In April, I visited Ledbury Community Hub for a pot of peppermint tea and I met Nic, the hub leader. We talked about his vision for the hub, opportunities for me as a volunteer… and he kindly offered me use of the space for four, free, drop-in reading sessions for local children and families.
The idea was for adult and child to pop in between 10:30 am and 12:30 pm to share a book and a chat with me on the following Saturdays: 18th May, 1st June, 15th June and 29th June.
At the time of writing, three of the drop-in sessions have come and gone – and we have one more to go…
In the run up to the first event, I emailed local schools and nurseries, sending them the ‘Read with Julia’ poster (with original artwork from Hollie, Ledbury Community Hub’s resident artist!) to invite children and families in the Ledbury area to come along. I followed up with phone calls to every school and nursery a few days before the event to gently encourage them to share the news.
I also posted information on my social media feeds, encouraging adult and child to pop in to share a book and a chat. I even filmed myself excitedly talking about my “bagful of wonderful picture books” and made another video to show people how to find Ledbury Community Hub.
Saturday 18th May (the first shared reading session)
I was delighted to welcome my first young reader on Saturday 18th May. He came with his mum and we enjoyed sharing ‘This is not my hat’ by Jon Klassen.
After a few pages, my six year-old companion happily started to take over the reading from me. All the way through, I encouraged him to turn the pages when he was ready and celebrated his independence, while offering support with tricky words. We also shared our thoughts and feelings about the book and illustrations.
After we had read together, I had a chat with Mum while her little reader demonstrated his writing skills. He independently redrafted his first two attempts and persevered to produce an uplifting review of his time at Ledbury Community Hub:
‘I lic yroree din.’ = I like your reading.
I was delighted with my first review!
Saturday 1st June (the second shared reading session)
I was even more delighted to welcome the return of my first session’s reader/writer and his dad on Saturday 1st June – when I enjoyed sharing stories with four young readers. Here’s a selection of the books we read together:
One of the three boys who came along wrote me this heart-warming message:
‘IloveriTin’: I love writing.
A preschooler, who came along with her mum, was eager to share book after book after book! Mum and I chatted about the early stages of learning to read and why ‘pure’ phonics sounds were so important. She gave me her email address, so I could pass on some links to help her continue supporting her little girl’s ever-increasing love of books.
At the end of the morning, I stayed on to enjoy a delicious plant-based spaghetti bolognese pay-what-you-can meal, freshly cooked for the community by Nic (the hub leader – whose two boys shared ‘Dinosaur Roar’ with me).
Saturday 15th June (the third shared reading session)
At 8 am on Tuesday 11th June, I sent another email to local schools and pre-schools to give them all an update (with photos!) and to ask for help to keep spreading the word about the remaining Saturdays. I’d like to say a big “THANK YOU!” to schools and pre-schools for displaying the poster for everyone to see, adding the poster to their school newsletters, and/or emailing families to let them know.
I had the pleasure of the company of three readers and their mums on Saturday 15th June.
My first reader of the morning chose ‘The Big Red Bus’ from my story selection. He clearly demonstrated both his skill at segmenting and blending letter sound correspondences and his increasing knowledge of tricky words. We enjoyed all the excitement of the story!
My second reader of the morning chose to share Martin Waddell’s ‘Owl Babies’ with me. Her teacher had read the story in class and she was eager to enjoy the book again. I asked if my young reader would like me to start reading, but she politely declined my invitation and said she’d like to read by herself.
At a few points during the reading, after praising her hard work, I suggested I read a page so she could have a little rest. Only once did she feel the need to hand over the reading and take a short break.
She showed outstanding determination and independence from start to finish, with me stepping in to support here and there. Hip Hip Hooray! My goal is to build independent readers.
I was delighted to welcome one of my readers back for the third time. He brought a book from home to share with me. He read it beautifully, skilfully using the rise and fall of his voice. I was also impressed to observe him noticing an occasional error, returning to the start of the sentence and independently sorting out the problem.
Every time I see and hear a child self-correcting, I feel like cartwheeling around the room. It’s a very promising sign of future progress in a child’s reading development.
As nobody else had arrived, I invited him to choose from my book selection and we had fun sharing ‘I want my hat back’ by Jon Klassen:
I was very grateful to receive some bright and beautiful artwork from this week’s readers and more encouraging feedback:
Saturday 29th June (the fourth and final shared reading session)
I look forward to welcoming more readers (and returners!) to Ledbury Community Hub for the last ‘Read with Julia’ session on Saturday 29th June. Pop in with your child any time between 10:30 am and 12:30 pm.
(Poems will be on the menu, as well as stories, to celebrate the start of the 2024 Ledbury Poetry Festival!)
Contact Julia
Do you have a question about learning to read, but haven’t been able to come along to the ‘Read with Julia’ sessions at Ledbury Community Hub?
Pop in your details, send me a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Follow the ‘Read with Julia’ blog
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
Read with Julia 