Doncaster teacher reads books to children over YouTube

Alan Roberts, aged 44, from Cusworth is a year four teacher at Kirk Sandall Junior School - he has been uploading videos of himself reading the story ‘How to Train your Dragon’ by Cressida Cowell onto Youtube.

He said: “I personally don’t think that kids will be back in school until September and I wanted to finish this story with the kids in my class.

“If children don’t keep up with reading then further down the line when they do return to school they will struggle quite a bit.”

Alan has a background in performance - he was previously the stage announcer for Doncaster Rovers and has performed at Cast.

“The kids enjoy seeing a friendly face and it helps out their parents as well,” he continued.

One such parent is Alex Chadburn, aged 25, from Clay Lane - his stepdaughter Ava-Lilli Chapman, aged 8 is in Mr Robert’s class and is thoroughly enjoying the videos of her teacher reading.

Alex said: “Ava had a big smile on her face yesterday when she watched the videos.

“She loves her teacher and it gives her a sense of normality - she doesn’t really have an idea of what’s going on.

“The whole world has turned upside down in just a few weeks.”

Alex has been helping Alan with the more technological side of the operation - he has been making the thumbnails and making sure the YouTube page is working so that Mr Roberts can continue to share the story with children.

They both hope that kids outside of their school will get involved and watch the videos - after seeing the success of the Joe Wicks exercise classes they think that they can help to relieve the stress of parents across Doncaster with these videos.

Alex said: “We’re really grateful that Mr Robert’s is doing this for the kids.

“He’s even hoping to do a live reading on Monday for them - he really cares about the kids.”

You can watch the videos here.