THERE are lots of new stories to read at seven schools in Leigh's Education Action Zone.

It's all part of a new initiative dubbed StoryBags, designed as an aid to raising standards of achievement in reading.

The EAZ-funded bags, of which 70 are ready, include a fiction and non-fiction book, tape, toy, puppet or game and parent prompt card.

They have been made by staff and parents at Leigh schools, St John's Infants, St Peter's Infants, Newton West Park, Leigh CE Infants, St Paul's and Westleigh Methodists and Two Porches at Atherton.

The bags are used in the school literacy hour and can then be taken home for use with parents.

St John's, recently named a Beacon school, has taken the programme one stage further by buying portable tape recorders for pupils to use at home. TOP TALES: A new scheme is encouraging children to read more, and it's working!