Airbus employees help local primary school children improve literacy skills

Staff from the Airbus factory in Broughton have been giving up their time to help local primary school children improve their literacy skills.

Airbus is supporting Business in the Community’s Right to Read Scheme which aims to improve primary school children’s literacy levels by partnering Key Stage One and Key Stage Two pupils with Airbus volunteers for a one-to-one reading session each week.

Some 20 volunteers from Broughton have been visiting four local primary schools over a 10 week period, and more than 60 children have taken part in the reading sessions.

Business in the Community representative, Jacqui Manley, says “Airbus provides fantastic support with the Right to Read scheme helping to improve local children’s reading age and confidence at the four primary schools they are engaged in.”

Airbus Logistics Project Leader, Jilly McCormack, and three of her colleagues have been supporting Saltney Ferry Primary School on Friday afternoons for the last three years and said “the team have built up a good relationship with the school and very much feel part of it.  It is very rewarding seeing how much the children improve their reading and comprehension skills throughout the year.”

Airbus’ Community Relations Manager, Kath Hayes said: “We are proud to support our employees who want to make a positive difference. This helps to build the students literacy development, and encourages them to learn, improving their confidence, communication skills and attitude towards reading. It’s the third year we’ve been involved in this and the feedback from schools has been tremendous”.

Jan Bibby, Broughton Primary School’s Deputy Head Teacher, said “It’s been great welcoming Airbus employees to Broughton Primary school to support reading sessions for our pupils in both Foundation Phase and Key Stage 2 departments.

“The children look forward to Friday afternoons and love sharing their books with the volunteers, having a giggle and talking about their favourite stories. As a school we are really pleased that this project has been able to run and are glad to see both new faces join us as well as volunteers who did the project last year.”

The scheme was launched in 2013 and includes pupils from Broughton Primary School, Saltney Ferry Primary School, Highfield Community Primary School in Blacon and St Ethelwold’s Primary School in Shotton