Memorandum submitted by Volunteer Reading
Help
INTRODUCTION AND
SUMMARY
1. Volunteer Reading Help (VRH) is a national
charity, established in 1973, which recruits, trains and supports
volunteers to work with disadvantaged children and children with
reading difficulties aged 6-11. We work with children who may
need extra support and mentoring. Our trained volunteers read,
and engage with the children on a weekly basis in two half an
hour sessions. Each volunteer supports three children each week
for a minimum of an academic year. We work in schools, but outside
the classroom. With 20% of children aged 11 unable to read at
an age-appropriate level, the benefits of additional support services
for children's literacy through VRH is essential.
2. It will be important that the nature
of Ofsted inspections change in line with developments in service
provision in schools and at the local level, including in particular
the personalised learning and extended schools agenda. It will
also be important for Ofsted to carve out a role in the assessment
of Children's Trusts and Local Strategic Partnerships to ensure
that the Every Child Matters agenda is delivered and that
co-location of services becomes a reality. The voluntary sector
will play a critical role in this and Ofsted must ensure that
they examine the way public bodies involve the sector as this
policy area develops.
OFSTED'S
REVIEW OF
THE PRIMARY
NATIONAL STRATEGY
3. VRH welcomed Ofsted's report on the progress
of the Government's Primary National Strategy (PNS). In particular,
VRH supports Ofsted's observation that there still exist notable
variations in achievement between schools. The PNS review also
highlighted the need to further "personalise" learning
for low-attaining pupils in order to tackle inequalities in achievement
both within schools and in a national context. Ofsted also emphasised
the importance of a "flexible" approach to the curriculum.
OFSTED'S
INSPECTION ROLE
4. VRH sees Ofsted's school inspection role
as extremely important, especially in terms of holding the Government
and schools accountable for the delivery of all objectives surrounding
children's attainment in literacy. Ofsted already acknowledges
the role of the voluntary sector when inspecting schools' provision
of extra-curricular and other activities. It will become increasingly
important that Ofsted adapts to the changing nature of school
policy, particularly in light of the extended schools agenda.
It will also be important that Ofsted looks
at how the voluntary sector more broadly is included with Children's
Trusts and within Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs). In some
areas local authorities are very good at engaging with the voluntary
sector and ensuring that its voice is heard. In other areas however
the picture is less impressive and it is important that Ofsted
plays a role not merely in scoring public bodies but also in sharing
best practice.
RECOMMENDATIONS
5. It is the view of VRH that Ofsted has
a key role to play in ensuring the delivery of key objectives
of such policies as personalised learning and extended schools.
VRH in general welcomes the enhanced role for Ofsted as set out
in the Education & Inspections Bill, especially with regard
to the holistic approach to the inspection of children's services.
VRH hopes that this will lead to a more inclusive assessment of
the provision of children's services within schools.
5.1 Personalised learning
The role of volunteers in providing one-to-one
reading support, as provided by VRH, is not only vital to delivering
improved literacy levels but also in establishing a crucial mentoring
role for disadvantaged children. This is particularly important
for such vulnerable groups as looked-after children and low-attaining
pupils. In this sense, it would be helpful for Ofsted to further
acknowledge the valuable role played by volunteers when inspecting
schools and assessing schools on how effective they are at recruiting
and integrating the volunteer workforce.
"English 2000-2005", which
was a vitally important document, unfortunately contained no recommendation
for personalised learning for children in an out-of-classroom
setting and VRH would urge Ofsted to focus on schools' progress
in this area.
5.2 Extended schools
Again VRH believes that Ofsted could have a
key role in scrutinising and encouraging the provision of extended
services by schools. It will be vitally important for Ofsted to
begin identifying how it will audit schools against the requirements
and outcomes of extended schools. Ofsted will play an important
role in measuring the success of schools in providing extended
services and we look forward to this being developed over the
coming months.
March 2006
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