BITC Northern Ireland

© Copyright BITC Northern Ireland, 2007. Coded by ErinShore.net.

bitc.org.uk

The 'Time to' programmes

Latest News

26 January 2011
Evaluation Report of Time to Read Research launched at the Ulster Museum, Belfast

Full links and details are on the Home page, and this is the link to the Slide Show images used at the Event

25 October 2010
Welcome to new Schools in the programmes

We welcome to Time to Read the following schools:

Also returning to Time to Read are the following schools:

Returning to Time to Compute are the following schools:

30 September 2010
Time to figures at the beginning of the 2010/2011 School Year

514 volunteers from 96 companies signed up for Time to Read this year, supporting children in their reading in 81 schools. There are a further 59 volunteers from 10 companies working in Time to Compute and Time 2 Count in 17 schools

Now in to the 12th year of Time to Read - 54,000 hours of volunteering time, equating to £1.6M provided by companies and businesses, together with £155,000 for the provision of book resources for the participating schools, and impacting on 4,300 children to date.





22 June 2010
End-of-Year Coffee Morning for Time to Read at Elmgrove PS

To celebrate another successful year of Time to Read in the school, David Hutchinson had invited parents to join with the children and their volunteers at this meeting. This was also an opportunity to present "Thank You" gifts to the volunteers from the First Trust Bank, who would not be returning in September. Click here to view some photos of the day.

May & June 2010
Workplace Visits involving the following companies:

A visit also took place to the Traffic Control Centre in Belfast on the 18th of June when the Time to Read children from Elmgrove Primary School saw how all the traffic in Belfast is controlled every day. The visit was arranged by Jackie Gregg and Janet Watson from the Department of Regional Development.

7 June 2010
Visits to Time to Read schools

26 May 2010
Time to Read workplace visit
King's Park Primary School Lurgan to DRD Roads Service in Malborough House, Craigavon.

19 May 2010
Welcome to a NEW Time to Read School!
Earlview Primary School, in the New Mossley Estate in Newtownabbey, is a new school being supported in Time to Read by volunteers from Newtownabbey Borough Council. In June, they will be introduced to children in Primary 4 who have been selected for the programme and then, from September, they will be working with them during the new school year when the children are in Primary 5.

17 May 2010
Visits to Time to Read schools

27 & 28 April 2010
Visits to Time to Read schools
Over these two days, visits were made and photographs taken of the volunteers and children in the following three schools:

April 2010
Time to Read & Time 2 Count in Primate Dixon Primary School, Coalisland
The school recently started in these programmes through the volunteering support of employees of Geda Construction in the town. On a recent visit to the school, a series of photographs were taken for Time to Read &l Time 2 Count

10 March 2010
Time to Read workplace visit
Edmund Rice PS and Hollybank PS to Musgrave Retail Partners in the Belfast Harbour Estate.

March 2010
Visits to Time to Read schools
Visits by BITC staff are being made this month to deliver new books to add to the Time to Read book stock, and an opportunity made to record, by photograph, the volunteers and children in these schools:

February 2010
A New Time to Read school in County Down
Cedar Integrated Primary School in Crossgar has recently joined the Time to Read programme with volunteers from the local community supporting the Primary 5 children.

January 2010
A New School for Time to Read and Time 2 Count
Primate Dixon Primary School in Coalisland, County Tyrone, has become involved in the BITCNI Adopt-a-School programme, supported in this area by the Department of Social Development. As a result, employees from Geda Construction in Coalisland are volunteering in both the Time to Read and the Time 2 Count programmes in this school.





September 2009
This will be an exciting year for the Time to Read programme! Sponsored by the Department of Education and The Atlantic Philanthropies, 50 Time to Read schools will be participating in a 9-month Research Project undertaken by researchers from the Centre for Effective Education at QUB. This will take the form of a Random Control Trial which measures the impact mentors make on the children they support in comparison with the children in their class who do not receive this Time to Read intervention. A big difference in the operation of the programme in these 50 schools this year is that the children will have 2 sessions each week (a "double dose" of Time to Read) with 2 sets of volunteers supporting them on different days. The researchers will focus on the reading levels and outcomes experienced by the children because of the work undertaken by their mentors.

A list of the schools participating in the Research Project can be found in the Case Studies section

September 2009
"Ten Years of Time to Read"—a review of all the research undertaken to date on the mentoring programme—was launched prior to the close of the 2009 school year. This important publication, authored by Michael Arlow, explores the development and success of the Time to Read programme and considers how the programme makes a worthy contribution to the development of children. This document is now available to download on this site: Ten Years of Time to Read Report.

31 July 2009
May and June were extremely busy months during which almost 50 workplace visits were arranged for children in the Time to programmes. Over the years, these visits have been an extremely important aspect of the Time to programmes and have been memorable for the children and adults attending. A complete collection of photographs capturing highlights of these recent visits are in the Case Studies sections. Click the Case Studies Menu option in the appropriate section of the relevant programme to view the photographs.



15 July 2009
Time to Read at King's Park Primary School in Whiteabbey
Click on this link to read the volunteer's story supplied by Kim Colman from Northgate in Newtownabbey

1 July 2009
Time to Compute at Harpur's Hill Primary School, Coleraine

Tracey Rosborough, from HM Revenue & Customs, has provided a Volunteer's story to highlight the involvement she and her colleague, Alison Lamont, have had in the programme.



1 July 2009
Visits to Time to Read schools during May and June
These were very busy months for the Business in the Community Education Team, who visited a number of schools and pictured volunteers and children at work.
Schools visted were as follows:



May 2009
Time to Compute in King's Park Primary School, Whiteabbey and in Harper's Hill Primary School in Coleraine
Our photographer visited the volunteers from Northbrook in Newtownabbey and HM Revenue & Customs in Coleraine to see them in action.



22 April 2009
Time to Read in St Joseph's Primary School, Slate Street
KPMG and HM Revenue & Customs support the programme in this school. Our photographer took this photograph on his latest visit.

21 April 2009
Time to Read in King's Park Primary School, Newtownabbey
Jonathan Hunter from Musgrave Retail Partners has recently joined the Time to Read team in this school, with three other volunteers from Northgate, an IT Systems & Solutions company. The group photograph was taken on the 21st of April.

8 April 2009
Time to Read in The Good Shepherd Primary School
Volunteers are joining Time to Read at all times throughout the year, and a recent visit to The Good Shepherd Primary School in West Belfast captured the introduction of Brigid Farnan to the programme there, where she joins long-term volunteers Carrie and Lesley-Anne

Time 2 Count in The Fountain Primary School and in Tandragee Primary School
During this school year, Time 2 Count has continued in The Fountain Primary School in Derry and has started in the Primary School in Tandragee with volunteers from the local Northern Bank, who are pictured in our Case Studies section.



During March 2009
Time to Read in Hollybank, Our Lady of Lourdes, Ashgrove and Mossgrove Primary Schools
March was a busy month for visiting the Newtownabbey schools with an opportunity to take photographs of Time to Read in action in each of these schools.

25 March 2009
Time to Read at Ballysillan Primary School
In this school, Donna and Larry from FG Wilson volunteer on one morning of each week and Jill, Jill, and Christine from Royal Mail volunteer every Wednesday morning. Our photographer called on Wednesday, 25 March and took some photographs. Both Jills also provided their own little stories.

20 March 2009
Time to Compute in Elmgrove Primary School
A Visit to the volunteers from Bombardier Aerospace Shorts at Elmgrove Primary School led to the following photographs being taken and another volunteer story being captured (without too much arm-twisting!)

27 February 2009
Time to Compute at St Joseph's Primary School, Holland Drive

The volunteers from Fujitsu, who have been supporting the children in St Joseph's for a number of years, have provided a Volunteer's story and some photographs from a recent visit.



Thursday 5 March 2009 is WORLD BOOK DAY!

The aim of this special day was to encourage children to explore the pleasure of books. We hope that all Time to Read volunteers celebrated this event during the week beginning Monday 2 March, either by becoming involved in any activities planned by your Time to Read school, or by using the World Book Day ideas and resources to emphasize to the children the importance of reading. Click HERE for further information in the Resources section



24 February 2009
Time to Read in Forge Integrated Primary School
Imelda McGowan, a new volunteer in Time to Read, has joined the team in Forge IPS. Her introductory meeting is pictured in our Case Studies section.



19 February 2009
Time to Read in Avoniel Primary School
A new volunteer, Ciara Mulholland from Citigroup, has joined Terry and Joan in Time to Read in this school. The volunteers are pictured in our Case Studies section.

Terry Weir, from Funeral Services Northern Ireland, is now in his 4th year of Time to Read, supporting the children in this school. His volunteer story can be found HERE



18 February 2009
Time to Read in Brooklands Primary School
A photographer from the Northern Ireland Office recently visited Time to Read in Brooklands Primary School. Photographs can be viewed in the Case Studies section.



Welcome to the seven new Time 2 Count schools that have started in the programme this school year

The children in these schools are supported by volunteers from the Northern Bank, HM Revenue and Customs and PricewaterhouseCoopers



29 January 2009
Time to Read in Cavehill Primary School - a new volunteer start to join some "old hands"!
. . . more . . .



KPMG and Time to Read in St Joseph's Primary School, Belfast
See the volunteers from KPMG in action!



Celebrate and Inspire
A special event was held on the afternoon of 12 June in St Joseph's Primary School, Slate Street, Belfast to congratulate and applaud volunteers who have been committed to the Time to Read programme for 3 years or more. This occasion was attended . . . more . . .

Time to Read—Workplace Visits:
"Workplace visits have taken place during May and June with many volunteers arranging for the children they mentor to have an opportunity to see where they work, to get an understanding of what their mentor does during their working day, and to experience the environment of that particular business. Click HERE to view photographs of recent visits made to Canyon Europe, Nortel, the Castlereagh Campus of Belfast Metropolitan College, Tesco in the Abbey Retail Park in Newtownabbey, JS Sainsbury at Forestside, and Hughes Christensen"

Visits in May and June to Time to Read Schools
During the summer term, our photographer made visits to the following schools: Avoniel Primary School, Elmgrove Primary School, Rosstulla School in Jordanstown, and on World Book Day to Lisnaharragh Primary School.

Time to Read in Cairnshill Primary School
4 employees from 4 different companies have formed an excellent team of volunteers on the programme in this school. On a recent Time to Read session one of the company coordinators called in to see them.



Time to Read—a date for your diary:
A Celebration Event for all Time to Read volunteers will be held on Thursday, 12 June 2008 from 4:00 to 6:00pm in St Joseph's Primary School, Slate Street, Belfast.
Please put this day and time into your diary and plan to attend.
More details will follow . . .



18 April 2008
Time to Read

The volunteers from Canyon Europe and Nortel have been working with the children in Hazelwood Integrated Primary School every Tuesday morning, and the group are pictured enjoying Time to Read . . . more . . .



14 March 2008
Time to Read in St Bernard's Primary School, Glengormley

A recent visit to St Bernard's Primary School in Newtownabbey gave a chance to photograph the Time to Read volunteers from Henderson's, Tesco, and NIHE with the children they support. Click here for those pictures



22 February 2008
Time to Read: Thursday 6 March is WORLD BOOK DAY!

The aim of this special day is to encourage children to explore the pleasure of books. We would hope that all Time to Read volunteers would plan to celebrate this event during the week beginning Monday 3 March, either by becoming involved in any activities planned by your Time to Read school, or by using the World Book Day ideas and resources to emphasize to the children the importance of reading.
Full details on the Resources section



23 January 2008
Time 2 Count website resource

A new website called Homework Rules has been developed by Belfast Metropolitan College staff working with local schools; it is designed to help parents of Key Stage 2 children and has a particular focus on mathematics.
This website has been placed on our resources list for Time 2 Count.



30 November 2007
Time to Read in Holy Child Primary School

A recent visit to Holy Child Primary School in West Belfast was an opportunity to photograph the Time to Read volunteers from Dillon Bass and Parity with the children they support. Click here for those pictures



13 November 2007

On recent visits to Time to Read schools in Newtownabbey, opportunities were taken to photograph volunteers from the Henderson Group and the NI Housing Executive, together with the children they are supporting . . . more . . .



1 November 2007
A recent photo opportunity took place at Star of the Sea primary school in North Belfast, which featured 2 of the volunteers on the Northern Bank Time2 Count programme. This highlighted the support given to the children by volunteers from Nortel Networks and the Northern Bank. Click HERE for more information.



10 October 2007
Mountnorris Primary School joins the Time 2 Count programme



In Time to Read, 200 company volunteers have been recruited to support 400 children in the 50 new primary schools that are involved in a QUB/NFER research project over the next 2 years.

This major research project is funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies, who are supporting Business in the Community in proving the value of adults mentoring children.

Queens University and the National Foundation for Education Research are conducting a control trial with these volunteers and children in order to prove the positive impact mentoring has on young people.

The schools taking part in this research project are . . .

Volunteers taking part in the research project come from these companies

The Time to Read random control trial research is attracting a great deal of interest from the Research community throughout the world. Our volunteers may be interested in a website that brings together all current and ongoing research on positive outcomes for young people. Prevention Action is an international publication, updated daily with a story about research on child development, emerging models and applications to policy and practice.



The annual Northern Bank Time 2 Count end-of-year Celebration Party, hosted by the Bank, was held on 13 June in W5 at the Odyssey, Belfast.  Children, volunteers and teachers were enthralled and tested in all manner of maths and science experiments and a great time was enjoyed by all.



Welcome to the first two special schools who have joined Time to Read  during the 2006/07 school year –



Welcome to the four new schools that have started Time 2 Count during the past six months –


 

<- Previous Page

© Copyright BITC Northern Ireland, 2007.