Bookmark Reading Charity are looking for volunteers to inspire the ‘joy of reading’ and give every child the opportunity to succeed.
How many words do you read a day? Now imagine if you couldn’t read at all. That’s what it’s like for one in four children in England who are unable to read well when they leave primary school. Struggling to read can contribute to poor educational attainment and lower literacy in adulthood and has even been linked to a lower life expectancy.
Bookmark Reading Charity has a simple mission: to change children’s life stories through the joy of reading. The charity partners with schools to develop whole school reading cultures, and to provide one-to-one reading support. They match schools with fully safeguarded, vetted, and trained volunteers who attend two 30-minute reading sessions a week, over six weeks, with the same child. Together the volunteer and their reader talk about the book, read, and play literacy games. These sessions not only improve the child’s reading level but allows them to develop key skills that will aid them in later life, such as confidence. In fact, 88% of teachers felt that a child’s confidence level increased after completing a Bookmark reading programme.
A reading programme can either be completed face-to-face in a local primary school, or online through a secure platform. Volunteers can choose how they would like to volunteer (dependent on location), and can arrange their reading sessions via Bookmark’s Volunteer Hub to fit their schedule. Volunteers are also able to attend drop-in sessions with the Bookmark team and ac-cess a social platform where they can talk to other volunteers, share tips and resources, and ask for advice, meaning there is always support and guidance at hand.
Whether you are 18 or 100, you can make a difference to a child’s life. As Claire, a Bookmark volunteer said: “Even if one child is influenced to think “books are for me” or “I can do this” or “I do want to go to university and study English” – what an incredible difference to have made just by virtue of spending two half-hours a week with them”.
With hundreds of children waiting for support, Bookmark Reading Charity are urgently looking for volunteers to help children with their reading this Christmas. It’s simple. If you’re 18 or over, live in the UK and have access to a PC or laptop, you can sign up to volunteer. You do not need to have any prior experience working with children as Bookmark provide you with all the train-ing you’ll need.
If you would like to give the gift of reading this Christmas, please find out more and sign here: https://www.bookmarkreading.org/volunteer
Alternatively, if your school would be interested in partnering with Bookmark, you can find out more here: https://www.bookmarkreading.org/schools-menu-bar