Innovations for Learning runs TutorMate, a virtual reading scheme that enables employee volunteers to donate their time to transform a child’s life chances. We pair corporate volunteers all over the UK with disadvantaged children who need vital reading practice. Our reading volunteers use a specialist web-based platform and a voice connection to link from their workplace or home to a child on a dedicated classroom laptop. Each volunteer reader ‘meets’ with the same child for just 30 minutes a week, during the school day, over an entire academic year. The adult-child pair read stories and play games that build fluency, comprehension, phonics and, most importantly, foster reading confidence and enjoyment. Interventions like TutorMate are urgently needed: even before Covid a shocking 36% of 11-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds in England left primary school unable to read English well, leaving them a full nine months behind their peers. The disruption to schooling caused by the pandemic has been devastating for many of these children, who have now fallen even further behind with their reading. In the areas in which we work, some 11-year-olds are as many as 13 months behind their peers. This gap opens early: by the age of seven there is a 17% attainment gap between children eligible for free school meals and their more advantaged counterparts. That’s why we focus TutorMate on the 5-6-year-olds in Year 1, a ‘light-bulb’ year for reading. TutorMate’s virtual, time-efficient, flexible model for volunteering enhances a company’s employee value proposition, whilst fulfilling CSR commitments around education, social mobility and inclusion. If you’re interested in joining us, we’d love to hear from you! You’ll find out who we currently work with on our partners’ page. You can contact us here or email sarah.taylor@innovationsforlearning.org
