Books in home programme

Books in Home

The Alan Duff Charitable Foundation Books in Homes Programme is a literacy programme aimed at breaking the cycle of "booklessness" for children in low-decile schools throughout New Zealand.

The Programme was developed following a visit by Alan Duff to Camberley School in 1992. He found that the majority of the students came from bookless homes and showed little interest in reading. From this grew the key concept of book ownership prompting an interest in reading and a love of books. Accordingly, in 1995, The Alan Duff Charitable Foundation Books in Homes Programme was officially established.

From the early beginnings of 80 schools, 16,000 students, and 14 sponsors, the Programme has grown to encompass 429 schools, over 80,000 students, and 300 sponsors. By October 1999, more than one million books had been distributed. The two millionth book milestone was reached in June 2002.

All decile one, two and three schools are eligible to join Books in Homes. The school agrees to pay half the cost of the books for their students. A sponsor is found by Books in Homes to form a partnership with the school and pay for the other half. There are three Book Offers per year. In Book Offer 1 and 3 the students chose two books to take home and keep and the school and sponsor finance these. The Ministry of Education finances one additional book in Book Offer 2.

There are approximately 50 titles per Book Offer and these titles are different from one offer to the next. Books in Homes teachers and principals chose these titles at Book Selection meetings conducted by Books in Homes and all books for Book Offers 1-3 are supplied by Scholastic NZ Ltd.

During the school year there are various initiatives to encourage reading including a first-rate travelling theatre group, Role Model assemblies, the Kids at Home programme, and Caught Being Good awards.

For more information, visit the Books in Home website.