Coram Beanstalk

24/08/2026

If you live or work in the Wallasey area and could spare an afternoon a week to read with children in a local primary school, we’d love to hear from you!
Or please spread the word with someone who might be interested.

https://www.corambeanstalk.org.uk/volunteer/apply/

🤗Want to smile more?🤗

Our Coram Beanstalk reading helpers have every reason to smile - because they know how much of an impact their weekly one-to-one, in-person sessions can have on the children they work with. And they have as much fun sharing books, chatting and laughing as the children do!

📚We put the fun back into helping children become readers.📚

So why not have a look at what we do and think about joining us to start in a local primary school in September. (Link in the comments below.)

19/08/2026

12/08/2026

😎 How are the summer holidays going for you? 😎

🌞 If it's too hot to do much more than find a shady spot and hope the children entertain themselves then we have just the thing! Check out our Beanstalk Brilliant ideas for some summer fun including:

💬 making your own comics (with downloadable templates);
🦹‍♂️ finding a special super power;
📣 speaking up on something you're passionate about by making a poster or writing speech;
🍀going on a scavenger hunt in the garden or park;
🗼building towers from anything and everything;
🎭 performing a poem.

We had some help from some well-known authors Jamie Smart, Tọlá Okogwu, DAPS, Andy Seed, Naomi Jones and Joshua Seigal to give you some very Beanstalk Brilliant ideas for things to do this summer.

Take a look at all their videos on our website via the link in the comments below.

03/08/2026

😍 When you say thank you to a thank you! 😍

At the end of the school year we always send a huge thank you to all our wonderful volunteers for their time, dedication and commitment. And in response we are flooded with messages of thanks for the enjoyment, satisfaction and support that our volunteers get in return! 🤗

Here's just one example.👇

If you would like to find out more about how we can change your life by training you to become a Coram Beanstalk reading helper and placing you in a local school next term to work with children who will benefit from your one-to-one support, please get in touch today. 😁

02/08/2026

🤗 Its time for our Book of the Month for August - Youngest Faircrest and the Search for a Sorcerer by Ollie George Clark ✍️📚 !

This book is all about courage and friendship so we’ve also chosen a few more on the same theme.

Find out more via the link in the comments below where you’ll also find a video from the author himself.

22/07/2026

Every so often a wonderful opportunity comes our way and thanks to the generosity of KOVA International, some of our lucky reading helpers and their families were invited to attend the film premiere of Animal Farm.

The event included all sorts of family activities before the screening and a Q&A afterwards. One of our lucky reading helpers told us that she and her family all loved the film and will be recommending it to everyone as something to catch this summer on the big screen.

She said: “My 12yr old grandson who had just been reading the book at school felt the film was very different to the book, but nonetheless a great interpretation. I’m sure it will have great uses in discussions in secondary schools now and in the future. My 10yr old granddaughter took it all in and was totally won over by the animals vs humans theme and quite simply loved it all. After the film she wanted to know who our favourite characters were and hers were all those who firmly had their shoulders to the wheel!
Thank you all for such a treat - it was a memorable occasion and we can now all say we’ve been to a film premiere and they’re great.”

Here at Coram Beanstalk we love being able to treat our dedicated reading helpers with opportunities like this and we‘re so grateful to KOVA International for including us. ❤️

20/07/2026

Happy Birthday to The Queen! 🎊

Her Majesty has marked her birthday with a renewed commitment to supporting children’s literacy, with the announcement that every Year 6 and P6 child across the UK will be gifted a special edition of the bestselling book ‘Impossible Creatures’ by award-winning author Katherine Rundell, this Christmas.

📚 Led by the National Literacy Trust, of which The Queen is Patron, the programme celebrates the National Year of Reading 2026.

📷 Chris Jackson / Getty

20/07/2026

🤩A wonderful book gift to every child in year 6, across the country from our Patron, Her Majesty The Queen.📖

Every child in year 6 will receive a copy of the brilliant "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell in December and our reading helpers will be on hand to support the children they work with to access it.

In our experience, children with no, or very few, books at home are blown away by being given a book of their own to take home, And even if it's a book they haven't yet acquired the skills to read for themselves, that feeling of being a 'book-owner', clutching a physical book in their hands, is pretty special.
We're grateful to , The Queen and for making this happen.

We'll be re-introducing our reading helpers to the book next term and providing them with lots of very magic Beanstalk ideas for engaging their children with the book and to help them get the very most out of it.
We put the fun, enjoyment and accessibility into books!

You can read more about this book on our website as we chose it for our Book of the Month in January 2024. ☺️

Happy Birthday to The Queen! 🎊

Her Majesty has marked her birthday with a renewed commitment to supporting children’s literacy, with the announcement that every Year 6 and P6 child across the UK will be gifted a special edition of the bestselling book ‘Impossible Creatures’ by award-winning author Katherine Rundell, this Christmas.

📚 Led by the National Literacy Trust, of which The Queen is Patron, the programme celebrates the National Year of Reading 2026.

📷 Chris Jackson / Getty

13/07/2026

Editorial: The author of the bestselling young-adult novel Orangeboy is ideally suited to address the crisis of teenage masculinity and reading

07/07/2026

So honoured to have been invited to the announcement of the Waterstones BookTrust for 2026-2028, the wonderful Patrice Lawrence ♥️

We congratulate her on her new role and fully support her mission to champion the power of books to bring people together and show children they belong. We are here working in local communities - through our army of trained volunteers and our secondary school training programme - and we can’t wait to follow Patrice’s journey as Children’s Laureate.

It was a joy to hear from outgoing Laureate and host Sissay Lemn and the children of Brook Mead Academy were just incredible!

Events like these, full of authors, publishers and organisations working together to create readers always make us feel warm and fuzzy - and remind us why we do what we do.

Thank you BookTrust and Waterstones for the league of laureates you have created - and for the invitation! 🥰