How we Aced the One Million Minutes Challenge

Between 30th of October and 10th of November 2023, Read Manchester and Read for Good joined together to challenge Manchester to read for One Million Minutes!

Instead of a sponsored readathon, we took up a group challenge to read for One Million Minutes. All minutes of reading could be logged – either by using Read for Good’s free online tool, Track My Read® or by simply logging minutes on paper the old-fashioned way and sending them in to us.

The invitation to take part was extended to all schools and organisations, with some school rivalry also encouraged to see which school might record the most minutes! If we reached our target we would ‘unlock’ 10 book boxes for community groups, which would be nominated by the top reading schools and organisations. We would also unlock an extra day of storytelling for children in the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital with Read for Good’s regular storyteller.

Did we meet our target of one million minutes? We more than doubled it (we are nothing if not ambitious in Manchester!) When all the minutes were in and counted, Manchester readers had totted up 2,002,510 minutes overall!

Schools, Sure Start Children’s Centres, libraries, storytime parents, Read Manchester literacy champions, Manchester City of Literature, and many more joined in to help us reach the target. Some Year 9 pupils at Chorlton High School even decided to do a 24-hour readathon.

Wilbraham Primary School said: ‘It was a really good focus for the children and made them realise just how much reading we all actually do… It was also nice that the children were reading for books for others and not for personal gain’

St Margaret Mary’s Primary School said: ‘It was also great to be part of something bigger than our school. We shared it as a challenge so the older children were more competitive and wanted to compete across classes and against each other’.

‘The families enjoyed taking part particularly as they knew the aim was to support families in Manchester and those in the children’s hospital’. Sure Start Children’s Centre feedback

Thanks also to the wonderful authors who sent messages of support – Matt Goodfellow, Sue Pickford Cheung, A. M. Dassu, Emma Reynolds, and Daniel Dockery.

Did you know?

The young patients at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital in the centre of Manchester have been benefiting from a regular supply of books and storyteller visits from Read for Good since 2014. Manchester is one of the UK’s biggest and busiest hospitals, and Read for Good has delivered nearly 15,000 incredible, brand new books to the hospital since launching. Books play a vital role in improving the experience of a child in hospital – providing escape and distraction, comfort and reassurance.