A mission to improve the reading levels of all 11-year-olds in Wales by 2025 was launched by a coalition of charities, teachers and children’s authors on October 1.
According to school inspectors Estyn, 40% of 11-year-olds have a sub-standard reading age and national literacy results show disadvantaged children are worse readers than their more affluent peers.
A report by the campaign group Read On. Get On suggested five-year-olds who are read to by their dads daily will be half a year more advanced than those read to once a week.
Father-of-three, Simeon Haddock, 46, from Gilfach Fargoed, routinely reads with his children Lucy 11, Emmi-Leigh, eight, and Iaeron, two.
He said: “Reading is such a great help for them. It helps them along in life and helps them to understand so much more. They can draw comparisons with their own lives.
“Emmi was reading a book recently and she noticed that the child in the story was holding her parents hands, like she does with us to cross the road.
“I try to catch them out when they are reading. I let them read the story and then I go back through that story and ask them questions about it to see if they understood it. It’s important to me that they understand what their reading about.”