28 Mar BECOME A SCHOOLREADERS VOLUNTEER IN ESSEX
National children’s literacy charity, Schoolreaders is urgently looking for volunteers to step forward to help primary school children in Essex who need help to catch up on their reading.
The charity is supporting the Essex Year of Reading where the County Council has set up a taskforce to tackle the challenge of improving reading levels across the county. Like Schoolreaders, the council has the ambition of ensuring that every Essex child leaves primary school able to read at their age level or better. Currently, 1 in 4 children in the UK leave primary school every year unable to read to the required standard1.
Schoolreaders, which matches volunteers to primary schools to listen to children read, needs more volunteers in Grays, Brentwood, Basildon, Chelmsford, Southend, Clacton, Colchester, Dagenham, Harwich, Rochford and Maldon, to help those most disadvantaged following the disruption caused by the Covid pandemic.
Schoolreaders volunteers are asked to listen to children read a minimum of once a week in term time and to commit to an academic year. By applying now, new volunteers will be matched as quickly as possible to a partner school and be ready to start once they have completed a mandatory DBS check and virtual safeguarding training.
Retiree, Carol Gardner, who volunteers for Schoolreaders in Clacton-on-Sea says, “I’m aware that lots of children don’t read these days due to screens and I wanted to try to make a difference. Some of those I listen to don’t read at home or have stories read to them.
“I listen to seven and eight year olds (Year 2) once a week on a Thursday. I look forward to going into my school and hearing the children read and what they have to say week to week. I’d recommend getting involved to anyone!”
Jean Jennings, a Schoolreaders volunteer from Colchester, adds “I used to be a special needs teacher before I retired and have always enjoyed being around children! I love reading and I want to encourage children to like it too! If you can read, it opens the doors to so many other things.”
Jane Whitbread, founder of Schoolreaders, comments, “Children who leave primary school unable to read well can’t access their secondary schooling fully which is likely to negatively affect their life chances. Poor reading skills hinders such simple things as reading instructions, understanding a medicine label or accessing information over the internet which so many of us take for granted.
“Being one of our volunteers is a very positive thing to do and a way individuals can do their bit to help children in their communities, providing a crucial supplement to classroom teaching.”
On the theme of reading, Schoolreaders has just launched Race for Reading, an 80 day virtual round the world challenge running from March 31st to June 19th 2022. Teams and individuals need to set a distance and commit to walk, run, cycle or swim (any mode of exercise counts!) to help cover the distance around the world – 25,000 miles, following in the footsteps of legendary fictional explorer Phileas Fogg. Every step taken and pound raised will enable Schoolreaders to recruit more volunteers to help children nationwide catch up on their reading. Find out more at Race for Reading.
To apply today to be a Schoolreaders volunteer in Essex visit Schoolreaders.org
