Every Child A Reader
The grant recipient
The KPMG Foundation has a focus on education and social projects for the disadvantaged and under-privileged. It is spearheading a £10 million funding partnership between charities, the business sector and government to support the Every Child A Reader programme.
The Every Child A Reader programme
What it aims to do
Every Child A Reader aims to:
- reach 5,000 children with the Reading Recovery programme over three years, particularly those living in areas of high social deprivation
- secure sustainable investment for widespread implementation of Reading Recovery and, in doing so, reduce the 'long tail of under-achievement': those leaving primary school without even the very basic literacy skills, from 7% to a minimum of 2-3%
- explore how intensive support in reading can be provided most cost-effectively in a national context
How it works
The Every Child A Reader initiative is funding highly skilled Reading Recovery teachers in inner-city schools to provide intensive help to children with severe literacy difficulties.
Reading Recovery is a teaching programme aimed at children who, after one year of schooling, show they are struggling to learn to read and to write. Children taking part in Reading Recovery receive individual tuition from specially trained teachers for half an hour daily over three to four months.
Results
The impact of the Every Child A Reader programme is being evaluated through:
- termly and annual data collection of reading levels
- formal research by the Institute of Education
- follow up at the end of key stages 1 and 2
Results for children taking part in the second year of the initiative show:
- the average progress made in reading age was 21 months over a 4-5 month period - well over four times the normal rate of progress (in the first year of the project the Institute of Education tracked a control group of children not receiving Reading Recovery intervention and the average progress in reading age was 7 months over an 11 month period)
- writing also improved markedly
the funding
SHINE has made a founding sponsorship grant for the Every Child A Reader programme. Other funding is being provided by the KPMG Foundation, other trusts and foundations and the DCFS.
Funding: £300,000 to the KPMG Foundation, over three years (2005-08)
Visit the Every Child A Reader website: http://www.everychildareader.org
