolnshire schools are: Worlaby Primary Academy (Worlaby), Mount Street Academy (Lincoln), Bracebridge Infant and Nursery School (Lincoln), Isaac Newton Primary School (Grantham) and Thurlby Primary School (Thurlby) – all close to the route of the new water pipeline.

Craig Hopkinson, Sustainability Manager for the team delivering the new water network, said: “We became involved with Bookmark during the pandemic, with colleagues becoming online reading volunteers.

“Now our colleagues are being trained by Bookmark to go into schools for face-to-face sessions.

“Our new pipe network is essential to improving the resilience of our region’s water supply for generations to come and the partnership we’ve developed with Bookmark through the pipeline project will help us give even more value to the communities we serve.

“We want to bring environmental and social prosperity to the region. Our new water network is vital to that, but volunteering allows us to help in other ways.

“We can give children a chance of a better future, and we are determined to do everything we can to help them.”

The Bookmark charity began in 2018, with the simple aim of helping every child to read.

In an average class of 30 children, eight will currently leave primary school unable to read fluently, according to the National Literacy Trust.

If children don’t read well by the age of 11 and don’t enjoy reading, they’re far more likely to have poor literacy as adults (National Literacy Trust). People with poor literacy are more likely to be unemployed or in lower skilled jobs. As a result, low literacy costs the UK economy £36 billion each year (World Literacy Foundation).

Jessica Lees, Reading Lead at Bracebridge Infant and Nursery School, said: "The percentage of readers in Lincoln who are below the expected standard for reading is one of the highest in the country. When I joined the school two years ago, the number of children with reading levels at the expected standard was very, very low.

“We have seventeen languages in our school, we have lots of children with English as an additional language and we have lots of children who are recipients of pupil premium. We have those children who are just about managing, and we have lots of children who aren’t.

“We also have a lot of parents who can’t read or write themselves, or who don’t speak English. They are the sort of challenges we’re facing when it comes to reading.”

Anglian Water aims to underpin the future prosperity of the region, which has one of the fastest growing populations in the UK, with plans to build 175,000 new homes in the next few years.

Experts believe the East of England would face a water deficit of 30 million litres a day by 2025 due to the combined impact of a rapidly growing population, climate change, and being located in the most water-scarce part of the UK - a shortfall of 4,380 Olympic swimming pools of water, every year. 

Rob Slade, Head of Strategic Supply at Anglian Water, said: “The new pipelines will allow water to be moved to areas where it is needed most, while also strengthening local resilience by reducing the number of homes and businesses which rely on a single water source.  

“They are vital in helping to address the predicted ‘jaws of death’ moment for water availability in the East of England – the point at which demand for water greatly outstrips the available supply. Though we can’t do it alone and encourage our customers to continue doing their bit too to use water as sustainably as they can to help keep taps flowing and toilets flushing for generations to come.”