Case study: 123 Read With Me

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More than a third of children on free school meals left primary school last year unable to read fluently. Without secure reading skills, many of these children will go on to struggle at secondary school and in later life.

Research shows that parent engagement results in an average of 4 months’ additional progress over the course of the year.

Kate Ainley, Deputy Headteacher at Worsbrough Common Primary School in Barnsley, leads 123 Read With Me, a SHINE-funded project which supports parents in teaching their children to read.

We’re giving parents an opportunity to spend some quality time with their children, working on some really important skills. We’re able to share with parents our approaches to reading and our approaches to teaching. We’re really seeing the impact on the children… it’s just fantastic to see.”

Kate Ainley Deputy Headteacher at Worsbrough Common Primary School in Barnsley

The regular workshops show the importance of reading, and demonstrate how it can be fun for both children and their parents.

Kate says, “As teachers, we know that it’s just so important that we work with parents. It has such an impact on the children.

One parent taking part in the project said: “The sessions are really, really good. I think they’re really insightful for learning. There were a lot of words that we didn’t actually know, and we didn’t realise we didn’t know until these sessions.

“There’s a lot of aspects of phonics that we didn’t understand, so we’ve had to go back to school ourselves to learn it all. I think it’s really helpful for that.

“Darwin loves the sessions. When we tell him it’s 123 Read With Me, on a Wednesday, he gets really excited. He loves the playing part of it. He loves to play, he likes to sit down and read books.

“His reading and his blending and everything [is coming on] really well with these sessions. And it’s helping us understand as well, what we need to do to help him at home.”

Kate added: “We’re giving parents an opportunity to spend some quality time with their children, working on some really important skills. We’re able to share with parents our approaches to reading and our approaches to teaching.

“We’re really seeing the impact on the children. We’re seeing them coming in and talking about activities that they’ve done at home, which have been linked to our sessions and it’s just fantastic to see.”

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