During National Volunteers’ Week, Schoolreaders, the children’s literacy charity, is thanking its wonderful network of volunteers for stepping forward to help primary school children with their reading. In addition, the charity is delighted to report that this year it has seen a 40% rise in people volunteering to join the charity in its aim of improving children’s literacy.

Jane Whitbread, Founder of Schoolreaders comments “According to Government estimates, 1 in 3 children is expected to leave primary school this year to start their secondary education with poor literacy skills. This is now a national crisis. Even before the pandemic, 1 in 4 children was not reading to the expected standard by the end of year 6 but the school closures have exacerbated this problem.

“Children learn to read and then read to learn. Good literacy is vital for our children’s success both in their education and in later life. It is so heartening to see that more people are helping their local communities through volunteering. We are incredibly grateful that so many are joining Schoolreaders specifically to help improve children’s literacy.”

Over a thousand new volunteers have signed up to Schoolreaders since the beginning of the year, which means that a further 10,000 children can be supported with their reading each week in primary schools across the country. There is great demand for this reading support service; more than 10% of primary schools in the country have requested Schoolreaders’ volunteers.

Andrea Ward, Headteacher of Renhold VC Primary School in Bedfordshire comments: “We passionately believe that teaching children to read is one of our core purposes and reading culture links directly to children’s attainment. One element of this is developing a love of reading or ‘reading for pleasure’ and this is where the Schoolreaders volunteers come into their own.”

The network of Schoolreaders’ volunteers across the UK listen to children read in primary schools and this one-to-one reading support helps children’s reading fluency, comprehension and enjoyment. It is a crucial supplement to classroom teaching for many children. The charity’s aim is for all children to leave primary school able to read well.