How could kids' reading be better supported?

[KidsReading]

Hi. Any advice or thoughts would be really appreciated...

I've done some voluntary reading help at the local primary school. I love it. I love seeing them build in confidence, and enjoy reading with an adult. I work in publishing and it's got me thinking, what support do teachers and schools need/want to strengthen the reading skills of the students?

• from what I can see, TAs don't have time to read with kids much because they're supporting kids on EHCPs.
• the class teachers have a lot to teach, many children per class, so their time is also limited.
• volunteers are few and far between, and just for the odd hour.
• national reading charities just send in books and idea leaflets for reading. Wonderful for those with no books at home, but parents aren't not reading with them because they don't have 'ideas' (no criticism here; parents have many time pressures, I realise).

So what's the answer, do you think? Reading charities that support giving books and people to go in and read with each struggling child for 20 minutes a couple of times a week (so you're tackling availability of reading material at home/reading for pleasure and practice)? Would teachers and schools welcome such support? Does anyone's school do this or something different?

Or am I missing something completely? Any thoughts greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

I appreciate all of that but fundamentally I believe it is the responsibility of parents. I get that some parents don't do this but yet again schools bear the brunt of poor parenting without the money to do so.
Parents need to bloody parent their kids. That way money and time could be better directed towards the kids who need additional support. Too many parents in our MC school/catchment outsource the parenting to schools and it just isn't acceptable.

I volunteer in school helping struggling readers in Y2 - I do 2 hours a week and have 10-12 children to listen to (the same children for an academic year) They are usually reading to another adult in school (teacher or TA) once a week. I think school could have a lot more volunteers and help more children ( or the same children more frequently) if they actively recruited - I get a lot of children asking me if they can be ‘on my list’ because they’d like a bit of 1-2-1 with an adult snd a sticker. I volunteered because my mum has always done it, but school have never once in the 12 yrs since my oldest started asked parents for help - and yet they are massively grateful that myself and one other gran go in. The school has a well stocked library and a part time librarian. The missing link is time.

I think supporting schools to support parents would be valuable. I had a reluctant reader: school sent out a book once a week, which she would refuse to read. For ages I just read it to her, then eventually spent ages finding resources she would read. School couldn’t/wouldn’t help unfortunately. So I think a person who can say to the parents, ‘try this, read that, do it in this way, how’s it going etc?’ would be so valuable.

Screen all children for dyslexia and don't just assume it's because parents don't read with them!

Staff to read with the children.

Better intervention for struggling readers.

It is shocking in this country the amount of children who leave school still unable to read properly. Some will be undiagnosed SpLD, others will be because they have been overlooked in school.

@KidsReading broadly speaking there's two reasons behind it - (caveated by I've only been a governor two years) but am told that the HT made significant progress and changes bringing the school from £80k in debt to a moderate surplus. Now, due to the rising costs of fuel (rural schools often powered by oil) and the wage increases mean any last shred of spare cash will be eaten up within the next few years and they'll be back at £80k deficit . And that's with slashing everything else to the absolute bone.

Government said they'll raise staff wages - absolutely, utterly the right thing and deserved - but hey! Schools you have to find the money out of existing budgets. I can fish out some numbers of the impact of this on a small school.

The school I was in last night has a very high dependency child starting in September with no echp (has been applied for but will take months), is having to cut TA hours and will have zero help. Apparently there used to be an emergency pot for this but it's gone. Honestly it's dire - I even asked last night at governors if it's possible for a school to go bankrupt. What even will happen? And they're all in the same boat.

Back to the original question - I took my youngest to the playground before school this morning and one of the girls I read with was there. She said ooh! Can we make it Monday? Because she likes Mondays now , which is when I'm there. She's one of the quieter ones and it really made my day.

Screen all children for dyslexia and don't just assume it's because parents don't read with them!

Screening for dyslexia is notoriously inaccurate, but a full dyslexia assessment is extremely expensive. Thorough ongoing literacy assessment is helpful though, though time consuming and significantly increased time set aside for staff/senco to do this would need to be set aside.