2025-06-30-accounts - The Norfolk Reading Project

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Trustees' Annual Report for the period

Period start date Period end date 1 July 2024 30 June 2025 To

From

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name The Norfolk Reading Project Other names charity is known by TNRP Registered charity number (if any) 1176987

Charity's principal address College Barn, Cake Street, Old Buckenham, Attleborough Norfolk Postcode NR17 1PS

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

Trustee name	Office (if any)	Dates acted if not for whole year
Anne Thorley	Joint Founder and Chair
Alison Margaret Gilmour	Vice Chair and Secretary
Sarah Jayne Anthony		1 July 2024 – 5 January 2025
Sally Nicola Watson		1 – 31 July 2024
Lesley Patricia Penniket	Treasurer
Lorraine Hall
Elaine Julie Simpson
Anne Williams
Margot Christine Paterson
Joseph Hedinger		16 – 30 June 2025

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Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)

Name Dates acted if not for whole year

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Type of adviser Name Address

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Type of governing document

Constitution

(eg. trust deed, constitution) Charitable Incorporated Organisation How the charity is constituted

(eg. trust, association, company)

Trustees appointed by a resolution passed at a properly convened Trustee selection methods meeting of the Trustees (eg. appointed by, elected by)

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
relationship with any related parties;
trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.

Our Trustees all have valuable abilities which contribute to the effective running of our charity. All Trustees have read the guidance in The Essential Trustee, are notified when important guidance is received from the Charity Commission and are aware of their important responsibility as a Trustee. TNRP and networks: We are a member of Voluntary Norfolk which is a charitable support organisation specifically for community groups and charities in the county. We also benefit from guidance, funding and training opportunities offered by the Norfolk Community Foundation who offer support to voluntary groups and charities across Norfolk. We continue to build our relationship with the National Centre for Writing. Major risks and management of : Succession planning regarding key roles, including our trainers, present a risk for TNRP. We communicate regularly with our Reading Support Volunteers (RSVs) and also with various supporters to see if they would like more involvement. The volume of administration, with, in the region of 200 active volunteers

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and trainees and more than 150 schools in which the volunteers are placed, falls on a small number of the committee. More than 600 volunteers have been trained over the past 10 years. A Volunteer and School portal has been developed and commences running in July 2025. This will enable real-time information on our charity to be more easily accessible.

Our RSVs are trained and introduced to schools, subject to successful DBS checking and references. RSVs are all in receipt of a comprehensive training manual and equipped with useful phonics charts.

In our aim to help improve literacy in schools, and to keep RSVs enthusiastic and informed we hold regular workshops. These are popular and also allow for the exchange of RSVs experiences and knowledge. In addition, we aim to regularly communicate with our RSVs via email and our newsletter ‘In the Loop’.

Section C Objectives and activities

To advance the education of children in Norfolk by the provision of trained RSVs in schools.

Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document

The Norfolk Reading Project was set up in response to increasing concern across Norfolk on illiteracy levels and its impact on communities. We recruit and train RSVs across a wide range of ages and walks of life. We arrange and fund DBS checks and place volunteers with local schools where there is an identified need. There is no cost to the volunteers or schools.

We train the volunteers in phonics and they listen to children reading on a one-to-one basis. The focus on phonics is welcomed by teachers. Our Summary of the main volunteers work mainly with 4 – 7 year-olds and increasingly with 7 – 11 activities undertaken for the year-olds, who are struggling with reading and literacy. public benefit in relation to these objects (include within Our charity offers inter-generational benefits with a number of our this section the statutory volunteers being retired. We also train some senior school children in declaration that trustees have phonics, who undertake charity placements in schools. had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Our Trustees are fully aware of the public benefit offered by our charity in Commission on public assisting children improve their reading prowess and hence their life skills benefit) and opportunities in the community. Our Trustees are forwarded relevant Charity Commission news and guidance on matters affecting our charity and the roles they undertake.

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Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

Investment:

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

policy on grantmaking;
policy programme related investment;
contribution made by volunteers.

The Norfolk Reading Project does not currently have an investment policy, but great care is taken to ensure that sufficient monies are held in a current account, with the rest invested in both accessible accounts receiving interest and short-term fixed interest accounts receiving higher rates of interest. Working with a financial advisor has been considered but not undertaken at present.

Contribution made by volunteers:

TNRP’s RSVs directly benefit the children they are supporting via the provision of one-to-one assistance with reading, and indirectly the schools, teaching staff, parents and the community.

Good literacy skills underpin all learning and success in later life. In Norfolk as many as 1 in 4 children leave Primary school unable to read and write adequately.

Working via our volunteers, our aims and objectives are to improve upon these disturbing statistics.

Section D Achievements and performance

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Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main This year, the Norfolk Reading Project has celebrated ten years of achievements of the charity working with children and their teachers to support struggling readers in during the year schools across Norfolk. TNRP was established in 2015 to help address the low levels of literacy in the county and in the last decade we have trained over 600 Reading Support Volunteers to listen to children read in over 100 primary schools in some of the most disadvantaged areas of Norwich and Norfolk. This support is as vital in 2025 as it was in 2015 and the requests from schools for volunteers continue to grow. Feedback from the schools has been very positive as they appreciate that not only are TNRP volunteers fully DBS checked but they have been trained in phonics so that they can help to support the reading methods used in school. Our trained volunteers work alongside teachers to provide opportunities for children to read with an adult outside of a busy classroom, building confidence, self-esteem and reading comprehension. Across the year July 1[st] 2024 to June 30[th] 2025 we held eight training sessions for new Reading Support Volunteers – seven in Town Close School in Norwich and a further session in Thetford Job Centre. We trained a total of 85 new volunteers during these sessions to support children in schools in their local communities. We also continue to offer training for young adults in the Sixth Form of both Norwich School and Thetford Grammar who will mentor primary age children in local schools. We have also offered training for two local businesses – Smith and Pinching and Hansells Solicitors so that they can provide Employer Supported Volunteers to their local schools. We continue to work with Norwich Community Foundation to promote Employer Supported Volunteering in local businesses and to provide support for local food hubs. We were involved in a presentation to the Nourishing Norfolk Network to establish connections with the food hubs for future training sessions. We have continued to develop a training webinar for both ESV and the staff in the food hubs - this should be available later in the year.

The National Centre for Writing is developing a new strategy to be launched later in the year and TNRP (along with many other creative educational partners) has been involved in conversations to help shape this bold new vision to make Norwich a city where reading, writing and their lifelong benefits are championed and accessible to all.

In addition to the training sessions for new volunteers , we have continued to offer a programme of workshops for our volunteers to support the work that they do in school. During the year we held three workshops which were all attended by over 50 of our volunteers.

SEND – Special Educational Needs and Disability workshop – Miriam Jones
Have Your Say! – A problem-solving workshop – Gillian Holland.
How to Get the Most Out of Your Volunteering workshop – Panel of Education Experts.

These events are fantastic opportunities for our volunteers to exchange ideas and to feel more confident and effective.

We are very fortunate to have received generous donations throughout the year from both individuals and organisations including Aylsham

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Section D Achievements and performance

Agricultural Show £250, Chelsea Square Trust £2,500 , Kumon £195, The Norwich Businesswomen’s Network £7,200 and The Order of Women’s Freemasons – Wroxham Branch £580. We would also like to thank the family and friends of Jenny Hawker, one of our much-loved volunteers who sadly passed away this year , for their generous donations.

We have again attended multiple events with small teams of willing volunteers manning our stand and newly acquired gazebo to promote our work and recruit more volunteers to join our growing team across the county. These events included – Norwich Book Festival, Aylsham Agricultural Show, Kumon Awards, Thetford Volunteers Fair, Voluntary Norfolk Event.

The Volunteer / Schools portal has been developed and will be launched in July 25. This has been a long process but should enable the charity to become more effective and to have improved communication with both the schools and volunteers. We would like to thank Colin Richardson and his team at BigFork for all their work on this project.

We have welcomed a new Trustee to our team – Joe Hedinger. Joe is a book seller at The Book Hive in Norwich – a local independent bookshop and brings both experience and enthusiasm. The Book Hive has offered to help TNRP to promote the work we do and to help us to secure a speaker for our 10[th] Anniversary event. We would like to offer our thanks for this support.

Future readers stem from a culture where reading environments for young children are nurtured. This is where children develop not only vital reading skills but the joy of being lost in a story where characters and adventures come to life. TNRP provides a crucial role in building these environments for children at a time when schools face increased financial pressures.

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Section E Financial review

Brief statement of the

charity’s policy on reserves

Restricted reserves are held until the appropriate purchases allocated to that grant or award are made. Unrestricted reserves are available to cover other charity expenditure and are invested as appropriate.

Details of any funds materially in deficit

Further financial review details (Optional information)

The Norfolk Reading Project’s current principal source of funds are monies and interest received from a legacy along with generous donations. In the past (and the future) we have / will undertake fundraising and have successfully applied for awards and grants.

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant about:

the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);

Expenditure supporting our key objectives:

All our expenditure works towards achieving our key objectives of
• how expenditure has providing trained RSVs to advance the literacy of children in school. supported the key objectives Expenditure in the previous year focussed on the development of the
of the charity; volunteer and school portal. During this current year considerable time
• investment policy and input was required by the committee and Trustees to ensure the objectives including any implementation in July 2025 was a successful as possible. This portal ethical investment policy will be very important to our effective management of volunteers and adopted. schools.

Our current investment policy is to maintain sufficient funds in our current account and to split the rest of our fund into easily accessible interest earning and higher interest earning fixed term accounts. We have considered working with a financial advisor, but currently we are not pursuing this route.

Section F Other optional information

This is an intergenerational project, with a number of our RSVs being retired. Our RSVs use their time to benefit young children struggling to read.

Lack of literacy skill has such a continuing knock-on effect in later life. It excludes people not only from learning and skills’ development, but also from better roles in the jobs market and ultimately from supporting their own children with reading.

Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s)

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Lesley Patricia Penniket Full name(s) Anne Thorley Position (eg Secretary, Chair, Chair Treasurer etc) Date 5 January 2026

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	The Norfolk Reading Project Charity Name	The Norfolk Reading Project Charity Name	The Norfolk Reading Project Charity Name	1176987 No (if any)	CC16a
	For the period from	1-Jul-24 Period start date	To	30-Jun-25 Period end date

Section A Receipts and payments
A1 Receipts	Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ 12,187 - 4,420 - - - - - 16,607 - - - 16,607 1,124 2,335 1,266 777 334 1,076 - 454 118 7,484 999 919 1,918 9,402 7,205 - 106,367 113,572	Restricted funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -	Endowment funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -	Total funds to the nearest £ 12,187 - 4,420 - - - - - 16,607 - - - 16,607 1,124 2,335 1,266 777 334 1,076 - 454 118 7,484 999 919 1,918 9,402 7,205	Last year to the nearest £
Donations	12,187				3,645
Legacy	-				40,000
Bank interest	4,420				1,442
	-				-
	-				-
	-				-
	-				-
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*Sub total*(Gross income for AR)	16,607				45,087

A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).
	-
	-				-
~~*Sub total*~~	-				-
*Total receipts* A3 Payments
					45,087

DBS Checks	1,124				1,310
Books and reading aids	2,335				658
Venue costs	1,266				567
Printing, postage and stationery	777				704
IT	334				13,632
Advertising	1,076				1,061
Professional costs	-				440
Insurance	454				-
Bank charges and Sundry	118				61
**Sub total **	7,484				18,433

A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)
Apple MacBook Air	999				-
Event Branding Gazebo	919				-
**Sub total **	1,918				-
*Total payments* *Net of receipts/(payments)* A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end *Cash funds this year end*
					18,433

	7,205	-	-	7,205	26,654
	-	-	-	-	-
	106,367	-	-	106,367	79,713
	113,572	-	-	113,572	106,367

CCXX R1 accounts (SS)

1/7/2026

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets	Signature Details Details 4.11.24 Apple MacBook Air 22.4.25 Event Branding Gazebo HSBC A/C 41315102 Saffron B Soc A/C 105505612 Nationwide B Soc A/C 90232187 £30,000 Redwood Bank A/C 80198617 £50,000 Details Details *Total cash funds* (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Details	Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ 3,210 - 30,362 - 80,000 - 113,572 - OK OK Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) Unrestricted 999 Unrestricted 919 - - - - - - - Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) - - - - - Print Name ANNE THORLEY, CHAIR LESLEY PENNIKET, TREASURER	Endowment funds to nearest £
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			OK
			Endowment funds to nearest £
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			-
			-
			-
			-
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			Current value (optional)
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			Current value (optional)
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			When due (optional)






			Date of approval
		ANNE THORLEY, CHAIR	5 January 2026
		LESLEY PENNIKET, TREASURER	5 January 2026

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

1/7/2026