Learn to Love to Read Founder meets Her Majesty the Queen

Her Majesty The Queen is known for her passion for reading and literacy. She is Patron of several national literacy charities and her Reading Room is a thriving online book community. So it was a huge privilege for Learn to Love to Read Founder, Teresa Harris, to be chosen by the Wimbledon Foundation to be presented to her at The Championships, Wimbledon on Wednesday 12 July and to have the opportunity to share how our local literacy charity builds reading confidence and enthusiasm here in Wandsworth.

Learn to Love to Read works to encourage and equip parents to support their children’s reading at home. We introduce babies and toddlers to vital early literacy skills - running classes, distributing reading packs and delivering helpful messaging and advice. We recruit and train volunteers to offer one-to-one reading support to primary-age children. We build partnerships with local schools, children’s centres and charities to give children the opportunity to have frequent positive reading experiences.

The Wimbledon Foundation, established in 2013, is the charity of The All England Lawn Tennis Club and The Championships. Their mission is to champion opportunities for all and make a positive difference to people's lives. Learn to Love to Read was one of their first grantees, helping us with our initial growth, and we have been immensely grateful for their further support since then.

As the school year comes to a close, we are looking ahead and planning for September. If you live in Wandsworth, could you spare 60 to 90 minutes a week to help local children learn to love to read? The more volunteers we have, the more children we can help and we would love to hear from you. You can apply online on our website https://www.learn2love2read.org.uk/pages/4-volunteer or email [email protected] with any questions.