Dewsbury school combats loneliness with Silver Stories Reading Scheme

The Silver Stories Reading Scheme involves the school children - known as silver readers - telephoning older people in the local community - known as silver listeners - each week to read them a short story or poem.

Not only does this scheme help the children to become more confident in their reading skills, it also links the children to older members of the community, helping them diminish their chances of feeling isolated.

The school started participating in the scheme after assistant head teacher, David Hutton, saw the programme being promoted on The One Show last October by special guest, broadcaster and presenter Esther Rantzen.

David said: “By linking our young readers to older people by telephone, the aim was to combat the loneliness and isolation that can be felt by older people, especially after the challenges of the last couple of years.

“We wanted to create inter-generational relationships and to offer children a richer reading experience whilst bringing some happiness to the elderly.

“Wonderfully simple but with the most incredibly positive impact for both silver listeners and silver readers, a group of our year six children have telephoned them once a week, every week to read to them and have a chat about the book and everyone concerned has greatly benefited from the experience.”

One silver reader said: "It made me happy reading to Mrs Oldroyd each week and hearing her lovely comments."

Another silver reader said: "It was a really positive experience reading to Mrs Booth each week. It built up my confidence and I am no longer afraid to read aloud."

Shirley Booth, a silver listener, said, "I enjoyed it so much and looked forward to hearing a story every Thursday.

“Being a former pupil of St Paulinus, which my children also attended, the school is very special to me and this was a lovely thing to be part of.

“I am already looking forward to the next school year when it starts again."

The school hopes to extend the programme further into local care homes when the reading programme resumes in September.

To find out how to get involved, visit https://silverstories.co.uk/