Reading Support

In 2023, Reading Support started on 27th February - later than usual as a result of the floods in late January, which delayed the start of school by a week. In the week prior to starting, refresher and new tutor training took place during the regular Reading Support time slot.

Students

A total of 46 students were on the programme during the year. 

All of these students were reading at least 12 months below their chronological age when they joined the programme.

At the beginning, there were 8 Year 5 students and 28 Year 6 students on the programme; 4 of whom were carried over from 2022. 

Four students were withdrawn from the programme in term 3 due to irregular attendance, and one student left our school at the end of that term. Throughout the year, 9 students graduated when they achieved a reading age of 10 years.

Tutors

We started the year with 33 tutors. Two of these came twice a week and the rest came once a week. This meant there was one gap. Four of these tutors were new to our programme, recruited by various means, but mainly through word-of-mouth. Two tutors left during the year and  three more joined, so we finished the year with a full complement! 

Conclusion

A similar number of students made accelerated progress in 2023 as in 2022, but it is notable that no students in the programme failed to make progress in reading this year which is pleasing to see.  

Frequent absences do continue to be an issue which makes it difficult for some students to achieve the significant progress we strive for.

Tutors who have been with us for many years continue to provide enormous value to our learners, and those who have joined more recently are also proving to be very capable. I am consistently impressed by the calibre of our volunteers and I feel they are great contributors to the success of this programme.

- Jenni Clarke