Since September 2012, several members of Club have been going into St Helen’s School, Swansea to listen to children reading. This project was initiated by SI Swansea member Alison Parry with Headteacher Mr Thompson when Angela Ball was President in 2009-2010.
St Helen’s School is a city centre school situated in an area of diverse nationalities. The school has 194 children on the school roll and of this number 89% of the children have English as an additional language. There are around 19 different languages spoken by the pupils including Mandarin, Urdu, Italian, Arabic, Nepalese and Polish.
Club members listen to children from Year 1 to Year 6 reading their books.
It is hoped that at some stage Club members will give aspirational talks to the girls of Year 6.
To celebrate World Book Day at the beginning of March, Club will be presenting the school with a cheque to purchase new books for the school library.
St Helen’s is a very happy school with a dedicated staff. Our weekly input is very much appreciated
Sandra Pengelly
Programme Action Officer
Feb 2013