Sheerwater/Maybury Partnership Literacy Project
This project exists to support the provision of free books to local schools as part of an extra curricula literacy initiative.
SI Woking became involved in this project in 2006 in order to help local school children as part of our service to the community. The Sheerwater and Maybury Partnership is a registered charity working in the Sheerwater and Maybury area of Woking, one of the most deprived in the country, with a focus on young people: their literacy, personal development, health and wellbeing. The national average for low literacy is 19% but in Sheerwater and Maybury it is nearly double this figure. (Source: National Census)
The club makes regular financial donations and also helps with preparing bookplates that list the club as benefactor. Each year the Sheerwater and Maybury Partnership provide in excess of 1800 books to seven local schools providing an effective and relatively inexpensive way to promote language growth. In addition they provide a small library of books for Carers Support Woking. The Partnership is piloting a reading programme using synthetic phonics to improve study abilities in reading, writing and spelling and it is hoped that we may be able to also support this initiative in the future.
Some members of the club attended recent book presentations at two local schools which had highlighted the value of the literacy project.