Core Employees Supporting Childhood Literacy

Friday, February 14th, 2020

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. This is a key element of the success of our Time to Read literacy programme, of which there are currently 43 company-school partnerships.

Core, Ireland’s largest marketing communications company has been involved with the primary school programme with St. James’ Primary, Dublin 8 since 2017. Each year employee volunteers from Core generously give their time to give one-on-one reading support to 2nd class children.

Children who leave school with inadequate literacy skills face a lifetime of difficulty and disadvantage, but with the right support and encouragement at a young age this can be avoided. Time to Read focuses on 2nd class children in particular as it has been proven, during the programme’s external pilot evaluation, to be the age which maximizes the window of opportunity.

St. James’ Primary School’s Principal has seen this impact first-hand;

“Time to Read gives fantastic support to the children in our school. We have very low literacy levels throughout the school and this support is invaluable. Many children have no opportunity to read at home so this programme provides those children with support.”

“I think this programme has had an immeasurable impact on the children in our school. Positive non-judgmental, consistent relationships with adults are so important to the children in our school. This project had this in spades and whether the volunteers know it or not, the impact they’ve had on the lives of the children in our school has been really phenomenal.”  – Ciarán Cronin, St. James’ Primary Home School Community Liaison

Core employees visit Inchicore Library with their St. James’ Primary reading buddies to show them what’s available in their local library for free with their new library cards.

 

Volunteers also get great enjoyment from being a part of the programmes and giving back to the community:

“It helped me to see beyond my own daily life and what others are going through just a few minutes down the road. It helped provide a bit of perspective.” – Core volunteer

“The programme brought me in touch with a cohort than I would not have the opportunity to “mix” with.  It reaffirmed the importance of reading.  And it showed that early intervention is essential to those who could do with a little help on finding a better path.” – Core volunteer