HUNDREDS of Flintshire schoolchildren visited Broughton Shopping during the last week of term as part of a reading scheme.

The 280 pupils from Saltney Ferry CP School, Ysgol Cae’r Nant and Saltney Wood Memorial CP School enjoyed a range of fun literary-themed workshops, including storytelling sessions at Cineworld, as well as food tasting sessions with staff from Broughton Shopping, Tesco and Asda Living.

Every child also went away with a book in hand and British Land, co-owner of Broughton Shopping, provided each of the schools with £100 of vouchers to spend on brand-new books for their libraries.

The event was part of the Young Readers Programme – an award-winning initiative by the National Literacy Trust in partnership with British Land – that works to improve children’s literacy by motivating them to read for pleasure through a series of fun activities and gives them chance to choose books to take home and keep.

Since the partnership started in 2011, the Young Readers Programme has gifted over 127,000 books to more than 42,500 children across the country, and has helped encourage more than 1,500 children in Flintshire to read for fun outside of school.

Joanne Daley, from Ysgol Cae’r Nant, said: “The Young Readers Programme is a fantastic initiative and has really helped motivate the children to read more.

“A love of reading is something that can last a lifetime. It’s a great way for children to learn new things and fire their imagination, so anything that inspires them to open a book more often is amazing.”

Alan Barker, centre manager at Broughton Shopping, said: “We’ve been supporting the Young Readers Programme for a number of years now and it’s an event that we always look forward to getting involved in.

“Seeing children from our local community being excited and inspired by books is really rewarding and we hope it has a lasting impact.”