Julie Taylor, Education Lead at The Children’s Literacy Charity, introduces their Reader Leader mentoring programme and shares Five Reasons Why schools should consider signing up this autumn.

‘Our Reader Leader programme trains older pupils in both primary and secondary schools to become reading ‘Leaders’ who then provide one-to-one support to help younger ‘Readers’ build their reading confidence and fluency.

The in-person training for up to 10 pupils is provided by our dedicated literacy specialists and lasts for a full day for Year 10 and Year 12 students or a full morning for pupils in Years 5 and 6. Following the training session, Leaders are provided with a folder of supporting resources and meet their Readers once a week for 30 minutes over the course of 18 weeks. So why sign up?

1. Proven high-impact model

Older pupils support younger readers, creating a positive role-model dynamic. Children are often more motivated when guided by peers, and peer tutoring is recognised by the Education Endowment Foundation as being a high-impact activity.

2. Benefits for all

It’s not just the Readers who benefit. Leaders develop key empathy, leadership and communication skills. Supporting younger pupils enhances their sense of responsibility and achievement, often leading to gains in their own literacy and self-esteem.

3. Whole school impact

The programme embeds a reading for pleasure ethos and helps to raise the profile of literacy across the whole school.

4. Sustainable and scalable

Schools consistently report gains in pupils’ fluency, comprehension and reading enjoyment, while the student-led model makes the programme both sustainable and easily scalable year after year.

5. Significant savings

Thanks to substantial funding support, we are currently able to offer our Reader Leader training at greatly reduced rates. The standard cost of the primary programme is £400 (plus travel expenses) and £600 (plus travel expenses) for the secondary programme. However, with our introductory offer, schools will only pay £65 for the primary training and £100 for the secondary training.’ (Offer limited to the first 25 bookings received.)

To take advantage of the introductory offer and book a Reader Leader training session, contact [email protected].