Nursery and school's paired reading scheme deemed a success

A Boldon nursery and primary school have joined forces to introduce a reading scheme which has proven to be a success.

Sunshine Nursery based in Boldon Community Association and West Boldon Primary School have formed a strong partnership through the initiative.

The idea of the programme is to create strong links between the two education settings so when the nursery children start at the primary school they are familiar with teachers and children.

Receive a news round-up, as well as breaking news alerts, when you sign up to the Shields Gazette’s newsletters

Every other Wednesday, different pupils from years four to six visit the young children at the nursery and read to them.

The scheme launched last year and has proved beneficial to all those involved.

Nursery Manager, Lisa Leyden said: "It's a great way for the younger and older children to engage through reading.

"The little ones look forward to the older ones coming and they too enjoy reading to the younger ones.

"It gives the older ones a sense of responsibility as they bond with the little ones and help them with their reading.

"It's helped both sets of children with reading and their confidence and makes the transition easier for the younger ones when they start reception."

The scheme has been praised by parents and Lisa believes more nurseries and schools should partner up to introduce the programme.

READ MORE: Schoolchildren awarded for their efforts to stamp out bullying

Steve McCormack, Deputy Head at West Boldon Primary added: "The paired reading scheme is an amazing opportunity to build links between primary pupils and nursery children.

"Reading is the cornerstone of education, it is so important to develop a love of reading from as young an age as possible. In today's digital world, children often don't have the opportunity or time to sit with a physical book and enjoy the stories being brought to life.

"The paired reading scheme helps older children develop key skills of reading out allowed and in the nursery children gives them a more relatable role model of older children showing how much they love books.

"It's so nice to be able to take children to the Sunshine Nursery who actually used to attend and show the staff the amazing progress that they have made through primary school building on the good work that the nursery started."