A TEACHING assistant who has spent the past eight weeks working with children on the Oxfordshire Reading Campaign has said how impressed she is with the scheme.

Karen Williams, from Bampton Primary School, is working through the Project X Code books with four Year 2 pupils to boost their reading skills, comprehension and enjoyment.

Mrs Williams said: “As soon as I picked up the teaching book and read it I just knew that the children were going to really enjoy it because it was so child-friendly.

“It grabbed their attention straight away and, from their enthusiasm, my enthusiasm grew as well.”

She said two of the youngsters were already much more confident readers, while another who had previously had poor comprehension skills was improving rapidly.

Mrs Williams said the difference had spread beyond the sessions.

She said: “Rather than when you put something in front of them and say ‘please read’ and they say ‘no, I can’t’, now they will give it a go.

“They are not necessarily fluently reading it, but they are trying.”

She said most of the group were doing more reading outside the classroom, while parents were also engaged with the scheme.

She added: “One little boy who still sounds out words phonetically will now blend everything together and go back and re-read a sentence.

“Before he would not at all and I am hoping from this it will carry on.”

Mrs Williams said she was looking forward to getting some results on how much the youngsters’ reading age had advanced since starting the scheme.