'I want to open their eyes to the immense fun reading can be'

Abigail Golob, 23, a physiotherapy undergraduate, signed up as a Standard reading volunteer with our partner, the charity Volunteer Reading Help.

She has just started at William Davis primary where 80 per cent of the pupils are from non-English speaking homes.

Ms Golob said: "I have been given three children to read with, a girl and two boys, and so far I have done four sessions with each child.

"Abeda is six, her mother is Bangladeshi and speaks very little English, so she has nobody to read with at home.

"Abeda is a self-critical, easily disheartened little girl, and when she gets words wrong she gives up. She is the weakest reader of my three, yet she is also the most studious and our one-on-one sessions are building her confidence. I relate to her because I was also a slow reader at her age.

"The boys Jibraieel and Sofian are much more boisterous and so the challenge there is to settle them down to quietly focus and concentrate. They like playing Top Trumps because its competitive and fun, but the key has been finding books they enjoy, like Horrid Henry, where they love doing the dialogue with great expression."

She added: "The training I did with Volunteer Reading Help was superb and prepared me well and I am already seeing good progress in the children's reading.

"I have a boyfriend who grew up in care and has a reading age of 10, and I see how people regard him as stupid and won't give him a job. I want to help these children avoid that fate and open their eyes to the immense fun that reading can be."