From One Hour a Week to a Group-Wide Commitment: Neville Trust’s Journey with Schoolreaders

At Neville Trust, supporting education, developing skills and creating opportunities for young people have been part of their story for generations.

Neville employed their first apprentice in 1881 and, almost 150 years later, continue to invest in apprenticeships, training and lifelong learning across the Group companies. So when Neville Trust Director Vicky Trumper began volunteering with Schoolreaders, she discovered a charity whose aims felt particularly close to the business’ own values.

It started with an hour a week

Vicky's involvement began simply: giving some of her time each week to listen to children read at a local primary school.

Schoolreaders recruits, trains and places volunteers in primary schools to provide free, weekly, one-to-one reading support to children who need additional help. For the volunteer, the commitment can be relatively small. For the child receiving that regular individual attention, the impact can be much greater.

Vicky has experienced that first-hand, watching the children she reads with develop not only their reading skills but also their confidence.

“Being a Schoolreader has shown me that volunteering doesn't have to involve a huge commitment of time to make a difference. When you spend time regularly with the same children, you begin to see their confidence develop as well as their reading.

“There is something very special about seeing a child tackle something they previously thought was too difficult and realise that they can do it.”

The scale of the literacy challenge makes that individual support increasingly important. One in four primary school children in England fails to reach the expected standard in reading by the age of 11. Schoolreaders is working to change that by matching volunteers with schools across the country and now supports tens of thousands of children with individual reading sessions every week.

From personal volunteering to Group support

Seeing the work of Schoolreaders at close quarters led to a wider relationship with the Neville Trust Group.

As part of Neville’s 150th anniversary celebrations, Schoolreaders was chosen as one of the charities we wanted to support, giving colleagues across Neville Trust, Neville Special Projects, Neville Joinery and Neville Funerals the opportunity to contribute to its work through our Group fundraising activities.

The connection is a natural one.

For a family business whose history stretches back to 1875, they have always believed that businesses have a responsibility to contribute positively to the communities in which they operate.

Education has also played a significant part in Neville's own history. Alongside the long tradition of employing apprentices, Neville Special Projects has worked extensively within the education sector, while across the Group we continue to invest in apprenticeships, work experience, careers activities, training and lifelong learning.

Supporting children at the very beginning of that journey therefore feels particularly relevant.

“Reading is such a fundamental building block,” Vicky explains. “It affects a child's ability to learn across virtually every subject and, ultimately, the opportunities available to them later in life.

“For us as a business, there is a very clear connection. We talk a lot about apprenticeships, skills, careers and lifelong learning, but all of those things begin with giving children the foundations and confidence to learn.”

More than fundraising

Neville Trust Group of Companies’ relationship with Schoolreaders has also reinforced their belief that corporate community involvement should extend beyond making financial donations.

Fundraising is important. Schoolreaders provides its service to schools free of charge and relies on financial support to recruit, place and support its volunteers.

But businesses also have another valuable resource to offer: their people.

Encouraging volunteering can connect colleagues more closely with their local communities and provide experiences very different from their everyday working roles. Listening, communicating, encouraging someone who lacks confidence and recognising incremental progress are valuable human skills in the classroom, but they are equally valuable in the workplace.

It is also a practical demonstration of social value.

For Neville, social value isn't simply something to describe in a tender document or policy. It is about the cumulative difference a business and its people can make through employment, apprenticeships, training, charitable giving, volunteering and community involvement.

Schoolreaders demonstrates how those different strands can come together.

Small commitments can make a big difference

During the 2024/25 academic year, Schoolreaders volunteers delivered more than one million reading sessions. The charity's research also demonstrates improvements in children's reading ability, confidence and enjoyment.

Behind those numbers, however, are individual children sitting down with individual volunteers and being given something very simple: someone's undivided attention and encouragement.

That is what first inspired Vicky to become involved and what continues to make the relationship particularly meaningful to us.

As our partnership with Schoolreaders develops, we hope that sharing Vicky's experience will encourage others – both within all of the Neville businesses and further afield – to think about whether they too could give a little of their time.

Because making a difference doesn't always require a grand gesture.

Sometimes it starts with an hour, a child and a book.