Five of our Year 9 pupils have become volunteer reading mentors for Year 5 and Year 3 pupils at All Saints’ Primary School, Featherstone. Pupils, who previously found reading to be a chore and uninteresting, were trained to become reading mentors to Primary School children, who find reading difficult. Pupils were encouraged to see the many benefits to reading and trained to offer support and help to children younger than them, who do not find reading easy.The training offered by Miss Midgley, to our Year 9 pupils, introduced them to many reading mentor techniques, such as the ‘five finger’ test and reading simultaneously with their mentee, until they deem it appropriate to stop reading and allow their mentee to continue alone, without assistance.
The reading mentor scheme has proved highly successful and both our pupils and All Saints’ pupils have seen many benefits. Our pupils can now see how reading helps you to develop your own vocabulary and how books introduce you to new and exciting worlds. All Saints’ Primary School pupils are excited every week, at the prospect of seeing their mentor, who comes to see them from ‘big school’. They see their reading time with our Year 9 pupils as a privilege and have taken the opportunity to develop their own reading skills on a regular basis.Overall, the new initiative has proved a real success and praise needs to be given to our five Year 9 pupils who have worked hard to make a difference.
Miss Jimmeson (Assistant Head, Director of English)
