Reading Matters travels to The Hague to train international Reading Leaders
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We were delighted to return to The International School of The Hague in the Netherlands recently to train a group of their sixth form pupils to be Reading Leaders.
The pupils, all currently in year 12, who took part in the training day spoke multiple languages. The school has students with a wide variety of nationalities and first languages and intends to use its newly trained Reading Leaders to support the reading development of primary pupils who are currently less confident with English.
Reading Leaders are older pupils trained to become reading role models for younger children and support their reading development in regular one-to-one sessions. The training is available in both secondary and primary schools and young people aged 14 and over can gain a level two accreditation in recognition of their valuable work. The programme improves the literacy skills and confidence of children on both sides of the partnership and encourages the older child to use initiative, be organised and enjoy helping others. Children who have been supported by a Reading Leader benefit from an average improvement in reading age of 13 months and from raised self-esteem.
The feedback from the training was really positive. One student said “Thank you for coming all this way to train us, I am really excited now and eager to get started as a Reading Leader and put to use everything that I have learnt today”.
Contact us today to find out how you could use Reading Leaders to support reading development in your school.
Reading Leaders in more schools thanks to new grants
Since the start of the new academic year we have received some fantastic support for our Reading Leaders programme from several grant making trusts and foundations who recognise the value of the scheme which trains older pupils to support younger ones with reading.
The Scurrah Wainright Charity is supporting Reading Leaders programmes in the Yorkshire area. The Prince of Wales’ Charitable Foundation is helping us to train more Reading Leaders nationwide and the James Neil Trust is funding Reading Leaders training in a Sheffield school.
We are extremely grateful to each of these funders for their crucial support which enables us to improve the reading skills of children and young people and change their lives for the better.
Help us to find Bradford’s Young War Poet
We are excited to be working in partnership with Kirkgate Shopping in Bradford to help find this year’s ‘Young War Poet’. The poetry competition, which encourages children to read about war history and write an original poem on the topic of war, was launched on the 9th of September and will be judged by well-known spoken word artist, writer and author Anthony Anaxagorou.
All entries should be sent to press@kirkgateshopping.co.uk before the 1st of November 2017. The three winning entrants will perform their poem live at the shopping centre on Armistice Day, Saturday the 11th of November, beside the Royal British Legion. Prizes include an iPad, tickets to see War Horse at the Alhambra Theatre and Kirkgate Shopping vouchers.
Rachel Kelly, Reading Matters’ Chief Executive commented, “Last year in England over 63,000 children left primary school unable to read to the expected level so we really appreciate Kirkgate Shopping’s commitment to this competition which recognises the importance of literacy.”
Ilkley Literature Festival starts tomorrow
It’s that time of year again, when the summer is over and you need something to look forward to, so thank goodness for Ilkley Literature Festival! The largest literature festival in the north runs from Friday the 29th of September until Sunday the 15th of October with a packed programme of over 250 events including Alan Bennett, Sarah Millican, Richard Osman, Shami Chakrabarti, Judy Murray, Richard Dawkins and many more!
The Children’s Festival is headlined by BBC Radio 1’s Greg James and Chris Smith and includes fantastic events for anyone ages 3-12 including Ben Faulks, Nadia Shireen, Robin Stevens and Festival favourites tutti frutti. Young People have the chance to meet some of their favourite authors including Alex Wheatle and Samantha Shannon. Plus there are workshops and masterclasses with leading writers and the Festival Fringe. Follow this link for full details of all the festival’s events.
Happy Reading!
From the team at Reading Matters
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