Bluecoat celebrates ten years of Baby Book Club

For a decade the Bluecoat has hosted Baby Book Club, a six week course that is designed to encourage parents and carers to read with their babies from as early as 3 months old.

Baby Book Club began in 2014 through the Bluecoat’s Participation team who commissioned artist and educator Roger Hill to develop and lead the course.

This innovative course, which has evolved over the years, was designed to give parents and carers the skills and techniques they need to encourage their babies to engage with books.

Roger said:

“Statistics show that introducing babies to books in their infancy makes them more confident and communicative in later life, positively affects their physical health and ability to pay attention and makes them ready to learn when they start school. They also have the capacity never to be bored.”

Not only does the course positively impact a baby’s development, it also provides an opportunity for parents and carers, who are often attending the course new to the role of parenting, get together, make new friends, feel less alone and connect with others at a similar stage in their life.

Since its inception, Baby Book Club has run 21 times at the Bluecoat and welcomed over 200 parents and carers, with their babies. We asked previous attendees to share some of their favourite moments and thoughts from their time at Baby Book Club.

One mum said:

“We really loved the space, the vibe, the focus on parents rather than babies. It’s a course for us really and I love that.”

Another parent said:

“I am so pleased I found this course. It is unlike everything else I’ve found out there, I felt it was educational for me as a parent.”

Attendees said they learnt many techniques and skills, but most of all felt Baby Book Club helped them not be afraid to be silly, and to fully embrace different storytelling techniques that really worked to engage their babies with books.

All the parents and carers we asked said their children still love reading, even 6 or 7 years after finishing Baby Book Club. A testament to the tag line ‘… a love of books that will last a lifetime.’

Roger said:

“It was never about teaching reading […] it’s a course about helping babies to develop language skills through a love of books.”

Some newer elements of the course have been particularly popular with attendees, including story-ideas to use when a book isn’t to hand, finding the right books for bedtime and books to grow older. Roger, and the team at the Bluecoat, always welcome feedback from attendees, and continuously seek to improve the course.

The Bluecoat has also received generous support from the PH Holt Foundation to run a series of outreach sessions in venues across the city and offer bursary places on our city centre course. Throughout January 2025, Roger and staff from the Bluecoat will run an outreach course at Leamington Community Primary School in Norris Green, enabling parents and carers who may struggle to travel to the city centre to access the book club locally.

The popular course at the Bluecoat is still going strong, with a new Baby Book Club starting on Thursday 27th February – Thursday 3rd April, 10.30-11.30am for just £48 for the six weeks.

The Bluecoat are hosting a free taster session to give parents and carers the chance to try the course before committing to the full six weeks on Thursday 6th February, 10.30-11.30am.