Smith Family Student2Student

The Student2Student program has been running at Fort Street for some years now, improving the reading skills of primary school students who are living with poverty. It is overseen by the Smith Family, which is dedicated to eradicating educational disadvantage, and is central to their work. Primary students who struggle with reading are identified by their school and recommended to the Smith Family for inclusion in the program, which pairs them with capable older readers for an 18-week program of 2-3 reading sessions online or by phone each week. Most readers develop skills and confidence which are life-changing, thanks to the patient mentoring of their reading buddies.

This is a fantastic way for our students to share their gifts with the community, and I am so impressed by the commitment and generosity of the 35 students who gave up their time to be Student2Student buddies last year. They showed great persistence in keeping the program going despite the extra technical difficulties that arose through the COVID lockdown. Importantly, they provided a stable routine and an extra social contact that supported their readers through this strange year. Our students added a total of 22.5 years to the reading age of their readers in 2020.

Thanks also to those students who offered to be reading buddies but who could not be paired with readers, and to those whose readers had to pull out of the program for personal reasons. Congratulations are due to them all!

Students who would like to be reading buddies this year should contact me by the end of February.

Elizabeth Maddox