Reading University Students

in Schools Program

As a school we take part in the Students in Schools scheme run by the University of Reading. It is a long-standing programme in which students volunteer to spend time helping out in local school. Typically, they will make 10 weekly visits of 1 or 2 hours although many students do stay longer. The volunteers may be undergraduate or postgraduate, from any discipline and often help in subjects outside their area of study such as art, music, sport or general literacy.

Many overseas students also offer native language support to children whose first language is not English as well as bringing a different cultural perspective to the classroom. Recent students have provided support in a wide range of languages including mandarin, Greek, Arabic, Romanian, Thai, Hungarian, Spanish, Urdu and Russian.

All year groups throughout the school at some point in the school year benefit from this support, particularly with one to one reading support and general classroom support.

Reading University institute of

Education partnership

The institute of Education at the University of Reading has been in the top 10 for over a decade in the UK for education (The Guardian University League Table 2019). One of the strengths of the program, as recognised by Ofsted is the high quality of support they provide to schools and reading partnership teachers (RPTs) on placement.

Alfred Sutton has a long-standing relationship with the University of Reading IoE in supporting teacher trainees on their placements. We value the act of ‘passing the torch’ by contributing to the education and experience of a teacher trainee in a positive and holistic way. With the challenges to educators growing, we believe Alfred Sutton is the perfect community to provide trainees with a wealth of valuable experience which will support them in their career.

Artlab

We have worked closely with the Reading University art department for several years as part of their Artlab Project. Years 5 and 6 have enjoyed some fascinating and inspiring sessions, working in partnership with the university students on a range of creative tasks and challenges. This university project aims to bring a wide range of children from across different background into contact with cutting edge art and technology projects. They aim to help educators, parents and pupils understand the value that art brings when combined with technology, offering amazing opportunities and potential careers within the fastest growing sector in the UK – the creative economy. Through the workshops, the children develop an understanding of both traditional art forms as well as computing, digital media and the new technologies that will shape both today and long into the future.

Taking inspiration from an Artlab session, children experiment with story-telling through shadow puppetry, recording their ideas using tablets and multimedia devices.