Reading Together

The Salvation Army STeP123 Literacy is currently implementing the Reading Together program in the Huon Valley, Derwent Valley and Northern Suburb Primary School communities.  

The Reading Together program was introduced with the concept that STeP123 will partner with teachers to identify and support children aged 5-12 years with developing their literacy skills. Currently, approximately 170 children are engaged in the weekly program across these communites, allowing them to read alongside and converse with an adult volunteer mentor.  

The Reading Together program plays an important role in children’s lives by encouraging them to read, develop their literacy skills and build positive relationships.

The idea is to get the children to enjoy reading and developing their enthusiasm for reading and conversation. Many children these days don’t have adults who read with them at home, and the subsequent conversation is crucial to increasing the ability to read. Reading Together is valuable for children and volunteers to nurture positive relationships together.

Volunteers are paired with a child, and the feedback received is that self-esteem and confidence in individual reading has risen dramatically. Positive adult mentor relationships are established between the volunteer and the student, and this promotes a development of trust and self-worth, which is built on and reinforced over the course of the school year.

As a direct result, the adults who take part in the program also grow in their own literacy, through reading regularly with the child, interacting with the school and wider community, and may be of benefit if they are preparing to enter the workforce. The volunteers feel connected to the community and feel like they’re making a positive and important difference in a child's life and often this gives renewed purpose in life.

The volunteers are sourced from the local community and read with at least three children, for 20 minutes each once a week, providing consistency and continuity for the children involved. The volunteers feel that they are making a positive and important difference in the life and future of the child they are sharing with in the Reading Together sessions.

Over the years since the Reading Together program inception, teachers have reported they are seeing positive results with individual children's literacy development in their classes.    

A Vice Principal shared that she is “very appreciative of the Program and it has become very valuable to the School”. 

A Grade 2/3 teacher recently commented "I just wanted to say that we see such a noticeable progression in the children who are consistently reading with our volunteers, in their overall comprehension and reading skills. The children love the volunteers and are also excited when they come in, jumping at the opportunity to read with them."