Pooh Bear Reading Assistance Society

Last updated at 07:31 31 October 2005


Children's Champion Category

Two years ago, nine year old Christopher Harrington was struggling to read and beginning to fall behind in class. His mother Sharon, 36, a single mother and housewife, busy with the needs of his brother James, 7, who has autism, and his sister Lauren, five, was unable to devote the time needed to help her son catch up with his peers.

Today, Christopher's reading ability has flourished. He is now a reading mentor at his school and teaches younger children during his lunch hour - solely thanks to the intervention of Hull-based Pooh Bear Reading Assistance Society.

"I used to find reading really difficult," says Christopher, who lives with his family in Hull. "I thought it was boring and very complicated, and I wasn't interested in it at all."

The Pooh Bear Reading Assistance Society uses a network of volunteers to target children just like Christopher. The volunteers try to cultivate an interest in reading by visiting children both at schools and at their home.

The project has received two National Lottery Grants: £170,000 in 1998 and £240,000 in 2003 and has since expanded their volunteer base from under a dozen to over 400.

"In Hull, like in any city, there are pockets of the population that have very low literacy levels," says Jo Roper, project development worker for the society.

"We have now recruited and trained over 400 men and women from all walks of life, and also run reading clubs and workshops to teach parents how to get more involved with their children’s reading."

As well as adult volunteers, the network has 500 pupil reading mentors - a role which Christopher delights in. He is an inspiration to the dozens of five and six year olds he teaches in his lunch hours.

According to Christopher's mother Sharon, who has also recently trained as a Pooh Bear Reading Assistant, he now regularly takes himself away to his room to read comics and adventure books instead of watching television. His teachers have also noticed an improvement in his confidence.

But Christopher sees his greatest achievement in becoming a role model for younger pupils.

"Every Tuesday lunchtime, I teach a little boy or girl, aged five or six, to read," he says. "They think I'm really cool and look up to me, and I feel happy because I can see I'm making reading easier for them.

"I've now decided that when I'm older I'd like to be a teacher because it's nice being an important part of a school and feeling that people are benefiting from what you do."

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