As part of a wider focus on the importance of literacy, last year the school launched a unique programme that embraced the support of community volunteers to assist students with their reading and comprehension skills.

Helping to inspire reading for pleasure, as well as for learning, around half a dozen volunteers initially signed up to offer support and encouragement to students across the school. Freely giving up their time to join designated lessons for the purpose of listening to students read, the volunteers have been an invaluable asset in the school’s drive to promote reading in a variety of contexts.

Explaining the benefit of this for the students, Lead for Whole School Literacy and Reading, Laura Aldridge, said: “The main benefit of having someone there to listen to them is that it gives students the motivation and a purpose to read. This in turn helps make them more critically aware of how well they themselves are reading and helps to further develop our whole school reading culture.

This support also allows the students to both read and be read to, and includes additional support from the volunteers who can explain how to sound particular words out, or listen as students summarise what they’ve read and understood.

I am grateful to our volunteers for their support of our students’ reading progress, which is central to their academic and wider achievement. We have already seen improved reading scores as a direct result of their time and effort.”

Commenting on the need for additional volunteers, Laura added: “Due to work and family commitments, we have unfortunately lost some of our valuable volunteers in recent months. We have been sad to see them go and they, in turn, have been sad to leave behind what they have all deemed to be a rewarding and enjoyable experience.

We are therefore seeking further volunteers who would be willing to give up some time during the week to help support our young readers. Amongst our current group of volunteers, some come in for an hour per week, whilst others are able to join us more frequently. We are simply grateful for any time that can be given and welcome any support available.

Recruiting additional volunteers means that we will be able to be more strategic with our planning for effective assistance, meaning that volunteers can be directed to students who are identified as needing support in a more structured way rather than on an ad-hoc basis.”

Commenting on the benefits of involvement from a volunteer’s point of view, Sue Barrick, one of the school’s current Community Readers, said: “Although retired I am still physically and mentally active so I am finding the volunteering experience personally rewarding by helping others, including teachers, teaching assistants and the school’s librarian, by increasing the availability of adult referral for the students.

The students themselves are respectful and clearly relish having someone to share and enjoy their books with them. I have found that students gain in confidence when dealing with someone outside the school environment and I feel it is important to offer this experience as it builds relationships outside the standard student/teacher dynamic.

I would champion this incentive on numerous levels, but simply for students’ development and the inclusion of volunteers in support of their growing literacy skills.”

From a student perspective, Declan Kirk added: “The reading volunteers are very helpful. They help with spelling and tricky words. It improves your reading and makes it easier to read.”

While Abbie Longlands said: “I find the volunteers are very helpful because if you're tired from reading, they read a little bit for you. If you're stuck on a word and you ask them for help, they will tell you what it means. They also give you good luck and support for taking your book quizzes. This has helped me because when I don’t feel very good at reading some things, they help me to get better at it.”

The support with reading comes as part of timetabled lessons in Key Stage 3 (Years 7, 8 and 9) where students take part in fortnightly Accelerated Reader (AR) sessions to monitor how well they are progressing. The computer-based AR programme tracks how much and how well students are reading. The process begins with a simple test that evaluates their level and delivers a score to identify each student’s reading range.

This range is then used to select books from the school library. Each book is labelled within a particular reading range to guarantee that students are accessing materials that are suitable for their age and ability.

The AR programme works by monitoring students’ progress and testing them with a comprehension quiz at the end of each book. If the quiz is successfully passed, the system logs the number of words contained within the book and adds them to an overall total which helps students to monitor how many words they have read in a single year. It also monitors their ability and alerts them when they’re ready to move up to the next level.

This is a real motivator as it not only inspires further reading but also healthy competition amongst its participants. Students are rewarded for their efforts and individual students regularly amass multi-million word counts in a single year.  

Throughout the last academic year, in both AR lessons and Tutor Time reading sessions, students across the whole school read an incredible 90 million words between them.

Since its launch in September 2021, the Tutor Time reading programme has generated plenty of positive feedback. These morning sessions see Form Tutors reading with their students to provide a calm and focussed start to the day. The featured books are all linked to themes and subjects to be studied by the students throughout the year – helping to build a solid foundation of knowledge for future learning.

Elsewhere, the positive promotion of literacy continues to extend beyond the English faculty with phonics training having been delivered to all teaching staff, and academic reading being promoted within all subject areas. A series of author visits, which most recently saw award-winning Hull-born author Phil Earle return to the school, have helped to inspire further interest and engagement across the school. 

Regular reading competitions are also a popular motivator, with a pre-Christmas World Cup-themed competition proving to be a resounding success.

Looking ahead to the rest of the year, further author visits are currently in the pipeline – as are a number of community events which will see students from the school engaging in reading opportunities in primary school and care home settings. 

There are also plans for a pop-up library, which aims to place a selection of books in a prominent location in the main school building away from the traditional library setting. Commenting on this idea, Laura Aldridge said: “The whole aim is to get the library out of the library! Myself and school Librarian, Julie Thompson, plan on curating a selection of our most popular books, and a few more besides based on what we think might attract the crowds, and placing them in an alternative location. We hope that this will help further raise the profile of the main school library, whilst introducing students to a carefully selected array of titles that they are sure to enjoy.”

Meanwhile, for further information or an informal discussion about volunteering to join the school’s Community Reader initiative, please contact Laura Aldridge via email at aldridgel@wscampus.net 

Withernsea High School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, therefore all volunteers will be subject to an enhanced DBS disclosure.

ABOVE: Volunteer Sue Barrick with student Declan Kirk.