Schools
Yes We Can Read is an ideal tool for one-to-one tutors to improve reading skills in schools. By going right back to the basic building blocks, tutors are able to diagnose and record where the blockages to progress lie. The reading practice and exercises enable the learner to overcome any problems and to develop reading for meaning and enjoyment.
Yes We Can Read is designed so that another reading coach can take over seamlessly, such as when the One-to-one tutor has reached the end of the hours allocated for the learner. This ensures continuity of progress and builds on the learner’s newly developed reading skills and enthusiasm.
Volunteer reading coaches who take over from the 0ne-to-one tutors could be support staff, parents, other students within the school, university students volunteering in schools, trainee teachers or Duke of Edinburgh award scheme youngsters on community service. The use of Yes We Can Read within the one-to-one tuition strategy will thereby also foster community cohesion and a whole school approach towards literacy.
“If you know someone who finds reading difficult and learning to read didn’t quite work the first time for whatever reason then this is the scheme for them: Yes We Can Read is just the magic you need to succeed.”
Damien Jordan, Headteacher, Fairlight Primary and Nursery School
"We have started to use Yes We Can Read with one of our pupils, with rapid success... This is a pupil who has struggled to read since he started school, and is now in Y3. He was on the border of being a school refuser, and the success he is now experiencing since starting the programme, is helping him to be much happier at school."
Julie M Johnson, Headteacher, Our Lady's Catholic Primary School
“I used Yes We Can Read with a child who had been receiving one to one help for seven years and reached a reading age of 5.5. After 10 weeks additional help using Yes We Can Read, he’d made 18 months progress.
Geof Sewell
Each One Teach One: Peer teaching reading in schools
Brune Park Community School have pioneered a scheme designed to support Year 7 students with their reading. Year 11 students and Year 7 students are paired up together, with Year 11 students acting as coaches using Yes We Can Read. They coach before school and during morning registration on a daily basis; so there is no disruption to the school organisation or lessons.
The effect on the behaviour, attendance and self-esteem of both coaches and learners is amazing. Headteacher Richard Kelly says, "The whole school is much calmer and now has a sense of purpose."
The scheme has proved to be so successful that Caroline Dinenage, the local MP, invited the Yes We Can Read team, college staff and a Year 11 student to visit the Houses of Parliament to present their work.
Coach: "I feel amazing I want to help more."
Yr 11: "I walk with a spring in my step."
Yr 7: "I do not get so angry now."
Yr 7: "I read a whole paragraph out loud in history, never done that before."
Teacher: "It's so much more than just learning to read."
“Yes We Can Read has changed the lives of Year 10 and 11 coaches and Year 7 learners at our school. It has also brought a more purposeful atmosphere around the school.”
Richard Kelly, Headteacher, Brune Park Community School
"I learned to read with Yes We Can Read in our school reading club, where the Year Elevens teach us Year Sevens to read first thing in the morning. I finished the book just before half-term. I missed being part of the club, so I just went back again on the first day back. Now I am teaching my best mate to read with Yes We Can Read. It’s me doing the coaching! I can read the coach instructions, because I can read what I want to now."
Leon Underwood (11) Year 7 pupil, Brune Park Community School
“I don’t understand why people don’t get the idea of ‘each one teach one’. Anyone can just pick up Yes We Can Read and teach someone to read. It always works ! Why don’t people just get on with it? I have been diagnosed with autism and my learner was just like me when I was in Year 7. Now he’s off reading whatever he wants.”
Richard Littleproud (15), Brune Park Community School
“It’s easy and it’s so rewarding to feel like you have that effect on someone’s life. They’ll always remember you because you will always be that person who gave them the ability to read. That’s a really special thing and everyone should have the opportunity to do it.”
Paige Young (15), Brune Park Community School
“Our Yes We Can Read project is here to stay. The results are extraordinary - for learners and for our coaches as well - and I have a queue of Year 10 and 11 students who want to teach reading.”
Mikaela Milne, English teacher and project co-ordinator