Words by Smiley Team
Despite tens of thousands of commuters heading back to the office, there are still many finding time in their day to volunteer online as part of a national drive to help children catch up with their reading.
Pre-pandemic, each year, eight children in an average primary school class left primary school unable to read well, and over 380,000 children in the UK said that they don’t have a single book of their own.
Now, with primary school children having lost an average of two months’ reading progress during the pandemic, literacy charity Bookmark needs more people to join its volunteering scheme, which pairs people with a child who needs additional reading support.
Experts have warned that children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and those who speak English as a second language, were worse affected by school disruptions. Recent estimates suggest school closures have undone up to two thirds of the progress made in the last decade in narrowing the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their classmates.
[Read more positive news about people giving back to others]
Bookmark, which was set up in 2018, is tackling this by matching schools with fully safeguarded, vetted and trained reading volunteers who give children aged 5-9-years-old one-to-one reading support. The charity targets its support at children who are at risk of falling behind, with many of the pupils it supports speaking English as a second language and almost half are disadvantaged, defined by the receipt of Pupil Premium.
Schools are already seeing the benefit, with almost 9 in 10 teachers involved in the scheme saying their pupils were more confident in their reading and more than two thirds of teachers saying their pupils enjoy reading more as a result.
Josh* is 8-years-old and in Year 3 at a school in Islington, a part of London in the top 20% of the most deprived areas in England. When he joined the Bookmark programme, Josh was reading at the level of a child in Year 1, or a 5-year-old. Josh’s teaching assistant Gabby* said: “Josh wasn’t able to answer very basic questions because he really couldn’t read. It would make him very stressed because he didn’t understand. He would get very frustrated and give up on his work easily.”
Since he started reading with Bookmark, his reading has dramatically improved, with his mum describing his progress as “a miracle”.
[Get your daily dose of positive news here]
Kitty Higgins, CEO of Bookmark, said: “Poor literacy is devastating in the immediate for children – affecting their mental wellbeing and school experience, but its impact can also extend into adulthood, with limited job prospects, poor health, low self-esteem, and even reduced life expectancy.
“Reading isn’t just about books. It’s about reading a road sign, a safety manual, a birthday card. It’s understanding a job application or the prescription that could save your life. This is why we want every child to read; when children can navigate words, they can navigate the world.”
Evidence shows 7.1 million adults in England struggle with basic reading every day and 43 percent of adults can’t read well enough to understand and make use of everyday health information.
To help children read in your area, sign up to volunteer just one hour of your time a week, at Bookmarkreading.org/volunteer.
