05 March 2009
Schools amazed by Read to Succeed results
A campaign to fund over £300,000 of additional Teaching
Assistant’s time in classrooms across the North West has finished
its first 10 week period – and the results are astonishing!
‘Read to Succeed’ helps children to read and write by financing
teaching assistants to spend one on one reading time with children
during school hours. The project is funding 30 part time
teaching assistants for three years in local primary schools and is
set to help over 2,600 children by the end of the third year.
The schools involved have all reported that the children taking
part in the project clearly demonstrate increased confidence,
improvement in quality of class work completed, a more positive
attitude to school and huge leaps in the children’s ability to
read.
Read to Succeed was launched by Rock FM’s Cash for Kids in
October last year in conjunction with the Local Education
Authorities and is backed by the Northwest Regional Development
Agency (NWDA). The first report shows that 216 of the 218 children
that have completed Read to Succeed so far have made ‘quantifiable
progress’ with some of the children increasing their reading
ability by two years in just 10 weeks.
Pam Baird, Development Coordinator within the skills team at the
NWDA said: "The Monitoring Report of the children's progress to
date has started to produce a strong evidence base which will
enable the Charity fundraising team to enlist vital support from
the local community. It also demonstrates the effectiveness
of this relatively inexpensive intervention and will convince the
Local Education Authorities and Policy makers what this type of
support can achieve.”
The Read to Succeed campaign is active in 30 schools across
Lancashire, Wigan and Blackpool, including St Kentigerns CP School
on Newton Drive in Blackpool, Ashton School on Ainsdale Drive in
Preston and Bedford Hall Methodist School in Leigh, Wigan.
The project has been so successful that schools have even
started funding it themselves to help even more children. Orrell
Lamberhead Green in Wigan is one school participating in Read to
Succeed and was so impressed with the results that they are now
using their own money to fund additional hours so the project can
reach even more children there.
Charity Manager, Emma Bailie said “We need to raise £100,000
over the next two years to complete this three year project.
We are looking for support from local businesses who may want to
‘adopt’ one of the schools and help fund a teaching assistant there
for the next year. The first report has proved the project works,
we now need to focus on continuing the vital work of Read to
Succeed so more children can benefit.
If you would more information on supporting Read to Succeed, or
adopting one of the schools for your business, please contact Emma
Bailie on 01772 477834.
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