MORE than ten per cent of the schools invited to take part in the Oxfordshire Reading Campaign have already signed up to take part.

And more than 50 people have said they want to volunteer to read one to one with children as part of the scheme.

But Oxfordshire County Council education cabinet member Melinda Tilley has called for more schools to join the first nine to make sure the programme is a success.

She said: “Come on, let’s get on with it and let’s get the rest of them signed up.

“However I am chuffed to bits that 50 people have come forward.”

She said she intended to buy the Project X Code books, which will be used in schools to accelerate reading progress in the focus schools, to read with her grandchildren.

The schools which have signed up so far are St Christopher’s and Windmill primaries in Oxford, Bure Park and Glory Farm in Bicester, St Leonard’s and Hill View in Banbury, Barley Hill in Thame, Great Milton Primary and Stephen Freeman Primary in Didcot.

The reading campaign is run by the National Literacy Trust and backed by the Oxford Mail.

Programme manager Leena O’Hara said: “The commitment that has been demonstrated by the general public in visiting the site and signing up to be a volunteer shows that reading is a high priority in Oxfordshire and support for that has been fantastic.

“Within seven days of the launch we have ten per cent of schools signed up but this is only the starting point.”

St Christopher’s headteacher Alison Holden said: “I am committed to trying everything to raise standards for our children.

“If there’s something out there that’s different and people are buying into it, I want to have a go – I want our children to have the best.”

To find out more visit oxfordmail.co.uk/reading_campaign