Mark Todd

 

A SOUTH DERBYSHIRE school has won an award for its work in helping children to read.

 

Stenson Fields Primary Community School runs the Every Child a Reader scheme which uses a technique called Reading Recovery to help children in years one and two who are behind on reading skills.

 

The scheme also aims to support children with less severe problems and improve class teaching of literacy.

 

The school will be given its award at a ceremony on Thursday (29th) in London organised by the Every Child a Chance Trust which used to run the scheme nationally before the Government took over in September.

 

Stenson Fields is being given the award for its work on leading good practice. A total of 16 schools out of 1,000 nationwide will be honoured at the ceremony at Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood between 2 and 4pm.

 

Mark is expected to attend the event and has been campaigning to get this scheme extended to more schools. He has led a debate in Parliament on the subject.

 

In South Derbyshire, there are currently three schools that run Reading Recovery but Mark is pushing for more schools to be involved. The Government has pledged to extend the scheme to 30,000 children by 2011.

 

Mark said: "This is a successful scheme to support children who have fallen behind in reading. Reading is the key to almost all learning and is critical to a child's participation in the wider school community. I've seen the impact this scheme makes on both a child's achievement levels and on their personal self-confidence."