"The volunteers would have it all set up and made life a whole lot easier."

Across Bookmark, we understand how limited teacher’s time can be and that setting up multiple pupils on their online reading sessions can stretch their capacity.

This year, we’ve trailed Session Coordinator Volunteers to help ease this pressure. Session Coordinator Volunteer’s come into partner schools to collect the children from their classrooms, set them up on their online sessions and make sure everything’s running smoothly.

We spoke to Sean Buyers, Deputy Head at St Vincent's Catholic Primary School in West London about his experience working with Session Coordinator Volunteers in his school.

St Vincent’s Primary became a Bookmark partner school in January 2021 and initially ran reading programmes for the children of key workers while the country was in lockdown. It was once all of their pupils were back in school that Sean began to struggle to find the time to organise the sessions. Sean said:

“I was the only one with time to set up and monitor the sessions. In lockdown this was okay, because we were just doing the children that were here, there was less of them and because we were in bubbles our TAs were able to help. When all the children came back to school, I was having to remind the teachers every week and I’d receive emails from volunteers saying that a child hadn’t turned up. Then I’d have to leave a lesson to go and get that child for their programme. It became quite time consuming for me to go and get them and get them set up on their programme. That’s what I was finding difficult.”

We arranged for two of our volunteers who lived locally to visit the school twice a week, alternating weeks. They collected the children from their classrooms and made sure they were set up and ready for their reading sessions. Sean said:

“After the first session where I ran through the set up, I didn’t hear from them again. It was brilliant! Bookmark understood the time it can take to get 6 or 7 children logged onto the programme at once and solved that issue. The volunteers would have it all set up and made life a whole lot easier.  It was so successful that we’ve hired a TA who takes on this role now.”

By freeing up Sean’s time with the Session Coordinators, it meant that 18 children from St Vincent’s could take part in Bookmark reading programmes. That’s 12 more children than the school was originally intending to include. Sean said:

“The children really enjoy their sessions, and any extra time spent reading is good for them. They get to speak to someone who asks them questions and is interested in them, which builds their confidence. It really improves their fluency and understanding. It's a no-brainer for me to keep the Bookmark programme on into the next academic year.”

Get in touch with your School Relationship Manager to find out how Bookmark can support your team, either by providing a Session Coordinator Volunteer or by training a volunteer you’re already working with.

Are you interested in becoming a Session Coordinator? Get in touch with Jenny our Volunteer Experience Manager here to find out more.

Find out more about our reading programmes for children in Years 1-4 here.