Reading is the bedrock of knowledge and that’s why I work as a reading helper at a primary school in Birmingham.

My name is Bharti Parmar and I couldn’t read until I was 7. The reasons why, shape why I volunteer for Coram Beanstalk.

I am a professional woman of hardworking immigrant parents from the Indian subcontinent.

I spoke my mother tongue (Gujarati) until I was 5 and couldn’t speak English when I started school in northern England in the 1970s. I consequently found this to be a disadvantage in my early schooling and didn’t fully reach my potential until I was 10. At this point I discovered a love of learning finding that a world of opportunities was available to me.

My mother was a housewife and my father worked long shifts in a factory.

As an only child, I spent my pre-school years at home with my mother. It was a loving environment, but there were no books and few toys. I remember feeling bewildered starting at infants school understanding, yet not understood. I stayed for school lunch eating plain mashed potato and meat (always wondering if it was the beef I was prohibited from eating) and yearning for the tasty food that I was accustomed to. I didn’t use a knife and fork because we ate with our hands. I was confused when a teacher once swapped my utensils around. Hindus don’t use the left hand to eat with.

In class I couldn’t read the words. I couldn’t follow the teacher. I didn’t understand the cultural references; I didn’t go swimming, I didn’t go on foreign holidays and I’d never seen the sea. I didn’t say much. I wasn’t doing well.

I was placed in remedial class. Even at age 5, I understood what that meant.

In one of these classes, I remember being drawn to tessellated shapes, building blocks and objects to lace and string together. I realise now that the school advocated the educational philosophy of Froebel’s Gifts: (wooden blocks 1-6) and occupations (including sticks, clay, sand, slates, chalk, wax, shells, stones, scissors, paper folding). I believe that early interaction with these geometric shapes had a formative experience on my interest in shapes, systems, language and how things connect in the world.

I was the first young woman to attend university from my community in the 1980s, which was not commonplace at that time.

My work as a successful artist and academic has brought many privileges including the opportunity to experience the world through travel, art and culture.

Reading is the bedrock of knowledge and that’s why I work as a reading helper at a primary school in Birmingham. It is a culturally diverse school and many of the children that we read with may not have had the easiest start. Even though I work full time, I prioritise my Coram Beanstalk days, and my school are very accommodating when I can’t.

What I do with the children.

I give them time. I don’t make judgements about their background or their ability. I ask them sensitive questions about what they like, what language they speak at home, what food they eat. I take the cue from them if they don’t want to read. We don’t always start from the beginning of a book. Sometimes I read to them. Occasionally I read, but make deliberate mistakes substituting their names for characters. We laugh a lot. A session isn’t successful unless there’s been laughter. And we draw. Lots of drawing. I spend half the session recapping on what we’ve done, then we draw TOGETHER the best bits of the story. We have fun. And I hope they want to come back next week.