What is Reading Matters for Life?

Working in Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Wakefield & Bradford, RMforL is a charity that places adult volunteers in secondary schools to help young people between 11 and 16 who are struggling with reading.

As reading is the basis of all learning and leisure pursuits it is vital that new Y7’s are identified as emergent readers or just lacking in confidence before they move to their new schools.

Sheffield is one of the pioneers of a new project to make the transition from Primary to Secondary schools as stress-free as possible (especially if reading is a struggle) by starting the volunteers with their students in the summer term whilst they are still in primary school.
Come September, transition is made less traumatic as the same, familiar volunteer is waiting to pick up with the Reading Matters sessions within the first weeks of term.

How can I help my child?

Y7 parents are invited to attend a five-week ‘Parents as Partners’ course designed to give ideas about how to support their child’s literacy in a two hour session covering making reading fun, spelling, identifying weaknesses and strengths and generally boosting their child’s reading confidence.

How do I become a volunteer?

If you are interested in becoming a RM volunteer please speak to the Librarian, Mrs Milroy on 2358167 or contact the RM coordinator by writing to:-

Elaine Belcher
Reading Matters Sheffield
The Bannerdale Centre
125 Carterknowle Road
Sheffield
S7 2EX
By ringing:- 0114 2506878
By email:- elaine.belcher@sheffield.gov.uk

Potential volunteers need to be able to commit to the same times each week as you would be working on a one-to-one basis for thirty minutes twice a week for ten weeks. As most volunteers mentor two students at once, you would be coming into the school library for an hour at a time two times a week. To minimise disruption for the student and their subject teacher it needs to be the same time each week.

This is how the current volunteers organise their sessions in the City School Library

In addition to adult volunteers coming into school, City School also uses Y10 KS4 Health & Social Care students to be ‘Reading Buddies’ as part of their GCSE course. The older students might have benefited themselves from the scheme at the start of their secondary school lives so can empathise with their younger ‘buddies’.

There is no stigma attached to attending Reading Matters sessions as the time taken from curriculum subjects will be minimal but the benefits in improved reading confidence and literacy skills will be maximised.