As a children's author for many decades, I'm passionate about supporting children to read.
Books allow us to escape into our imaginations, enable us to learn new facts, ideas, and perspectives and keep the brain active and engaged.
But five years ago this month we all felt the impact of Covid as lockdowns started, schools closed and children missed the structure and security of routine school life. Everyday opportunities for learning, as well as interaction with friends and teachers, were lost for many, many months.
While families and all those involved in education worked hard to support children throughout the disruption, catching up with lost days of schooling has been immensely hard. For children from disadvantaged backgrounds, it has been even tougher. All the evidence shows that many of those facing economic deprivation, challenging home lives, limited access to books or technology or having some level of special educational need have really struggled.
The attainment gap is now the widest it has been for a decade and research shows that post Covid, 57 per cent of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are now leaving primary school without reaching age related expectations for reading. And just in the last few days, the Department for Education has released data showing that missing ten days of year 6 schooling reduces the likelihood of a pupil reaching the expected standards by about 25 per cent.
So we know there is so much work to do to help children be in the best possible position to catch up, make progress and really engage with their learning.
Poor literacy skills will hold them back and also have a profound impact on confidence, resilience and self-esteem. When children disengage with learning, they are more likely to play truant, less likely to get a job and ultimately more likely to turn to crime. Efforts to improve literacy and keep young people engaged in education are seen as key to reducing truancy and preventing crime.
That is why the work of the Children's Literacy Charity is so vital right now. I have been Patron of this small, specialist charity for several years and am proud that my own charity Sarah's Trust has been able to support its work. I have watched with awe as their dedicated, expert tutors – employed and trained by the charity – support children who can be up to two years behind where they should be for their age.
Skilled at working with hard-to-reach children, the tutors run specialist programmes – either one to one or in small groups – designed to improve all the important literacy skills, so not just reading but comprehension, listening, speaking and writing.
And they have a remarkable impact: after just one month of twice-weekly "Literacy Lab" tuition, a child can make four and a half months of progress. Over 75 per cent of children who 'graduate' from that programme close their literacy gap completely.
The charity also runs a ten-week "Reading Lab" intervention for older primary school children - to help prepare them for the difficult transition to secondary school - in which pupils make up to seven months of progress. And increasingly, even secondary schools are asking for support as pupils are arriving with such poor literacy skills that they cannot engage with the secondary curriculum.
Reflecting the alarming feedback from early years professionals that many children born during Covid are arriving at school unable to focus or communicate clearly, the charity is now trialling a "Story Lab" programme for nursery and reception children. Designed to improve language and communication skills through the power of storytelling, Story Lab is something very close to my heart.
© YouTube / Storytime with Fergie and FriendsThis year the Children's Literacy Charity will be working in over 40 partner schools, delivering its expert programmes to more than 1,000 children. The charity's goal is to help as many children as possible who need expert support, giving those children who are the furthest behind the opportunity to engage with learning and realise their full potential.
However, with no Government funding, the charity works hard to attract as much financial support as possible to help keep the cost to schools affordable.
At a time when school budgets are also under immense pressure, this is more important than ever before, which is why this month the charity is running an amazing match funding campaign with Big Give match: up until April 5, for every pound donated through the Big Give platform, the donation will be doubled. So your generosity will go twice as far. If the target of £50,000 is reached, 50 more children will have the chance to close their literacy gap for good.
Your donation could help a child not just to catch up but also to step ahead with the confidence and skills to last a lifetime. Please support this wonderful charity.
Donate to the campaign and have your donation doubled until April 5.
