A GRANDMOTHER from Bere Alston has entered the world of business at the age of 70, proving it's never too late to become an entrepeneur.

Having spent 25 years as a teacher with a particular passion for teaching children to read, Helena Rogers has published a simple reading scheme toolkit which is helping a new generation of children.

The grandmother of four was spurred on to become a 'grantrepeneur' after reading national newspaper reports highlighting the poor standards of literacy in schools.

She said back in 1961, when she began her teaching career, she found the published reading schemes contained too many new words to each new book for the children to learn easily, which meant that they got bogged down and disillusioned.

'I set about filling in the gaps with home-made books made with pictures cut from children's colouring books and added words to make the reading process easier,' she said. With this adapted scheme, the children in her class learned to read within a term.

Mrs Rogers said reading the newspaper reports, it appeared that one in five children who left school now were unable to read. She said it simply wasn't acceptable that 20% of people in the UK were excluded from society in this way.

Her company 'Reading Revival Ltd' consists of a toolkit of 12 word cards and 12 illustrated reading books. Children are taught 12 basic words and the first book is made up entirely of those words. Each book thereafter contains eight to 12 additional words.

Mrs Rogers said by following the instructions and reading for five to ten minutes a day, children would be reading like a 'seven-year-old' in six weeks.

By then they had a good grasp of the most commonly used words in the English language.

'I used this method all through my teaching career and since then people have often asked me to teach their child to read privately,' she said.

Mrs Rogers' daughter challenged her to make her method available so that any teacher or parent with no teaching experience could use it, and they have now formed a business partnership.

Schools are being approached to trial this method and it is being used to help children and young people with learning disabilities.

'I wish I had done this when I was younger but it costs a lot of money,' she added.

'I have been encouraged greatly by my daughter. She is the businesswoman and I love working with her, we make a great team.

'I truly believe that the humble scheme I designed many years ago could start a reading revival that turns around the standards of literacy in the UK.  

'It just goes to show that pensioners still have plenty to contribute to society!'

To learn more go to the website at: http://www.readingrevival.com">www.readingrevival.com