Parcel book club 'boosts reading'

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A reading scheme which sends parcels of books to foster children struggling with literacy helps them improve at twice the usual rate, researchers find.

The Letterbox Club sends personally addressed packages of books, maths games and stationery to the children once a month for six months.

A study of 316 children found they made the equivalent of a year's progress in reading over the course of the scheme.

All English local councils will soon be able to enrol children on it.

The 60,000 children who are in care in England at any one time tend to do worse at school than the national average.

It's like a birthday present and the combination of the reading and the doing stuff is excellent Foster carer

For example, research suggests only 8% of pupils who have spent one year in care gained the benchmark five good GCSEs, compared with 50% of all pupils.

The group of children on the Letterbox scheme, run by the charity Booktrust, began with lower reading scores than would have been expected for their age groups, with around a third being at least a year behind.

Their reading ability was assessed at the beginning of the six month scheme and at the end.

Analysis suggested children in Years 3 and 4 progressed at more than four times the average rate, whilst those in Years 5 and 6 advanced at two and a half times the average rate.

In maths, 40% of the children moved up by at least one national curriculum level during their time in the club.

The report by researchers at the University of Leicester said it would not be reasonable to attribute all the children's progress to the Letterbox Club, as most of them were also attending school.

But it said the project had "acted as a catalyst for many children and their carers, providing them with additional support and encouragement to read".

The monthly parcel typically contains two reading books, stationery items such as pencils and exercise books, and a maths game.

'Continuity'

A lack of access to facilities is thought to be one of the reasons why children in care tend to do worse at school.

Letterbox Club programme manager Ms Marian Keen Downs said the project's success lay in the simple sense of excitement children felt at receiving parcels addressed to them.

"A lot of these children do not have much for themselves, they live with foster carers and can be moving about lots to different carers.

"But the parcels follow them wherever they go. It provides a piece of continuity."

One carer for a child on the scheme said: "The colour of the envelope is brilliant. Brandon watches the post and can immediately identify 'his' package.

"It's like a birthday present, and the combination of the reading and the doing stuff is excellent."

Rose Griffiths, lead researcher from the University of Leicester, said: "The Letterbox Club is such a simple idea, but right from the beginning five years ago, when we just worked with 20 children in Leicester, it was obvious that it had a very positive impact on how children felt about themselves.

"The pilot in 2007 and 2008 has given us the chance to see the improvements it can make to children's reading and maths, and we are very hopeful that even more children can benefit in future years."