Bonnier Books UK and kids’ audio player company, Yoto, are delighted to announce the launch of a new literacy initiative in UK schools.
The Start with a Story programme aims to encourage a love of stories and storytelling in primary school children through writing, recording and listening to audiobooks. The idea for the scheme came from both companies’ core belief in the value that audiobooks have in promoting literacy and a lifelong love of books.
Working within the curriculum for Years 1-6, the Start with a Story programme encourages pupils to write stories which are then recorded by the Bonnier Books UK audio team. These stories are then edited and soundscaped into an audiobook which are uploaded onto Yoto audio cards. The card and a new Yoto Player are then donated to the school library. In addition, each school receives other Bonnier Books UK audio cards from Yoto together with the physical books, to encourage children to listen and follow along reading the words at the same time.
Following a successful pilot with Wimbledon Chase Primary School in south west London, the scheme has been rolled out at selected schools across the country in 2025.
Trade Audio & Business Development Director at Bonnier Books UK, Jon Watt said: “We are enormously proud to be partnering with Yoto on the Start with a Story initiative. The idea for this collaboration evolved from our passionate support for children’s literacy and our belief in the important role that audio can play in encouraging children to enjoy storytelling in all its forms. We are looking forward to working with Yoto to roll out this project more widely in 2026.”
Jess Tarrant, Content Director at Yoto, commented: “This partnership with Bonnier Books UK is all about making stories accessible and engaging for young listeners, so it’s been wonderful to see how the children have been getting really stuck in to the ‘Start With a Story’ project and taking enormous pride in what they’ve been producing. At Yoto we firmly believe that giving children a voice in storytelling helps to spark a lifelong love for literacy.”
National Literacy Trust 2024 findings on listening habits, based on its Annual Literacy Survey data, found that 37.5% of children agreed that listening to an audiobook had sparked an interest in reading. 43.4% of boys said they enjoyed listening to audio, while over half of children and young people said that listening to an audiobook helped their mental wellbeing when feeling stressed or anxious.
Joanne Ruffle, Assistant Head from Wimbledon Chase Primary School in London added: “The children at Wimbledon Chase Primary School thoroughly enjoyed recording their parts of the story. It was an empowering experience, even for some of our youngest learners. When they heard themselves on the Yoto player they were full of pride. The children’s enthusiasm shone through as we listened to the story of the Little Red Hen, making this a truly memorable project for everyone involved.”
Charlotte Kirkpatrick, Literacy Lead, Michael-Syddall Primary School, North Yorkshire, said: “I just wanted to email and say thank you SO MUCH for all your work on our audio books as part of the Start with a Story Programme. What a brilliant way to get children excited about their writing and interested in audio books. We played your audiobooks yesterday in assembly as part of our World Book Day celebrations and the children had the biggest smiles on their faces. Joan who was one of the winners says: “Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to do this!” and Maciie, who won the other competition, wanted to tell you how happy she was to be a published audiobook author! We are looking forward to using our new Yoto player in our school library and further encouraging a love of reading and books across school. Thank you again for allowing our school to be part of such a fantastic project.”
Jenny Murphy, Deputy Head, West Green Primary School, London, added: “We have loved being part of the ‘Start with a Story’ project. Our Year 2 children had a wonderful time learning and recording their class story. They developed their confidence and performance skills, using fantastic expression, as they experienced what it was like to be a real audiobook narrator! Children across the school also enjoyed the project by entering into the short story competition. This created such a buzz across the school; children were spending breaktimes writing and talking about their story ideas. They produced some fantastic entries and were really inspired to develop and practise their writing skills. We are so grateful to have been part of this special project which helped us to promote a love of reading and writing and listening (in a really exciting and unique way) across our school.”
