Sellafield nuclear site staff help Cumbrian primary children to read

A nuclear decommissioning site is running a scheme to help primary school children learn to read.

Volunteers at Sellafield in Cumbria and companies in its supply chain are being paired with five-to seven-year-olds who need reading practice.

The project has 111 volunteers signed up so far to help children from six local schools.

Its head of social impact, Luke Richardson, said: "A child who can read is set up for life.

"They do better at school and have better job prospects, [and] are happier and more confident."

The scheme wanted to reduce the numbers of children who do not own books or cannot read well by "using the power of our partnership at Sellafield", he added.

The children will be supported for a year via a secure, online platform run by reading charity Chapter One, meeting virtually for 30 minutes a week during the school day.

Volunteer Helen Thompson, from McMenon Engineering Services in Workington, said it was "very rewarding" to see how much the boy she helped enjoyed it.

"I look forward to the session with the child I work with every week," she said.

"Spending just half an hour reading with a child is nothing in the grand scheme of things but I know it's going to make a huge difference over the year."

Flimby Primary School headteacher Tanya Peers said the project would be "extremely beneficial" for her pupils.

"This is quality one-to-one work with children of all abilities and will help them to improve their fluency, comprehension and use their phonic skills to interpret unknown words," she said.

Sellafield said it expected more companies to join the project and intended to extend it to more local schools during the year.

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