Ready, Steady, Read

ROTARY’S “READY, STEADY, READ” PROGRAMME CAN BE LIFECHANGING

Heathcoat, Wilcombe and Castle Primaries are three schools currently continuing to benefit from Tiverton Rotary Club’s investment in a programme designed to provide a springboard for those children who are not achieving age related literacy levels in their class yet are deemed to have the potential and are therefore likely to respond well to a short, rigorous boost within a term.

Ready, Steady, Read with Rotary (RSRwR) is an intensive eight-week literacy support programme targeting children of between 5 and 6 years of age.  Parents are encouraged to play their part and where they have been involved there have been measurable advances in the children’s progress.

In general RSRwR consultants work with a maximum of 4 children each morning. The programme is run on a one-to-one basis, each child receiving approximately 40 minutes of support every morning for eight weeks. In the extra time available the consultant collects the child from class, supports the child through the session, writes in the home/RSRwR diary and makes brief reference notes as an ongoing record.  A full report is sent to the class and Head teachers at the end of the eight weeks.

The Rotary Club has received grants from the District Rotary Foundation, Viscount Amory’s Charitable Trust and The Devon Community Foundation (DCF) and is currently applying for a further grant from the DCF to enable the Club to continue for another 12 months.It is likely that further primary schools in the Tiverton catchment area would benefit from RSRwR and provided the funding is available from DCF the Club would aim to work in those schools too.

Andrew Herniman, the Rotary Club’s lead for this ongoing project says “I believe this is one of the most important and significant projects our Club has ever undertaken because it changes the lives of those children who benefit from this intervention. My grateful thanks to Rotarian Tricia Collier for her unswerving encouragement and her support in monitoring RSRwR consultants and my thanks to other members of the Club who have supported too. Without our Club’s involvement in delivering this programme, it would not happen”.