World Book Day
World Book Day will be taking place on Thursday 7 March 2024. This annual celebration of authors, illustrators, books and the joy of reading is one of the highlights of our year! Business volunteers donate an hour of their time to read to a primary school class, and share their love of reading and inspire imaginations!
Click on ‘Get Involved’ to support the next event on Thursday 7th March 2024
Numbers At Work
We are looking for businesses to run a Maths activity related to your business
Employers look for employees to have basic maths qualifications as standard. That’s where BW3 and local businesses come in with ‘Numbers at Work’; together providing fun, maths based sessions for primarily school children aged 10 and 11.
By taking students out of the usual classroom maths sessions, they get the chance to enjoy and appreciate how maths and problem solving is used every day in the workplace, across a variety of different job roles and industries. It soon dawns on them that what they are learning really does apply to real life situations.
We are asking for businesses to run a morning session with an activity they have created, relevant to their business – with our support.
We also need volunteer team leaders from BW3 business members who can provide support and encouragement to the pupils taking part in the activities.
Click on ‘Get Involved’ to support the next event on Friday 22nd March 2024 (8.30am – 12pm)
Reading Mentoring
Could you give time to support a Wythenshawe student to develop their reading?
We are looking for volunteers to take on the exciting new role of reading mentor with students aged 11 and 12 at a Wythenshawe high school.
With just a relatively small investment of your time, you can make a huge difference to a local student who needs additional reading support. We are calling on local businesses to help us recruit 40 reading mentors. Mentors will be given the opportunity to attend a two hour training session where they will be introduced to Shannon Trust’s specially-designed ‘Turning Pages’ materials, with a view to commencing the role as soon as you can.
Beyond the emotional rewards of having a potentially life-changing impact on a local child, mentors will be developing their own skills in areas such as communication, coaching and building relationships; it’s a win-win situation!
“We recognise the importance of instilling a love of reading in every student, and we are really excited about this project. We like to remind students and staff of all ages to make reading a priority activity in their lives, and we want people to make reading a regular part of their routine, whether they’re reading independently or together with their classmates, parents, or friends. Research consistently shows all pupils appear to benefit from reading mentoring programmes, and there is some evidence that pupils who are low-attaining and those with special educational needs make the biggest gains. We look forward to working alongside businesses in our local community to support our readers at St Paul’s.”
– Jamie Sharrock, Literacy Lead at St Paul’s
One half-hour mentoring session a week taking place at afternoon registration (1.40 – 2.05pm) as consistency and ‘little and often’ is the key to success with this.
All mentors will require an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, which BW3 will help you apply for.
Click on ‘Get Involved’ to ask for the date of next training session
Aspirational Mentoring
We are looking to expand our Aspirational Mentoring programme to support more Wythenshawe residents, with opportunities available to work with young people at schools and colleges in Wythenshawe and new for 2023 – Loreto and Xavierian Sixth Form Colleges. The programme has been hugely successful and has supported over 300 students since launched in 2011.
To meet demand from schools and colleges for Aspirational Mentoring we would like to invite those who are interested in becoming a mentor to register their interest to attend a half day training session.
Please click ‘Get Involved’ to book yourself on a session
Work Experience
Can your business offer a work experience placement for a young person from Wythenshawe? Given the last two years pupils have sadly had minimal interactions with businesses and access to the workplace. It is now more important then ever to receive a positive and inspiring introduction to the world of work.
The dates for all the local high schools are:
Manchester Enterprise Academy – Year 10 – 25th to 29th March
St Paul’s Catholic High School Year 10 – 24th to 28th June
Dixon Brooklands Academy Year 10 – 1st to 5th July
Get Involved!
If you are in a position to offer a work place experience, set a project challenge or deliver an in school active demo to a group please get in touch.