Cares: Right to Read Programme

The Right to Read programme was created by Business in the Community in 1999 to enable the business workforce to make a positive impact on education.

In Nottinghamshire alone, volunteers have been successfully reading with over 4,500 children in key stage two since 2003. This has engaged 1,548 employee volunteers to support 86 of the schools in their area.

The Right to Read programme supports students in their literacy development by improving confidence, communication skills and attitudes towards reading. Interaction with business employees is an opportunity for children from deprived backgrounds to be introduced to the world of work and spend time with alternative role models.

Children selected for the programme are reading below their age-related expectation and from disadvantaged backgrounds where their reading abilities rely heavily on what they experience during school time.

The Teacher’s Perspective

Teachers see business volunteers as an additional source of one-to-one reading, which gives them valuable time to concentrate on other educational priorities. Teachers also recognise the importance of widening their students’ perspective through interaction with someone from a different background.

The experience for 86% of teachers, whose desire was to raise the aspirations and reading level of their students, as well as their enthusiasm towards reading in general, was either good or exceeded their expectations.

Teachers attributed this to the consistency of one-to-one support and personal investment being made in each child. They also noted the value of employee volunteers bringing a different sphere of experience in their approach to teaching the students.