Welcome to our ‘ Reading Buddies’

Year 7 students have been given the opportunity to buddy up with a Year 12 student from Birkenhead Sixth Form College and refine their reading skills every Monday and Tuesday after school. The volunteers from the College spend the time helping and encouraging the Year 7 students with their reading.

The buddies meet for 1:1 reading and the Year 12 students have received training in phonics, etymology, predicting text and making inferences to support the students. The books they read have been specially selected so that it supports students in progressing with their reading.

Cole in Year 7 said “Reading Buddies is helping me to read quicker which means I have time to read more books after school.”

The role of the Year 12 buddy is to attend each week and listen to them reading fluently and giving encouragement and advice by filling in the Year 7’s reading log.

Year 7 Lacey said: “It’s nice to be able to read with someone else, we have a laugh and they tell me if I am doing well and what I need to improve on which really helps.”

Feedback already shows that the Year 7 students taking part in this scheme have improved with their reading and are enjoying it more.

Head of the programme, Miss Dawes, said: “Reading Buddies is going really well and all the students taking part have increased their reading ages significantly from September. The scheme will now be extended to support as many Year 7 students as possible.”