Young children in Barnsley are to benefit from a new project that aims to improve their reading and communication skills.

Worsbrough Common Primary School has received a grant of £15,000 from SHINE to fund “123, Read With Me”, a three-year project benefitting 180 4-5-year-olds.

The programme is aimed at helping parents to develop their children’s reading, writing and communication skills at home.

Parents are being urged to take part in a series of workshops and activities in school, which show the importance of reading, and demonstrate how it can be fun for both parents and their children.

All those taking part will receive bedtime story packs so they can continue reading at home each night. Sessions will be themed, and involve rhymes, songs, art and games.

Kate Ainley, deputy headteacher at Worsbrough Common Primary, explained: “The project aims to address low levels of communication, language and literacy of children on entry to school. This is particularly an issue for disadvantaged children.

“We are building partnerships with parents and helping them to engage in their children’s learning, with a particular focus on reading.

“Nationally, many children, particularly those who are more disadvantaged, do not have opportunities to share and, enjoy and learn from stories in their homes and many parents are not aware of the importance of this or have the skills to do this effectively with their children.

“With these workshops, we are helping parents to support their children’s learning and promoting the importance of reading at home.”

Parents are also shown how children are taught reading and writing at school, using techniques such as phonics, which helps children hear, identify and use different sounds that distinguish one word from another.

If any parents can’t make it to the sessions, the school has also produced videos to make sure they don’t miss out.