Interplay Leeds Volunteer Reading Mentors Meeting 2

I said in my last post about our recent Volunteer Reading Mentors Meeting at Interplay in Leeds, I would share my short presentation. So here it is:

Reading Matters Presentation - Interplay 10-12-09

My overall message was that, despite so many changes, in schools, government and at Reading Matters, the need for us to keep on improving reading skills and changing lives is as great as ever.

In fact, the week after our meeting there was a flurry of news stories about how thousands of boys start secondary school 'barely able to read', the BBC report highlighted some of Reading Matters core areas of work. For example, in Rotherham 14% of 11-year-old boys in state schools did not reach level three in their reading tests this summer, this means they were at the level expected of a seven-year-old.

It is true that 'raw data' from the controversial SATS reading tests will not provide the full story, but headlines like these indicate there are still huge numbers of children and young people in primary and secondary schools that do not have special educational needs but still need extensive support for them to reach their full potential in life.

The next part of my presentation shows that through Reading Matters Reading Mentors, Reading Leaders and other programmes, we do reach these young people with simple, targeted and effective support. In fact in the the 2009-10 academic year we supported 3768 children and young people.

The last 12 months we have won a number of awards and accolades that back this up, including the Yorkshire Forward Creating Better Future Awards 2010 and Business Link Social Enterprise Awards 2009. But even more important to me is the feedback form the schools we work in:

“The Reading Matters scheme not only improves the reading ability of all students involved, it also creates a fantastic reading culture, promoting responsibility and maturity”. Sheffield School Co-ordinator at
Firth Park Community College.

Like all everyone to continue to meet our objectives, Reading Matters is finding new and innovative ways of working and new partners such as the Summer Reading Challenge, Special Schools and Foster Carers. Having said that, we will be drawing the line at canine support.

Happy Christmas everyone.

Interplay Leeds Volunteer Reading Mentors Meeting

Last Thursday (9 December 2010) we held our latest meeting for Volunteer Reading Mentors and School Co-ordinators. The first thing to say is that it was very cold and very icy, so thanks to all those people that made it along. Leeds was Frozen.
We are very grateful to Steve Byrne and all the staff at Interplay for hosting us and supplying generous amounts of much needed tea, coffee and cake. The refreshments were not the main reason for travelling to Interplay however, we were there to hear about their latest project, which has potential for Reading Matters to work along side them in schools.

Interplay have been delivering a workshop in Special Schools that is based on the short Story Spit Nolan (Creative Short Stories), author of Alfie.

The workshops provide a thrilling and engaging sensory learning experience centred around the construction of old-fashioned go-carts that feature heavily in the story.

We are hoping that as Interplay take the workshops to more schools, Reading Matters will provide Reading Mentors and/or Reading Leaders to sustain and embed the inspiration and enthusiasm generated by this exciting project.

At the same meeting I gave a short presentation about some recent developments at Reading Matters. I'll share these with you in a separate blog post very soon.

2010 Book Awards - Sheffield Children's Book Award and YoungMinds

Today (23/11/10), I was at the Sheffield Children's Book Award at the City Hall where the 2010 winners were announced. I am sure there will be an official announcement with all the winners, but here is a hint - Morris the Mankiest Monster by Giles Andeae and Sarah McIntyre did really well.

It was a superb event the City Hall was full of kids shouting and screaming and stamping their feet for books and reading! I have never done so much clapping in one hour.

I was at the Children's Book award with some of the volunteers I had trained as Volunteers for the Summer Reading Challenge. Both project are organised by the Sheffield Library Service, who deserve a lot of credit.

Another award I have been involved in was also announced this week. The 2010 YoungMinds Book Award was won by Siobhan Curham, author of Dear Dylan.

There is a lovely post on Siobhan Curham's own blog about the award. She writes about how she struggled with a lack of confidence, and that 'I love being able to go into schools and tell the least confident of kids, ‘if I can do it then so can you.’ It is quite emotional and the blog post after she won is even more so.

I think our Reading Matters Mentors can also play a big part in boosting the self-esteem of struggling students, the comments on Siobham's blog show what a difference it can make.

Request - Books with a local connection.

I was in Cromford at the weekend. I notice an advert for Derbyshire Reading Detectives. I checked it out and it's a fantastic project, plotting books with a Derbyshire connection on an online map.

When writing about Meet Me by the Steel Men, I suggested books with a local connection are great for use in reading partnerships.

I have a little list of Sheffield and Rotherham ideas, but I would love to hear some more. I have set-up a Discussion on Reading Matters Facebook Page for people to add their suggestions. Please come and join in!

Twocking by Eric Brown - Barrington Stoke Book 36

Twocking by Eric Brown is quite a controversial book. A story about stealing cars with a stated reading age of 8 years, but crucially the Interest age is 14+.

There is death and tragedy from the very first paragraph, which sets the tone of the story to follow. With Chapter 2 dealing with sex, drugs, drink and violence. Joey is very simply lead astray by Emma, it could be lust or drink that is the cause, but probably just boredom. "Bradford Council closed the rec" says Joey, but it's no real excuse for what happens, as Joey and Emma begin Twocking - T(aking) W(ithout) O(wner's) C(onsent), ie. nicking cars.

The Bradford setting makes it very close to home for me (Reading Matters head office is in Bradford), as they speed out of the city and onto the moors.

Things escalate when Emma starts doing drug runs for local small-time gangster Skelly. The ending is simply horrific; heroin, and car accidents and more.

I can see why such a book isn't always going to be appropriate. It's such serious subject matter, for such a readable, accessible book. But the morals are right there are ramifications from all of Joey's actions.

There is a very smart review from what sounds like a, Reading Mentor, and her partner over on Amazon that really backs up the fact that this is a challenging book, but that is just what makes it attractive, especially to read in a partnership.

Dream On by Bali Rai - Barrington Stoke Book 35

Dream On by Bali Rai has a lot of elements that indicate it is going to be a bit of a cliched 'multi-cultural' story, but this turns out to be completely wrong. Baljit's family run an Indian take away, but it's a fish and chip shop. There is family tension, but there are no arranged marriages. They suffer racism, but authority figures step in to deal with it. And these themes aren't even the heart of the story.
Dream On is all about Baljit's attempts to be a top-flight footballer, and as he says "I never see even one Indian playing the football". A brilliant turn-of-phrase, and the book is full of them. I learnt a few Indian slang words myself ("Chadd deh" means "leave it"!). As a result the dialogue is really sharp, and the relationships between mates, school staff and family members highly believable. Baljit's Dad uses"innit", but this doesn't stop the youngsters taking the mickey.

The endearing characters mean the football trials are nail-biting affairs, they are really well described. However, the story could end any way, and it wouldn't matter because it is the personalities Bali Rai has created that matter most.

[The publishers, Barrington Stoke, produce a pack of resources to accompany Dream On, which look like they are worth checking out.]

Kelham Island Museum Volunteer Reading Mentors Meeting

Today (19/10/10) we had a super meeting for Volunteer Reading Mentors in Sheffield and Rotherham at Kelham Island Museum guests of the Sheffield Industrial Museum Trust .

It was the normal opportunity to meet other Reading Mentors, collect resources and have a cup of tea. But the main attraction was an introduction by Kirsten Timms, Education Officer of Sheffield Industrial Museum Trust about the 'Changing Face of Work in Sheffield' Pods.

The pods are fantastic packages of information, archives, resources and articles from the museum's collection. They wonderfully contrast aspects of work in Sheffield over the last 200 years. They are available for schools to use and explore, especially when combined with visits to the museum.

For our Reading Mentors they introduced a new angle on reading activities (and some old favourites), and perhaps more importantly reminded us of the living history of South Yorkshire's industry, and the passion it can inspire.

The aim of the meeting was to explore the possibility of Reading Matters volunteers accompanying the pods when the go to schools, to help the staff and pupils get the most out of them and support their use with a programme of reading sessions. If you would like to take part in such a scheme, please do get in touch.

Reading Leaders at Seven Hills Special School

Just a quick post, last week I trained a bunch of new Reading Leaders from Seven Hills Special School. I said that I would be writing to say how awful it had been and how I never want to work with them again! In fact I'll be back in a couple of weeks, to present the previous Reading Leaders with their certificates from the Open College Network.

I am second on the bill to the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, just like I was at the Summer Reading Challenge Celebration.

I hope to catch-up with the new Reading Leaders too, they were a great bunch and I am sure they are going to do a great job with their reading partners. It was interesting working with children from the 'special' school. They had all the same questions and ideas as anyone else. And they read exactly the same sort of things; Facebook, Sports Pages, Tracey Beaker etc. In fact they were a lot more enthusiastic than some of the ultra-cool older Reading Leaders from mainstream schools.

Turnaround by Alison Prince - Barrington Stoke Book 34

I am not sure Barrington Stoke are still publishing Turnaround by Alison Prince, which is a shame because it's a very short touching read.

At face-value Kerry has a lovely life helping out her parents B&B. She organises the 'turnarounds' of visitors. But, behind the scenes, family life is very traumatic. This is made worse because no one wants to face up to it. Tellingly, breakfasts are eaten in silence.

Paul comes to stay and Kerry develops a new relationship. In the end, with Paul's help Kerry must face up to the problems in her life; alcoholism and depression.

It is heavy subject matter, but handled very well. The characters are very believable. I like Kelly's Gran, she's a Beach Boys fan! The first two thirds of the book let you get to know these sympathetic characters, so when the drama arrives in the final third you really feel for them.

Things do not end perfectly, but necessary corrections are made, as Kerry says "the turnaround always seem to take ages".

Booked Up at Newfield and Crookes in the Library

Last Friday (1/10/10) , I visited my friend Louise at Newfield School. As well as giving me some top tips for future reading (Something Wickedly Weird by Chris Mould, Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson and Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley amongst others) she also reminded me about the fantastic Booked Up programme.

Booked Up is organised by the Book Trust and delivered through schools. It allows Year 7 pupils to choose a free book from a specially selected list. The whole project is mainly promoted by school librarians like Louise, but the website is well worth a look. The list of books is always great, their are some nice pages and ideas for parents and carers and interactive tools, games and competitions for participating young people.

After my Newfield visit I was off to Sheffield Town Hall for a little celebration event for the young volunteers I had trained as part of the Summer Reading Challenge. I'll give a bit more info and some images when I get them through. Safe-to-say it was a splendid evening the volunteers were all quietly brilliant and I met the Lord Mayor too. The volunteers all got free tickets to The Crookes gig that was happening in the Library that evening. I heard the band on 6Music the next day - a very literary bunch they sounded too. I didn't go to the gig, but I did get a flyer!


Gigs in libraries - I love it!