News and blogs News High praise from first school in Scotland to receive Reading Helper Training 23 October 2019 A group of parents and members of a school community in Aberdeenshire have become the first in Scotland to access Coram Beanstalk's Reading Helper Training which helps school volunteers support children to read well and boost their reading enjoyment. Rosehearty Primary School, near Fraserburgh, brought in the Reading Helper Training course which is delivered by reading charity Coram Beanstalk, opening it up to parents, carers and staff at the school as part of efforts to engage more people from within the school’s community to help children develop a love of reading. During the course attendees received inspiring training on running one-to-one sessions with children of primary school-age that encourage reading for pleasure whilst complementing the teaching in the school. Mike Taylor is Head Teacher at Rosehearty Primary School: “We know that reading attainment is not where we would like it to be and I think a contributing factor is a decline in reading for pleasure among many children. Reading together with children at home and at school can make such a big impact on reading enjoyment and, as a school that is at the heart of its community, we really want to encourage that to happen more. I believe it’s so important to have parents in the school to see first-hand what we do and to see how they can help reinforce this learning at home.” One of the attendees said: “It was very informative, highly interesting and I feel it will be extremely useful for helping my children and others become passionate about reading.” Coram Beanstalk has been working with schools across England for over 45 years, supporting children aged 3 to 13 in a variety of ways, turning them into confident, passionate and able readers. This is the first time the charity has delivered its evidence-based Reading Helper Training at a school in Scotland, marking the start of plans to work with more schools during the course of the academic year. Ginny Lunn, Managing Director at Coram Beanstalk, said: “We are so delighted to have delivered our Reading Helper Training to the first school in Scotland. We know that raising literacy attainment is a challenge across the UK and it has always been part of our vision to expand into Scotland, helping more children make friends with reading through our range of programmes. We are now looking forward to delivering the training to more schools across Scotland.” Find out more about Coram Beanstalk's training programmes Manage Cookie Preferences