Chapter One UK

Chapter One runs the Online Reading Volunteers Programme that connects schools and families with corporate volunteers. We pair corporate volunteers all over the UK with children from communities facing disadvantage who need vital reading practice. Our online reading volunteers use a bespoke web-based platform and a voice connection to link from their workplace or home to a child on a dedicated classroom laptop. Each volunteer reader ‘meets’ with the same child for just 30 minutes a week, during the school day, over an entire academic year. The adult-child pair read stories and play games that build fluency, comprehension, phonics and, most importantly, foster reading confidence and enjoyment. Interventions like Chapter One's Online Reading Volunteers programme are urgently needed: a shocking 38% of 11-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds in England leave primary school unable to read English well (DfE, 2024), leaving them a full nine months behind their peers. The disruption to schooling caused by the pandemic, compounded by the cost-of-living crisis, has been devastating for many of these children, who have now fallen even further behind with their reading. In the areas in which we work, some 11-year-olds are as many as 13 months behind their peers. This gap opens early: by the age of seven there is a 17% attainment gap between children eligible for free school meals and their more advantaged counterparts. That’s why we focus Chapter One on the 5-8-year-olds, the foundational years for reading. Chapter One's virtual, time-efficient, flexible model for volunteering enhances a company’s employee value proposition, whilst fulfilling corporate social responsibility/social value commitments around education, social mobility and inclusion. 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.