When children fall behind in reading by the age of 11, the impact can last for the rest of their lives. It hampers their achievement at school and later career opportunities and life chances. We recruit and train volunteers who provide consistent and tailored one-to-one literacy support that helps put children back on track to thrive.
How we help children unlock the power of reading
Through our programme, we help children aged three to 13 who have fallen behind with their reading, lack confidence, or struggle with fluency, comprehension or vocabulary. We train volunteers from the local community and older students to become reading helpers. They learn to recognise the challenges each individual child faces and tailor their sessions to support the child in ways that will work for them. Each reading helper works with three children on average, providing consistent support on a weekly basis for a full school year. Together, they read, play and talk.
How our reading helpers change lives
Coram Beanstalk’s one-to-one reading support changes children’s lives by improving their reading skills, inspiring confidence in their own ability and increasing their enjoyment of reading. The transformation is empowering and highly apparent to their teachers.
98%
of schools agreed that our reading volunteers helped children to improve their enjoyment of reading
99%
of schools agreed that our reading volunteers helped children to improve their confidence
97%
of schools agreed that our reading volunteers helped children to improve their attitude to reading