School benefits from reading volunteers
Sarah Willis, director, Reading Matters for Life
 

Sarah Willis, director of Reading Matters for Life, talks to Chris Thompson and Sue Horsley, deputy headteachers at Hanson School, Bradford, where Reading Matters for Life volunteers have been working with pupils since January 2000.

There are many children entering key stage 3 who, though they can read simple text, are not capable of reading with sufficient fluency or enough understanding to learn effectively from the classroom materials they are given. For these pupils secondary education, with its increasing assumption of reading expertise across a wide range of text-types, is a frustrating experience. As a group they have higher levels of absence, truancy and exclusion than their peers.

Reading Matters for Life (RMfL) is a charity set up to help address this issue. RMfL recruits and trains volunteers to work in secondary schools in one-to-one partnerships with pupils who have reading difficulties. The volunteer's training is accredited to Open College Network level 3 and encompasses the legal requirements of the National Curriculum, pupils' past reading experiences, cueing strategies, miscue analysis and running records as well as practical ways to improve reading performance.

There are now projects in seven LEAs, including Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham, with 200 volunteers working with 1,200 pupils a year across 70 secondary schools. In the longer term we have plans to expand nationally and are opening two new branches per year.

Currently working in partnership with RMfL is Hanson School in Bradford. Hanson, sited in a local authority housing estate, has over 2,000 pupils of which 11% are from an ethnic minority background and 10% are on the free school meals register.

Chris Thompson explained that there had always been a recognition that some students in every cohort would need help with reading and traditionally they had withdrawn pupils from class to use a computer-based reading scheme. Using RMfL trained volunteers has allowed them to include more students and more particularly to target those students who do not have special needs status and yet are still struggling to cope. "Funding for the project comes from that pot set aside for whole school projects because this clearly benefits the whole school . It (the project) was also agreed at a Faculty Heads meeting so everyone in the school knows about it, so no one's going to say, 'this pupil's not going out of a history lesson'."

Chris felt strongly that cost (£75 per pupil) was just not an issue - "it was small in the scheme of things" - although he did have to put some time into finding the money and setting up a system for coordinating the volunteers in school. He also has regular meetings with volunteers to make sure that everything is working smoothly. His view is that "nothing works in school unless you put some effort into it."

Sue Horslcy explained the benefits of using volunteer support: "Students' reading ages have increased and boys, particularly, have benefited from the increases in self-esteem. To be chosen to read with a volunteer is seen as something special in a very positive way. We are also keen to broaden involvement with the local community. Traditionally secondary schools have been seen as scary places and haven't attracted volunteers - this is an opportunity to change that."

The evidence is that RMfL volunteers make a difference. Their pupil partners make substantial progress. Researchers from Bradford University found that the average pupil makes a year's gain in reading age after 10 weeks of working with a RMfL trained volunteer and 68% of the teachers involved in RMfL felt their pupils made outstanding gains. Perhaps more importantly, pupils begin to believe in themselves as readers. Their confidence improves, behaviour in lessons improves, attendance improves. Sue Horsley's view is that the greatest benefit to the school from working with RMfL is the boost to pupils' confidence. It seems appropriate that the last word in this article should come from one of the Hanson School pupils involved in the project: "Now I always put my hand up in English when we are reading".
 
 

For further information contact Sarah Willis on 01274 372200 or visit http://www.readingmatters.org.uk/

 
Subscribe to Literacy Today