Help children to learn to read

Bristol City Council are offering free training for those wanting to help children learn to read as part of the Cities of Service programme. 

We all want to make sure that all out children get off to the best possible start in their education, and being able to read well by the age of 11 is a vital part of that.

Some of our children are in need of some extra help to get them reading well. All the evidence shows that this should be done as early as possible, so we are inviting you to step forward and volunteer to read with some of our 5, 6 and 7 year olds.

A recent Save the Children report highlighted the problems that occur when a child has not reached the required level of reading by the time they finish primary school. If a child is unable to understand their lessons in the first year of secondary school, the risks rise that they will continue to fall further and further behind and fail in their education altogether.

Research conducted by the National Literacy Trust for the Read On. Get On campaign has demonstrated how low literacy affects individuals’ health and employment prospects, as well as increasing the risks of criminal activity.

So what can you do about it?

We are asking you to become a Reading Volunteer.

The commitment you will be making will be for 1hr per week (plus travel time to and from the school) during term time. Most of the schools we are working in are in the South of the city at present, however we are expanding to include schools in the central and north areas in the summer and, along with our partners and the citizens of Bristol, we intend to cover the whole city over the coming eighteen months or so.

We provide excellent training and you could be reading with the children as early as the week commencing the 27th April 2015. If that’s not convenient, we are planning reading sessions in the summer holidays as well as a part of the Summer Reading Challenge 2015, and then in schools again next year.

The next training date is the 23rd April 2015 starting at 9am and finishing at 4pm.

Our highly professional trainers deliver a course over a complete day that will equip you with the skills to support children who are having difficulty learning to read and to assist the teachers in monitoring their progress….you will become a vital part of their ‘reading recovery’. We have had fantastic feedback from our last two sessions and it’s all FREE!

The training venue is the Bridge Learning Campus, Teyfant Road, Hartcliffe, Bristol, BS13 0RG. We can pay your travel expenses if need be and we provide the lunch and refreshments throughout the day.

If you’re interested in this opportunity to help make sure all our children get off to the best possible start, please register your interest HERE.

Or if you would like some more information, please contact us on [email protected].