Title: Lincolnshire Locals Encouraged to Boost Children’s Literacy by Volunteering as School Readers
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The national charity, Schoolreaders, is encouraging Lincolnshire residents to volunteer their time and help enhance children’s literacy by listening to them read. Schoolreaders aligns volunteers with nearby primary schools, allowing them to provide weekly one-on-one reading sessions. Presently, about 100 primary schools across East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire are engaged in partnerships with Schoolreaders. Susan Lawrie, the outreach and engagement co-ordinator for Schoolreaders, expressed the remarkable impact of volunteers, stating, “It aids children in discovering or rediscovering the pleasure in reading. Witnessing the children, volunteers, and schools derive so much pleasure from this is indeed rewarding.”
In North Lincolnshire, Barton St Peter’s C of E Primary School has benefitted from the charity’s programme. Caroline Gooder, a local volunteer, relayed her positive experience: “I appreciate the relationship I’ve built with the children, and the feeling that I’m genuinely assisting them and doing something meaningful post-retirement. It only takes a few hours a week. It’s extremely rewarding.” The deputy headteacher of the school, Robert Wilson, applauded the volunteers’ role in boosting reading levels and fuelling the children’s love for reading.
Given the alarming statistics that reveal one in four children leave primary school without reaching the necessary reading standard, the initiative from Schoolreaders is evermore essential. The Department for Education has announced 2026 as the National Year of Reading, a campaign targeted at reversing the reading decline among children and young individuals. Schoolreaders aspires to conduct 1.5 million reading sessions during that year, marking a 50% rise compared to the prior year, thus emphasising the need for an increased number of volunteers and school participants.
Lincolnshire locals interested in positively impacting children’s literacy are urged to devote a few hours each week to this gratifying project.
This article has been adapted by The Lincoln Post from its original report on www.bbc.com.
