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Reading Matters recruits, trains, places and supports volunteer
reading partners to work one-to-one with 11 to 16-year-olds who
are struggling with their reading. The two work together twice a
week, for half and hour each time, in school but outside the classroom.
The pupil-partners are selected by the schools.
The volunteers
Volunteers come from the community and local companies; they are
interviewed and receive two days' intensive, accredited training.
This is delivered with the support of the local authority (LA);
school staff also have the opportunity to attend. The volunteers
then work with two pupils at a time, so that the total commitment
is one hour twice a week for three terms, each of which is ten weeks
long. During this time they are supported with regular contact from
Reading Matters, visits, materials and top-up training, and their
travel expenses are met. They can choose to take their accreditation
to Open College Network Level 3.
Scope of the work
Reading Matters works in 90 secondary schools from 11 LAs in Yorkshire,
Manchester and Birmingham, and has 240 volunteers working with 1500
pupils a year. It hopes to expand into the Midlands and the South
East. In Sheffield Reading Matters is running "Parents as Partners"
courses (see link to Sheffield case study below),
and training Key Stage 4 pupils to work as partners with children
lower down the school, after a term of support from a reading partner
of their own. Reading Matters is also piloting a project with children
in public care, who are chosen by their schools but supported in
their home environment.
Results of Reading Matters
Work is evaluated through 'before and after' testing for each pupil,
as well as through feedback from volunteers and schools. The average
pupil gains eight months in reading age after ten weeks of the intervention.
According to teacher assessments, pupils also make substantial improvements
in self-esteem and confidence, along with their attitude to reading,
reading performance, motivation and speech and language. Staff believe
that the well-trained and supported volunteers are crucial to the
children's success. Leeds Metropolitan University has conducted
an external evaluation of the programme (see links at the top of
this page), and another of Reading Matters's projects, the Cheer
project, conducted its own evaluation.
Funding
Each volunteer costs around £650 per year to recruit, train
and support. Schools pay a contribution towards this, and other
costs are met by a combination of donations and grants from charitable
trusts, businesses and government. LAs give in-kind support, including
office space, and the central office space is provided by Yorkshire
Water.
Background to the project
The Cheer Project is run by a partnership of Reading Matters and Volunteer
Reading Help (VRH), with funding from Leeds Children's Fund. This
report covers its first phase of six terms (April 2002-March 2004).
Its broad aim was to "improve educational performance among
children and young people aged five to 13" through the recruitment
and placement of volunteers in primary and high schools. It focused
on schools in deprived areas and aimed to encourage participation
from pupils from black and minority ethnic (BME), Traveller, refugee
and asylum seeker backgrounds, and those who were excluded from
school or at risk of exclusion, as well as from parents as volunteers.
123 volunteers and 522 children from 30 schools took part in the
project. The schools selected children whom they thought would benefit
from the extra attention. 23% of the children taking part were from
BME backgrounds, 32% had special needs and 9% were excluded or at
risk of exclusion.
Results of the project
A survey with a 25% response rate showed that 98% of children demonstrated
progress in basic literacy and confidence, with over 50% making
significant progress. However, fewer parent volunteers and children
from Traveller, refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds were recruited
than were hoped for. This was partly because some Traveller children
moved out of the area, while most of the Traveller pupils in high
school were not thought to be in need of help; conversely, some
asylum seekers and refugee pupils were in need of more literacy
support than the volunteers were able to give, and were receiving
this through other means. Two volunteers were trained specifically
to work with excluded pupils and built a good relationship with
these pupils, resulting in an improvement in their attendance on
project days.
Volunteers were recruited through the local media, links with businesses,
exhibition stands, talks at a community college and displays in
libraries. Their efforts were recognised with a celebration event
at the Civic Hall. 19% of the volunteers joined the programme as
a means of gaining experience before entering the job market or
training, and the same number left the programme to enter employment.
The information sharing that took place as a result of the project
also meant that Cheer was able to place two volunteers in breakfast
clubs.
The report concludes that both the project and the partnership
between Reading Matters and VRH were very successful and that the project should
be extended to explore new ways of recruiting parents and develop
contacts with the Travellers Educational Service and Social Services
(to discuss support for children in care). An official partnership
has been established nationally between Reading Matters and VRH as a result
of the project.
Quote from a volunteer:
"As for me, I am a Gypsy who has never been to school
and I am only delighted that I am able to help other children and
give them something I never had."
C. Thompson, Centre for Educational Research, Leeds Metropolitan University,
July 2004
This is a small-scale evaluation of Reading Matters, carried out in the school
year 2003-2004. It looked at data on 146 children, through monitoring
forms received from 16 schools. These forms included the children's
reading ages before and after the Reading Matters intervention, and some personal
characteristics such as school year and ethnic background. Teachers
and volunteers were also asked to score the pupils on their attitude
to reading, confidence and motivation after involvement in the programme.
Some key findings
- 78.9% of pupils increased in reading age over the course of
the programme, with an average gain of eight months for girls
and six months for boys; however, 12.2% decreased in reading age.
- There is a clear difference in attainment between school years,
with average increases in reading age as follows - Year 7: 9 months;
Year 8: 11 months; Year 9: 2 months; Year 10: no change.
- There were also interesting differences in attainment depending
on pupils' ethnic groups, with average increases as follows -
White British (78.8% of total pupils): 9 months; Pakistani (7.5%):
14 months; Caribbean (3.4%): 16 months.
- Pupils who had English as an additional language (8.9%) made
an average gain of 13 months.
- Pupils who had special educational needs (25.4%) also made an
average gain of 13 months.
- Pupils who had only a small increase or even a decrease in reading
age were often judged to have made an "outstanding improvement"
in their attitude to reading.
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