to find the Evening Standard's Get London Reading campaign a load of bollocks?

[MrsLadywoman]

GetLondonReading

I can see it's a good thing to get people to volunteer to read with children, but does that not already go on in primary schools? It does in ours!

If they really care about illiterate children in London, why aren't they having a go at the government who are planning to cut the pay of teaching assistants, the very people who are trained to help state-educated primary school children?

[OTheHugeManatee]

Seems a bit churlish to complain about a campaign that's trying to make a positive difference.

Surely anything which contributes towards helping children who are struggling with literacy is a good thing?

[MrsLadywoman]

Not when it's a cynical marketing ploy for a politically biased newspaper

[IndigoBell]

I agree MrsL

The whole campaign has made me very sad.

Going in and reading with kids twice a week doesn't teach them to read. Having a house full of books doesn't teach them to read.

Good teachers teach kids to read........

And it totally sidelines the reason most kids can't read - dyslexia.

We live in a very text based world. There are words in the kids computer games, online forums, street signs, packaging, advertising everywhere.... Kids don't not learn to read because of a lack of exposure to words........

There is a correlation between having books in the home and doing well academically - not a cause / effect.

[IndigoBell]

And why on earth does it cost £1000 to train a reading volunteer?

[MrsLadywoman]

Apparently they will get 8 hours of training and of course will have to go through all the usual CRB checks that anyone who works with children has to. Which all costs money.

Why don't they just use the money to top up the pay of teaching assistants who earn bugger all as it is. They are already trained and checked and do more than a mere 3 hours a week reading with one child.

I know it sounds petty and small-minded to criticise when someone is apparently doing good, whatever their motives, but there's something that feels very wrong in all this. Not least because it has been well documented that in the age of the internet and falling circulation of newspapers, campaigns are the best way to create a spike in sales - which is why all the tabloids love to run campaigns.

I'm just not convinced that the Evening Standard genuinely have the welfare of state-educated children at heart.

[IndigoBell]

A CRB check costs £60.

They're doing something very wrong if 8 hours training costs £1000.

For £30k or so you could hire one fulltime person who could train 8 people a day, 5 days a week, 45 weeks a year......

And why aren't they asking for us to donate books? That would really help schools........

[IndigoBell]

Besides, once the new govt publishes the league tables of how many children can read at the end of Y1, literacy rates will shoot up......