17 July 2018

As the summer term comes to a close Beanstalk partner schools across England have been recognised for their continued dedication to help inspire a love of reading among pupils.

Over the last few weeks staff and pupils at primary schools across the country have been presented with special partnership plaques by Beanstalk. The charity partners with schools to recruit, train and place volunteers from the local community who go in to the setting each week and provide regular one-to-one support to children that would benefit from extra help.

As part of celebrations Beanstalk volunteers have also been invited to join special assemblies in recognition of their contribution in helping to bring the magic of reading to children at the school.

Just over 230 primary schools across England have received the special Beanstalk plaques. Cavendish Primary School in West London was one of the schools to be presented with a Beanstalk plaque. Anna Coleman, Deputy Head Teacher at the school, said:

"We choose children from years two, three, four and six to work with a Beanstalk reading helper for a variety of reasons, but they all enjoy the time they spend each week with their helpers and we see real progress being made as a result of the one-to-one attention."

Ginny Lunn, Chief Executive Officer at Beanstalk, said:

“Having a positive attitude to reading is key to encouraging children to develop a love of books and the schools have continued to implement strategies that ensure learning to read is fun and enjoyable for the children. We are so delighted to present these plaques which represent the staff, the children’s and the volunteers’ continued hard work and we hope that it can take pride of place so the schools can be proud of its achievements!”

Beanstalk currently works with over 1,300 schools across England and welcomes new enquiries from schools that would like Beanstalk support across the region. The charity is also looking for people who would like to volunteer in schools as reading helpers, so if you would like to find out more please visit our schools and our volunteering pages.