91-year-old former teacher Diana Iddles has been volunteering to help children read
Diana Iddles of United Kingdom is helping children develop their literacy skills from her living room, at the age of 91. She reads with her five pupils over an online platform aimed at helping children’s progress with reading following lockdown. She uses Bookmark Charity’s technology kit that allows Mrs Iddles to host sessions from her home in Tettenhall, Wolverhampton. As quoted by her to BBC, the volunteering work had filled a “huge hole” in her life after the death of her husband. “It’s made life worth living, I’ve got some purpose and it’s so rewarding” she said.
For primary school children struggling with their reading, the Bookmark Reading Charity helps them improve their reading skill by matching and aligning them with trained volunteers. Introduced during the coronavirus pandemic, Bookmark Reading Charity’s technology helps tackle a “desperate need” for its services. The pandemic and cost-of-living crisis seems to have disproportionately affected pupils from more disadvantaged communities. According to Bookmark Reading Charity, eight children leave primary school unable to read well in an average state school class. They currently have about 2,000 volunteers working with about 200 schools across the country, but is calling for more people to come forward due to the high demand from schools.
Despite a career as a teacher Mrs Iddles had previously only taught three people to read – her younger sister, as well as her own daughter and son. So, when considering signing up to the charity she wondered if she can do again what she had done three times before. Mrs Iddles went to school unable to read because her parents had been told that they must not teach her. She vividly remembers the first bit of reading that she did at the age of five. This is when he decided then and there that she was going to be a teacher. She has delivered more than 230 reading sessions after she signed up as a volunteer in 2021. The children receive the sessions via an online platform over the course of six weeks.
One of her pupils, Angie, moved to the UK from Central America three years ago, unable to speak English. Mrs Iddles received special permission to carry on working with her after the initial six weeks and the pair have now done more than 40 sessions. The nine-year-old pupil now attends Langley Primary School in Oldbury.
Though Bookmark Reading Charity offers face-to-face teaching, the online element is now about 80% of its work. There seems to be a desperate need for its services from schools across the country. It was only able to meet about 60% of demand from school partners last autumn. The children on the programme receive an hour of one-to-one reading each week. The reading sessions enables the Charity to provide what they need which is children building a relationship with the volunteers and having time dedicated to them and nobody else.
Image courtesy BBC
