To encourage its year seven pupils to read for pleasure, Helston Community College has just completed a very successful Readathon sponsored read.

Students rose to the challenge, reading many books and raising £420 for seriously ill children. Their achievement also earned the school free books worth £80, provided by Readathon in partnership with Scholastic Book Clubs to boost school library stocks despite increasing pressure on school budgets.

Readathon, a nationwide charity, uses the sponsorship money to support carefully chosen charities who help seriously ill children and their families: ReadWell, CLIC Sargent, Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity and Together for Short Lives.

Helston College English teacher Amanda Corker said: "I recommend Readathon to any teacher or librarian who wants to get their students reading for pleasure. Readathon created a real buzz in year seven and we found children talking about books, sharing and swapping favourites and genuinely motivated to read. Our students raised over £400 for seriously ill children in just a few weeks. To get all that from one easy-to-run activity, and then be awarded free books on top, makes Readathon a truly unique campaign. Everybody wins.”

Brough Girling, the founder of Readathon, added: “The wonderful thing about schools and young people is that even in today’s economic climate, they are still eager to raise money for those less fortunate than themselves. To say thank you for their tremendous efforts, Readathon has teamed up with Scholastic Book Clubs to give HCC free books. We hope that these books will in turn inspire even more pupils to get reading - for good.”