Owen Griffiths, Associate, and Zoe de Rijk, Trainee Solicitor, are two of the 30 volunteers at our Silver Partner Mishcon De Reya who collectively provided 225 hours of one-to-one reading support to Chapter One children during the 2023-24 school year. We caught up with Owen and Zoe to find out more about their experience of being Chapter One online reading volunteers.

What motivated you to begin volunteer reading with Chapter One?

Owen: I’ve previously done some mentoring with another charity that focuses more on slightly older children, which I really enjoyed. My degree was also in English, so I’m very happy to help with literacy, but what stood out to me was the flexibility and remote nature of the volunteering. It makes it easy for busy people to make a difference.

Zoe: I've had a lot of really influential teachers and sports coaches over the years, and I wanted to give some of the support that I have had back. In the past, I've listened to children read and worked as a mentor with young adults and both have been extremely rewarding. I thought Chapter One would be a good thing to get involved in and a way to give back to the community.

What are the benefits of being a Chapter One online reading volunteer?

Owen: It’s something I look forward to each week, and I think that doing it gives you some headspace from your day job. You can pause and just enjoy helping a child with their reading. And then there's also the soft skills that come with being a volunteer in terms of communication, working with a different age group and being adaptable.

Zoe: It’s been great to do something that is at a very different pace and tone to my day job. It's really rewarding helping encourage a child to read and to watch them begin to recognise the importance of reading and to start to enjoy it. It's been a lovely experience to be able to see their progress and engage with them and witness their reading journey.

What progress has your pupil made this year?

Owen: I’ve been really impressed with her progress. She’s gone up multiple reading levels, and has gone from finding things more difficult at the beginning, to now whizzing through three stories and multiple games in one session. Now we’re refining things rather than focusing on the basics, so for example the trickier words and the quirks of the English language.

Her comprehension and fluency have definitely improved, as well as her vocabulary. And she's much more comfortable with talking to me now as well as choosing the stories and activities. In the beginning she’d wait for me to lead, but now she’s keen to pick stories on topics she likes, which is nice.

Zoe: Her reading has improved so much, it's been remarkable! At the start, she just didn't enjoy reading at all. She would complain if a book was more than three pages long. We had to take it in turns reading a page, and she’d always say it was my turn to read. She had no interest in reading the stories and just wanted to play games.

Now, she reads pages fluently, and she doesn't comment on the length of the book – despite the fact the books have increased in length. She'll read multiple books in a session; she just flies through them. Her attitude towards reading has just completely transformed. She's so enthusiastic now - in the beginning, even trying to get her to pick a book was quite hard, whereas now she’s really engaged with them, and asks questions.

At the start she was prone to getting distracted by what was going on in the classroom – whereas now, she will even offer to tell the rest of the class to be quiet as it's important that she's reading!

What would you say to anyone thinking of signing up to volunteer?

Owen: The system is well set up, the support from Chapter One is amazing and the schools have clearly got the structure in place to do it too. As long as you want to help children develop, enjoy reading and have fun, and are prepared to give just 30 minutes a week, you’ll have a brilliant time!

Zoe: Chapter One is a very easy, accessible volunteering opportunity. I don’t have to travel anywhere, I can do it from my desk. The whole process is really smooth. It's not a big time commitment - it’s 30 minutes a week, and I don't have to do any preparation for it either. I would really recommend it.

How can companies get involved in Chapter One?

Chapter One’s virtual, time-efficient, flexible model for volunteering will enhance your company’s employee value proposition, whilst fulfilling CSR or social value commitments around education, social mobility and inclusion. Employees can:

- volunteer online directly from their desks with no travel

- make a direct impact on the lives of children from disadvantaged communities

- support local communities across the UK

- improve their own well-being by helping others

- reconnect with your company’s social purpose

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@chapterone.org.