Turning pages with Bowlee Park Housing

Making reading fun -Bowlee Park Housing community warden Stephen Squires and community initiatives officer, Tracey Evans with St Mary's pupils (l-r) Bailey Houghton and Stephen Kay

Bowlee Park Housing staff are among the first in the Pennines to join a national scheme helping children learn to read.

Two Bowlee Park Housing wardens and two members of the community initiatives team volunteer an hour of their time every week to give individual attention to children at St Mary’s RC Primary school and boost their confidence.

The Bowlee Park Housing team are part of a national scheme called Volunteer Reading Help which has worked with over 100,000 children to teach them to read in the last 35 years. It also provides training and support for volunteers.

Sharon Thomas, Bowlee Park Housing community initiatives team leader, explained: “This is just one of the ways we are getting to know the young people in Langley and build our relationship with the school. It’s very rewarding to see the children’s communication and reading skills develop week by week.

“It’s also been a great way to build respect between older and younger people and for the community wardens to see some of the junior wardens in a different context.”

The team spend half an hour with each child, - twenty minutes reading a book of the child’s choice and ten minutes playing a learning game to develop inter-personal skills.

Bernadette McKeown, class teacher at St Mary’s school, said: “Reading is an essential skill for life. It enables pupils to broaden their minds, develop their creativity and fulfil their potential. Many children don’t get one to one reading time at home so they have really benefitted from the undivided attention Bowlee Park Housing’s wardens and staff give them.”

Volunteer Reading Help is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year which is also the National Year of Reading. Sharon Thomas recently attended a reception hosted by Volunteer Reading Help in the House of Lords, where Schools Minister Jim Knight MP spoke about the importance of reading for education and leisure.