Volunteer Reading Help
Confident Children, Literate for Life

What is Volunteer Reading Help (VRH)?
VRH is a national charity that aims to help book-shy children become word-wise children. We recruit and train volunteers to work with primary school children who find reading a challenge. Many children need one-to-one support to face a book with confidence. Without individual help children lack self-esteem and their behaviour and performance in class can deteriorate as they fail to keep up with their classmates. Readability is a campaign to recruit volunteers to work with children in primary schools. Volunteers are trained and placed by Volunteer Reading Help. They work with the same children each week, reading, playing and talking. As the children realise word by word that they really can read, confidence builds and a new chapter begins.

Why is VRH needed?
For many children, group learning just isn't enough. Without individual support children who find reading difficult fall behind their peers, they lack confidence and self-esteem and their behaviour may deteriorate too. VRH provides regular, individual support to build both skills and self-esteem, unlocking children's imaginations and giving them new motivation to learn.

Our vision:
A nation of confident children, literate for life.

What sort of children does VRH help?
VRH helps a wide range of children; in general they have a low reading ability for their age and are chosen by their teacher to receive help for many reasons. They may suffer from low self-esteem, language difficulties or shyness. They may speak English as an additional language or suffer from health problems. They may have unhappy home circumstances; suffer from a lack of parental attention or peer group difficulties. School attendance may be a problem or it may simply be that making sense of the words on a page seems much harder for them than it does their classmates.

Why is extra help needed for those children outside the education system?
Teachers cannot give every child regular, sustained, individual attention. Although literacy and numeracy support programmes help groups of children who have fallen behind, they do not offer regular one-to-one support to meet every child's individual needs. Our volunteers help the same children twice every week, usually for a school year. They offer regular, friendly support in the context of fun sessions that aim to unlock a child's potential and increase their confidence in their own ability.

Is it just children who benefit from VRH?
No! Many of our reading helpers find the experience of volunteering hugely rewarding.

Not only do they learn new skills and make new contacts within their local community but they also experience a great sense of involvement by working with the same children in each week of each term. For many, the magic moment when a child realises they can read a whole book by themselves is unforgettable.

What sort of volunteers are we looking for?
We welcome volunteers from all sectors of the community, men and women, the young and the not so young. We don't ask for formal qualifications, just patience, understanding and an empathy with children and books. We ask our volunteers to give time each week and to undertake to give their time regularly for at least two terms. VRH also welcomes approaches from companies interested in establishing an employee-volunteering scheme in local schools.

Further information:
For more information on VRH or how to get involved, please contact VRH on 02380 653 237

or visit the website: www.vrh.org.uk

Comments on the scheme

"Thank you for reading with me it is so much fun. Reading is my best thing which I like now."
Ritu Patel, age 9

"I'm working with 3 great kids who really do struggle with their reading, but our sessions aren't all hard work. We read to each other; tell each other jokes and play word games. I learn as much as the children!"
Brian Hough, reading helper, Hattersley

"I used to try to avoid reading but when I met Tony all that was behind me and now I love it. He is very encouraging and I know every work in the dictionary. I like the games, they're really fun."
Ben Stokes, age 10