August Speaker Meeting

Buster’s Book Club

“Currently Bexhill Rotary Club organises thirty-three readers in ten local schools” - thus Roger Batey introduced Simon Dolby of the KM charity who had come to give us a presentation about the Buster’s Book Club; a means to improve the literacy of local children even further than with our present reading helpers.

Simon outlined the aims of the scheme. It presents a series of challenges in which classes and schools compete against each other pursuing reading targets. The initial request is for parents to read with their children on a Wednesday evening for a set time. This time is recorded and a senior pupil and the school secretary collate these for each class of children on a Thursday so that a weekly trophy can be presented to the winning class at Friday assembly.

There are also monthly awards including free tickets for local attractions and inter-school awards when the most successful school in Sussex has visit from a local children's celebrity.

Simon reported that, over the seven years it has been in existence, the scheme has been well received by teachers and resulted in a marked improvement in literacy where it has been adopted.