Fantastic Sheffield Reading Leaders

Over the last few days I have been meeting some of the Reading Leaders from Sheffield schools. I have been helping them gain the National Open College Network Qualification that they get for their Reading Mentoring work.

I visited Wisewood School a little while ago. This week I visited Seven Hills, Firth Park and Fir Vale and next week I am off to City and Silverdale Schools.

It has been great to hear about the really successful reading partnership work that has been going on. Well done to everyone.

At Fir Vale they had a great display about the project:

Reading Leader's Celebration | Sheffield, December 16 2009

As promised in my previous post about the great results of our Character Profile activity, here are some photos from our celebration event which took place on 16 December at Sheffield Town Hall.

As well as the fabulous author Alan Gibbons, Councillor Andrew Sangar, people from Barrington Stoke, Reading Matters employees and Sheffield Council personnel, the most important people in attendance where the staff and Reading Leaders from Sheffield schools:

• Handsworth Grange School
• Heritage Park Community School
• King Ecgbert School
• Silverdale School
• Stocksbridge High School

It sounds like Alan Gibbons has had a busy month, that is set to continue. He is writing a new Barrington Stoke book, The Dying Photo, based on a blurb written by James Pybis of Our Lady's and St Philomena's Primary School in Liverpool, as part of The Book Factor project. I first read about this on the Write Away website, so thanks to them.

Character Profiles - One-to-one Reading Partnerships in Sheffield Schools

At the end of last term (16 December 2009) we held a celebration event for all the Reading Leaders we have trained in Sheffield schools this year. It was a fantastic event with author Alan Gibbons giving an inspired presentation, more like a comedy routine than a writer talking about his work. I'll give some more details when I get the photos through. In the meantime I wanted to share another activity we undertook with all the reading mentors we supported last year, over 200 of them!

All of the Sheffield mentors and their partners had the opportunity to complete a character profile about someone they read about together, and we have compiled the results into a book that you can read and download online:

Snow in Silverdale

Today, in a minor stow storm, I visited the new Silverdale school in Bents Green. I was visiting with the first volunteer whom I have seen through the whole process myself, from recruitment, training and now placing in the school. The school staff were very welcoming and helpful, it was a very satisfying experience. Silverdale is yet another school in Sheffield with great new building. The upgrade in location also seems to be a catalyst for a new way of working, the building has numerous 'break-out' areas for groups of students to meet and work. Perfect for Reading Matters reading sessions. This change is also born out in the school staff attitude to Reading Matters volunteers, we discussed working along side student Reading Leaders and staff as a really well-organised team of reading champions.

So there is lots happening and there is lots to plan, but it is exciting times at snowy Silverdale.