Huge thanks to the brilliant @oxfordclarion.bsky.social for featuring us as a long read this week- please do have a look to find out more about what we do here at ARCh and how you can join us in supporting children all over Oxfordshire 📚

Across Oxfordshire a small army of volunteers help children find joy in reading. In this guest post from Emma Orton of ARCh Oxfordshire, we find out more. oxfordclarion.uk/arch-oxfords...

📚💛 Children’s Mental Health Week 2026 💛📚 At ARCh, our 1:1 reading sessions support children’s mental health by building connections and making them feel valued and seen. "This is my place"- reading, confidence and wellbeing grow together. #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek #NationalYearOfReading2026

“Books have the power to carry you through life.” At ARCh, we help children who don’t see themselves as readers build confidence and belief. Short, fun books help make reading possible for every child! #Readingforpleasure #NationalYearofReading #Oxfordshire www.theguardian.com/books/2026/f...

We are so grateful to Fortitude Communications for this brilliant book donation appeal- launched in conjunction with #NationalStorytellingWeek! Any books donated will go directly into supporting children with our reading sessions. Thank you so much! www.fortitudecommunications.com/blog/book-do...

We are so incredibly grateful to the Bicester Town Football Club Golf Society for this amazing donation! This will make a huge difference to the children we support and will genuinely go towards changing children's lives through the power of reading. Thank you so much to everyone who raised funds!

Are you looking for your #Charity of the Year for 2026? Partner with us to support children all across Oxfordshire who are struggling with reading, confidence and wellbeing. As part of the #NationalYearofReading, you can help us make a genuine difference to the lives of children locally!

Thank you to #BicesterMethodistChurch for this amazing donation of games! Games are such an important part of what we do here at ARCh and help children raise their self-esteem, confidence and of course, have fun! This will make a genuine different to the children we support- thank you! #Bicester

#Banbury Book Exchange this morning- a chance to meet other ARCh volunteers, catch up with your Field Worker, and browse through a selection of books and games for your in school sessions. The perfect time to refresh your Book Box! #volunteering #oxfordshire #nyr2026 #readingforpleasure

We enjoyed this blog from the NLT about how comic books are key element in supporting children's literacy- we love a graphic novel here at ARCh! Graphic novels shine in 1:1 reading sessions, boosting confidence and helping children enjoy reading. Have a read here literacytrust.org.uk/blog/unlocki...

Good people of #Thame #Oxfordshire! We're excited to be a part of the Thame Volunteer Fair on Saturday in Thame Town Hall- do come along between 10am and 2pm if you'd like to find out more about #volunteering opportunities in the area! @tvchamber.bsky.social @thametheatre.bsky.social

Anyone else attend the #NationalYearofReading launch webinar yesterday? A fantastic hour packed with ideas, enthusiasm and passion all about making 2026 the year the nation falls in love with reading once again! Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT5m... Thank you to #NationalLiteracyTrust #GoAllIn

As a charity we support children, but actually a lot of our staffs work is about supporting our Volunteers, so today we attended the MHFA “Mental Health Aware” course to enable us to support our amazing ARCh volunteers if needed. Thank you to Oxfordshire Mind for organising! #MHFA #MentalHealth

People of #Witney #WestOxfordshire- we will be at Witney Business and Innovation Centre next Monday 19th January to share info about ARCh and what we're doing to celebrate the #NationalYearOfReading. If you'd like to find out about #volunteering #donations or #fundraising for us please come along!

Great to have the team back together yesterday for our first team meeting of 2026- lots of exciting discussion around the #NationalYearofReading and of course, all about our wonderful #volunteers and their reading sessions! Looking forward to 2026 and everything that is to come! #Oxfordshire #NYR

5 things you need to know about the National Year of Reading- we obviously love number 4! Volunteering is at the heart of everything we do and we need more volunteers than ever this year in as many schools in Oxfordshire as possible. Please do join us if you can! literacytrust.org.uk/blog/5-thing...

We're looking forward to being a part of the Witney Volunteer Fair on January 22nd! Come along to find out more about what we do and how you can volunteer with us to celebrate the #NationalYearofReading! #Witney #Oxfordshire #Volunteering #WestOxfordshire

It's here! We are so excited here at ARCh about the National Year of Reading and all that is to come in 2026. If you want to be a part of it, please get in touch to see how you can support us in inspiring children all across Oxfordshire to fall in love with reading and change their lives forever 📚

Our first Team Meeting of the year! Wonderful to have everyone back together to kick off the 2025-2026 academic year. Our Reading Helpers are back in school and our Happy Reading sessions are in full swing. There’s lots of exciting things to come this school year- watch this space!

Emma has been interviewed this morning by WRFM about the work we do here at ARCh and how people can get involved- keep an eye out for the on-air time! In the meantime, we can't recommend WRFM enough as a local radio station connecting the Oxfordshire community. Check it out: www.wrfm.co.uk

We’re hiring! Are you looking for a part time, term time only role in Bicester? Come and join the team here at ARCh 📚⭐️

We were delighted to be joined by the High Sheriff of Oxfordshire John May to celebrate our Volunteers at our Summer Volunteer celebration! www.banburyguardian.co.uk/community/ar...

We had a fantastic day last week engaging with families in Banbury!

Fantastic day today at Banbury Playday! A brilliant turnout and great to see so many amazing organisations within the #Banbury community. We gave away a whole box of books for free to children- happy reading for all! Thanks to for having us @cherwellcouncil.bsky.social

Monday morning! Some of the schools we support have finished for summer, and some of our schools are still going until Wednesday. If you've finished, enjoy the first day of the summer holidays!😴 If you're still going, you're so close to being done- you can do it! 👏

Want to find out more about volunteering here at ARCh? Join us for an information webinar on Monday at either 1pm or 6pm. Sign up here: forms.office.com/e/MpbjnwZUm1 #banbury #oxford #witney #bicester #cherwell #thame #abingdon #didcot #carterton #oxfordshire #eastoxford #southoxford #northoxford

Want to find out more about volunteering here at ARCh? Join us for an information webinar on Monday at either 1pm or 6pm. Sign up here: forms.office.com/e/MpbjnwZUm1 @oxfordcitycouncil.bsky.social @cherwellcouncil.bsky.social @laylamoran.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk reposts appreciated! #oxfordshire

Want to find out more about volunteering here at ARCh? Join us for an information webinar on Monday at either 1pm or 6pm. Sign up here: forms.office.com/e/MpbjnwZUm1 @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social @thebanburian.bsky.social @calummillerld.bsky.social @bbcoxford.bsky.social reposts appreciated!

Want to find out more about volunteering here at ARCh? Join us for an information webinar on Monday at either 1pm or 6pm. Sign up here: forms.office.com/e/MpbjnwZUm1 @oxfordclarion.bsky.social @theoxfordmail.bsky.social @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social @ollyglover.bsky.social reposts appreciated!

Our Office is open to celebrate #VolunteersWeek! Come in and chat to us about what we do whilst enjoying some cake!

It's a Bank Holiday weekend- what are you #reading? We're enjoying a new selection of books around #diversity and #inclusion, soon to be out in schools in our Reading sessions! We'd love to hear if you have any book recommendations! Fingers crossed for a sunny #bankholiday!

A lovely morning at #TemplarsSquare with some of our #Oxford volunteers! Our Coffee Mornings are a great way to connect with each other and meet new friends. #ARCh is so much more than just your in school reading sessions- if you’d like to join our ARCh family please do get in touch! #volunteering

1 in 2 people don’t regularly read for pleasure. We want to change this by encouraging everyone to read a book today to celebrate World Book Night from @readingagency.bsky.social What are you reading today? #WorldBookNight

We are delighted to this month’s charity partner with Oxford City Football Club and to be a part of the match day programme here today! We’re having a fabulous Easter Monday talking to the community and spreading the word of all we do here at ARCh. #OxfordCityFootballClub #Oxford #Volunteering #OCFC

People of #oxfordshire we need you! If you could give a little time each week to support children with reading, please get in touch. You can genuinely change a child's life with as little as one hour a week! #volunteering #banbury #witney #didcot #berinsfield #oxford #abingdon #bicester

People of #oxfordshire we need you! If you could give a little time each week to support children with reading, please get in touch. You can genuinely change a child's life with as little as one hour a week! #volunteering

The declining Literacy rates of children across the UK is a problem we all need to work together to solve. We discussed what we're doing at ARCh to combat the declining Literacy rates and bring a love of reading back to children in #Oxfordshire listen here, 1 hr20 mins. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

The Easter holidays are here, so I have a copy of Primary Reading Simplified to give away. Just **repost** this post to have a chance to win. The winner will be selected 19th April.

On Monday evening our CEOs were delighted to attend the celebration event of The Didcot Powerhouse Fund. We are so grateful to be recipients of funding from the DPF, helping us to support children across Didcot. Find out more here! www.didcotpowerhousefund.co.uk #Didcot #Oxfordshire

Our Recruitment Officer Emma gave our 100+ volunteers some excellent CPD on #oracy yesterday, and tips and ideas for activities to use in our Reading sessions to help improve the oracy of the children we're working with. If you'd like to find out more, please get in touch!

ARCh has one simple mission- to improve the lives of children across Oxfordshire through reading. If you'd like to be a part of our journey and make a genuine difference to the lives of children in your local community, please get in touch! #ReadingMatters #VolunteerWithARCh #VolunteerOxfordshire

Happy #internationaldayofhappiness from all of us here at ARCh! We've got a day of happy reading sessions in school then off to London this evening for the #charityfilmawards where our video is a finalist. We hope the sunshine is bringing some happiness to your day today!

We've received funding to improve the diversity of our book selection so I've been having great fun putting together my dream shopping list of books! Are there any titles you'd really recommend for primary school children around diversity, inclusion and equality? #diversity #inclusion #equality

It's Friday! Another week with an excellent issue of the @oxfordclarion.bsky.social. We highly recommend anyone in Oxfordshire subscribing- great local news and information, and something to interest everyone. Really enjoy reading it every week!

We're finding the need for explicit Oracy teaching more and more prevalent in schools. Do you have any top tips for using oracy in your lessons? We'd love to share tips with our volunteers for their 1:1 reading sessions! #oracy @oracycommission.bsky.social www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Happy World Book Day! At our recent Volunteer Meeting, we asked ARCh Patron Korky Paul, Chip Colquhoun and Mario Coelho about why reading is so important. Our mission in ARCh is simple- to inspire children all across Oxfordshire to learn to love reading! #worldbookday #worldbookday2025 #readyourway

There are some incredible books on this list- "Journey" by Aaron Becker proves itself time and time again as an incredible wordless picture book! Is there anything on this list you'd recommend?

Happy Friday! We're so close to March we can almost feel the spring sunshine... What's on your TBR pile for March? We're looking forward to some of the books on this list, and of course March brings the highlight of the literary year in primary schools-World Book Day! uk.bookshop.org/lists/childr...

We are delighted to be finalists in this year's Smiley Charity Film Awards! 🏆 Our video can be viewed here and shows the real impact our incredible volunteers have on children: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4xG... Find out more about the Smiley Charity Film Awards here: smileycharityfilmawards.com

We are lucky enough to work with students from Oxford University, Oxford Brookes and from across Sixth Forms in Oxfordshire- a very happy Student Volunteering Week to all volunteers! #studentvolunteeringweek