What do we do?
Schoolreaders goal is for all children, regardless of background, to leave primary school being able to read well so they can go on to access their secondary education fully and maximise their future life chances.
Established in 2013, Schoolreaders matches volunteers to local primary schools - focusing on schools with the greatest need - where they give one-to-one reading sessions.
Just ten minutes a week with one of our volunteers has been shown to improve children’s reading fluency, comprehension and enjoyment. It also gives them valuable time with an adult who is not a teacher or parent which aids their social skills. The Fair Education Alliance reinforces this need saying children need to ‘engage with a wide range of adults including volunteers and businesses to support their literacy.’ Currently, our volunteers support more than 32,000 children every week.
Click here to view our most recent Accounts and to see our latest Impact Report.
Discover some of the facts behind
the UK's literacy problem, and see why our service is so urgently needed.
Recognition of the Schoolreaders scheme:
"Evidence is clear that where school reading volunteers are involved in a structured programme and given appropriate training and support, for instance by charities such as Schoolreaders, the results can be highly effective."
“We could not have envisaged the positive impact Schoolreaders would have had on our pupils. Our lowest 20% of pupils have developed a love of reading. The volunteers genuinely care and are passionate about ensuring children enjoy reading/being read to.”
Lord Nash,
Conservative Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools (2013-2017)
"We are delighted with the success of the Schoolreaders project and believe it will play an important contribution helping children learn to read and in them becoming established independent readers. This project has our full support and we are extremely grateful to the volunteers who give up their time so generously."
Greenbank Primary School, Merseyside
The Worshipful Company of Grocers
‘We are delighted to be funding you. The Committee thought your operating model was brilliant!’
Councillor Henry Vann,
Portfolio Holder for Education,
Bedford Borough Council
Our network has spread rapidly
since we were founded in 2013. View our map to see where we operate.
Schoolreaders is run by a small
team of full-time staff with the help of lots of volunteers. Find out who we are.