Most afternoons the room is noisier than a library should be. Children arrive straight from school, drop their bags and go looking for the book they were halfway through the day before.
Reading clubs start from a simple observation: the children who struggle to read in class are often the ones who never get to read for pleasure. Here there are no marks, and no one is in a hurry.
A volunteer reads aloud first, then steps back. Older children begin to help younger ones. A parent waiting at the door sometimes stays to listen, and leaves with a book to share at home.
The lesson for anyone planning this kind of work is that confidence comes before fluency. A child who believes reading is for them will practise; a child who does not will find reasons not to.
