Sixth Formers mentor Year 7 and 8 as Reading Ambassadors

Our Sixth Formers are role models for students in the whole school and one of the ways in which they are involved is through our Sixth Form Reading Ambassador project.

This hugely successful initiative at Bourne Academy sees a Sixth Form student paired with a Year 7 or 8 student who they then meet with once a week for a reading mentoring session.

The Sixth Form students listen to their mentees reading and ask them comprehension questions about their books. They also support them with accessing the Accelerated Reader scheme with the overall aim of the project being to improve confidence with reading, as well as improving the students’ reading ages.

This is a student led programme which sees the Head Reading Ambassadors create the schedule for all of the other students involved and monitor engagement and improvements made by the students.

We are pleased to announce that there will be a team of nine Year 12 students appointed to continue this rewarding programme. Sophie Bell, Elana Cox, Annie Markley and Cienna Pittam will be Head Reading Ambassadors with admin support provided by Imogen Broom. There are also four new positions as Senior Reading Ambassadors to help support the running of the ever-expanding programme, these are Nyah Gill, Daisy Smith, Isobel Staite and Ruby Stokes.

The Reading Ambassador scheme continues to go from strength to strength and we now have over 100 Year 7 and 8 students taking part who are all matched with a student mentor from Sixth Form.

With a growing number of Year 11 students due to start the SLAT Sixth Form in September 2025, the opportunity to become Reading Ambassadors will be available to them, so they can join this highly successful initiative, which improves literacy across the whole school.