The Reader Online » Merseyside

Reader Internships

Jen — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:00:43 +0000

My experience so far has been overwhelmingly positive and hugely beneficial to my professional and personal development. Much of this is down to the staff and environment here – the work can be challenging but there is a huge sense of achievement when it is completed successfully and I couldn’t have asked for nicer colleagues.

I have been given a wide range of responsibilities, gained valuable experience in different areas of the organisation, and gained new skills or built on my existing ones.

(Current intern)

Once again, The Reader Organisation are on the look out for four keen, energetic, graduate-level individuals who want to take on a sixteen-week internship with us in our Head Office in Liverpool. Our internships give you the opportunity to gain practical and stimulating work experience as part of a dymanic and growing charity.

These sixteen-week internships are for 25 hours per week (unpaid, but with travel expenses paid).

Communications Internship: Events and Publications
(click here for full details)
Communications Internship: PR and Publicity
(click here for full details)
Management Information Intern
(click here for full details)
Arts Administration Intern
(click here for full details)

Previous interns at The Reader Organisation have gone on to take up posts such as Editor at Vintage books, Marketing Manager at Princes Ltd, Digital Executive at a design company, Marketing Assistant at an architect’s firm, Accountant Graduate Scheme at KPMG, and a variety of positions within The Reader Organisation, including our current Communications Assistant, Research Administration Assistant and Development Manager.

How to apply

Please read the job descriptions (above) in full and complete this application form and return by email to jobs@thereader.org.uk or in post to The Reader Organisation, The Friary Centre, Bute Street, Liverpool L5 3LA.

Deadline for applications is 9am on 13^th February 2012. You will be notified if you are to be called for interview by the end of the day on 15^th February 2012. If you have not heard from us by then, you have been unsuccessful. Volume of applications may make replies to everyone impossible.

Interviews will be held at The Reader Organisation Office on 21^st February 2012.

If you have any queries, please call The Reader Organisation on 0151 207 7207.

Reading in Liverpool Schools Evaluation: Reading and responding

Lisa — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:00:48 +0000

One of the greatest things about reading - and specifically about shared reading aloud – is that it allows us to expand our ideas and thinking and over time, provides us with the confidence to give voice to them. Having access to a wide range of different fictional viewpoints also encourages us to be more tolerant and considerate of the beliefs and viewpoints of others.

It’s especially important that children are given the opportunity to express themselves openly, as well as respect and listen to those around them – and we’ve found that literature and shared reading sessions provide a particularly effective outlet for these things to happen. Quite spectacularly as a result of engaging in shared reading 89% of children in schools across Liverpool said that they were more confident discussing their ideas and opinions as a part of being in a group.

Even more encouraging is the fact that 96% of children agreed that they were more understanding towards the ideas and opinions of other people as a result of shared reading. Absolutely wonderful findings, showing that reading isn’t just about academic education - but emotional development too.

Liverpool Schools Evaluation: Relating reading to life

Lisa — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:00:49 +0000

Part of our philosophy at The Reader Organisation is that books and literature should be closely affiliated with each of our individual life experiences; indeed the things we read often have more to say about what has happened or what’s going on in our lives than encountered at first glance.

As part of their reading sessions, children in three Liverpool schools we’ve been working in have been discovering the connection between literature and life. In our recent evaluation, 76% of children said that they can relate their life to things they’ve read in books more readily as a result of taking part in sessions.

Reading in Liverpool Schools Evaluation: Reading is relaxing

Lisa — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:00:02 +0000

At The Reader Organisation, we’re keen to point out that reading offers much more than a pleasant diversion for a couple of hours at a time; in particular we believe that shared reading and reading aloud has significant benefits to health and wellbeing, especially helping to relieve stress, anxiety and tension.

Our recent evaluation of reading sessions in Liverpool schools has revealed that 80% of children questioned agreed that reading helped them to relax. This is great news – and shows another aspect of reading that is so beneficial to children’s lives.

Dorset Delights with Brian Nellist: Part 2

Lisa — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:00:23 +0000

Last week the first part of Brian Nellist’s delightful literary tour around Dorset – all from the safe haven of Birkenhead Central Library – came to a conclusion. Those who went along were treated over ten weeks to the works of Thomas Hardy, specifically his early and quite idyllic novel Under The Greenwood Tree, along with a selection of his short stories and poems by Hardy’s friend and mentor William Barnes.

However if you missed out then there’s no need to fear because Part Two begins in the New Year, in the very same place. Brian will continue to illustrate Dorset’s various strong literary connections by reading a selection of works from authors who lived, loved (in the case of Sir Thomas Wyatt, Dorset was his final resting place, being buried there) and were inspired by the picturesque county.

Jane Austen frequently holidayed in Lyme Regis and the resort figures large in Persuasion, which would be her last completed novel, and which will be read during the course. Wordsworth wrote his earliest poems in Dorset and T.F Powys and John Fowles both lived there – to signal this, the course will also feature poems and short stories by these three writers.

This selection of literary works will be read over a ten week period, and promises to be relaxing, illuminating and immensely enjoyable. The course will start on Thursday 19th January at Birkenhead Central Library and all texts will be provided. Funds will go towards supporting The Reader Organisation. For more information on booking, call 0151 207 7207.

Also, you can get a taster of what to expect from the wonderful Mr Nellist here…

Reading in Liverpool Schools: Broadening Horizons

Lisa — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:00:59 +0000

Our shared reading sessions with children and young people fly in the face of recent negative statistics about children’s reading habits, and our recent evaluation of sessions in schools across Liverpool (in Fazakerley, Parklands and Broadgreen) show very encouraging results indeed.

We have found that engaging in regular shared reading sessions not only makes kids want to read more often but also inspires them to widen their reading horizons – when questioned, 86% of children taking part in shared reading sessions in Liverpool schools said that they enjoyed reading stories and poems that they wouldn’t have normally chosen to read if they were doing so by themselves. Shared reading definitely helps to bring a good variety of literature into children’s personal reading selections.

Reading is as nice as pie: Liverpool Schools Evaluation Results

Lisa — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Last week, we heard the worrying statistic that 1 in 3 children in the UK do not own a book. Though the news is concerning, The Reader Organisation knows that if children find a way into reading, their love for books will flourish.

Our recent evaluation into Get Into Reading in Liverpool schools has brought forth some wonderful results which show that shared reading has a significant impact on children, boosting their enthusiasm for books. A staggering 98% of children said that they enjoyed shared reading sessions – very encouraging for bolstering a passion for reading amongst kids.

Festive Readers Evening at St James’ Library

Lisa — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:00:56 +0000

With the Penny Readings 2011 just around the corner, the Christmas spirit is very much in the air. If you missed out on Penny Readings tickets this year, do not fret as there’s another Christmassy-themed literature event that promises to be filled with festive fun and frivolity…

The Festive Readers Evening will be held at St James’ Library, Birkenhead on Wednesday 7th December and is sure to serve up Christmas cheer by the stocking-full. Appropriately, given the Dickens’ fever we’re currently experiencing at TRO (as well as is the reading population at large with the approaching bicentenary), the evening will have a distinctly Dickensian flavour. There’ll be festive readings, books, lively discussion, a quiz, mulled wine, nibbles and many more seasonal treats in store – including an appearance from very special guest Brian Nellist.

Sounds like a perfect evening to really get into the Christmas mood.

The event will run from 6.30-9pm. Tickets cost £3 and are available from all libraries in Wirral. For more information, you can also telephone St James’ Library on 0151 652 2268.

Supermarket Sweep

Jen — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 08:00:54 +0000

Since April this year, The Reader Organisation has been working on a fantastic Community Wellbeing Project alongside one of the world’s largest retailers – Tesco. It’s very new territory for TRO, and so we’ve all been very excited to see just how shared reading would develop in this kind of setting; could Get Into Reading in a supermarket café really work?

I am pleased to report a resounding YES! The first supermarket GIR group is now running in Tesco Litherland. It is called ‘Time for Me’, and we meet every Tuesday evening from 6.30pm till 7.30pm. The group is open to all, staff and customers, and thanks to the support of Tesco Litherland’s Community Champion, Sam Lupton, numbers are growing every week. We sit in comfy chairs in the café and enjoy a good read and conversation over a piece of cake. Apart from the occasional outburst over the tannoy, it is a GIR group like any other; relaxing, meaningful and remarkably intimate.

As a wider part of the project, we have also recruited 23 Tesco Community Champions to take part in an A Little, Aloud workshop, which is an introductory session designed to offer Tesco Community Champions the chance to build the confidence, enthusiasm and skills required to facilitate one to one shared reading sessions in their local communities. Using A Little, Aloud as a resource, we ran three sessions in Exeter, Liverpool and Hertford, hoping that the Community Champions would then be able to go on and facilitate one to one sessions in their local elderly care settings. For those of you who may have not come across them before, Community Champions are Tesco employees who identify local needs, develop local community initiatives and support local organisations, and so it seemed a natural fit for shared reading to become an innovative engagement tool that these dedicated staff could use within their community. Since the workshops, several Community Champions are already out in their community delivering sessions, and last week, I caught up with Lindsay Kennedy from Tesco Heswall to hear about her experiences so far:

I’ve been delivering shared reading one to one sessions in my local care home since the start of September, and it has been a truly fantastic experience. Taking part in the workshop itself was very enjoyable because it was relaxed and informal, and completely outside of my normal working environment. It wasn’t what I was expecting; I had felt nervous beforehand but soon relaxed once I realised that it was about giving people a positive experience, listening to their stories, as well as telling your own. I learnt lots and felt that I got to know my fellow colleagues in a different way.

Since the workshop, I’ve been reading with several ladies in Fairfield Nursing Home every fortnight, which is just the right amount of time to fit in with my 18 hour week. It has been very rewarding to hear their life stories and to know that you are giving somebody in your community a positive experience- it makes me feel all warm inside! Customers have recognised me in the care home when they’ve been visiting their family, and I’ve felt proud of being part of something so special. This isn’t something I would have imagined myself doing, and yet now, it’s become a part of my job that I look forward to and feel incredibly passionate about. It really is a completely interactive, rewarding experience unlike anything else I do in my job.

If you would like more information about this project or are interested in coming along to the GIR group at Tesco Litherland, feel free to get in touch with me on 07807106750 or at sophiepovey@thereader.org.uk.

TRO comes runner-up in Guardian Public Service Awards

Lisa — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:30:20 +0000

The winners of the Guardian Public Service Awards 2011 have been announced…and unfortunately, The Reader Organisation was not amongst them, though we did come runner-up in the Partnership Working category for our Reader-in-Residence partnership scheme with Mersey Care NHS Trust, Mersey Care Reads.

There was some very strong competition and it’s still a great honour for us to be nominated alongside some wonderful organisations; our shortlisting will provide a brilliant boost of recognition for the project which has gone from strength to strength in the past four years and is one of our most successful partnerships.

Eleanor McCann, Reader-in-Residence at Mersey Care, was at the awards and reported back to us about the evening:

“Just arrived back to Liverpool after our awards adventure! We felt proud to be at the ceremony on behalf of all the Mersey Care Reads team. It was heartening to hear about so many efforts in the sphere of public services and to place The Reader Organisation as part of a wider web of social enterprise.

It was a shame we didn’t win our category but we were really pleased to have been considered amongst the best partnership-working projects of the year. It is a real achievement and serious recognition for the vital work we do.

Look out for the supplement in today’s Guardian – there should be a snippet about us.”

The full list of winners is available on The Guardian’s website. Congratulations to all winners and runners-up.