Sarah Barclay is a journalist and author. She also volunteers with Schoolreaders, and below shares her experiences.I had been toying with idea of reading with children in primary schools for some time. But having just emerged from the coalface of motherhood and watching my own children heading off as young adults into the big wide world, the thought of committing to more ‘school stuff’ was not appealing at all. But then I met a friend of a friend who volunteers for a charity called Schoolreaders and it sounded a good deal easier than I imagined and with minimal impact on new-found freedoms. So I signed up.
Founded in 2013, the Schoolreaders model is simple. Volunteers read for free to children in primary schools for a minimum of an hour a week in the term time. Schoolreaders offer great choice and flexibility to the volunteers – you can choose how far you would like to travel to a school and they will match you accordingly.
To volunteer, you simply go onto the Schoolreaders website and fill in the necessary forms. I was struck by how efficient and easy it was and within a month I found myself meeting the friendly, appreciative staff at the local primary school.
The children I read with every week are delightful – some are restless and find it tricky to concentrate or even sit on chair – others are serious and eager to please. Every time they enjoy reading a sentence, story or even a few words, it is a joy to share their success and pride. It is fun to work out how to get their different personalities motivated and make reading their own thing rather than something they are told to do.
The most revealing thing, literally, that I experienced recently was one little girl who I read with each week, whispering confidentially that she had something exciting to show me in her school bag. She looked quite furtive and slowly opened it. I thought it was going to be a collection of half-eaten sweets, or even worse, a phone. It was neither. She smiled up and she declared her hand, it was a library book she had chosen herself. She was proud and reading for pleasure.”
To learn more about volunteering with Schoolreaders, visit: www.Schoolreaders.org/volunteer
