Case Study 1 | England | Education - Scheme helps children read pre-primary school

PROJECT

Story Starters, England

PURPOSE

To support disadvantaged children aged three to five to be “reading ready” by the time they reach primary school

FUNDING

A two-year pilot was funded through a £1m grant from the People’s Postcode Lottery Dream Fund. Ongoing work is funded through contributions from early years settings and fundraising

BACKGROUND

Charity Coram Beanstalk has delivered a one-to-one reading programme in primary schools for 45 years, recruiting, training and supporting volunteers. It was keen to respond to concerns from teachers that many children were starting school with poor language and communication skills.

“Schools were saying ‘These volunteers are making a difference, can we have them for younger children?’” says Angela Fuggle, head of programmes at Coram Beanstalk. “However, our volunteers were trained to support the development of reading skills, and that is not appropriate for younger children who need support to develop pre-reading skills.” So the charity decided to design a new programme that would support children earlier.

It joined forces with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a book-gifting scheme, and a team of researchers from the University of Liverpool to develop Story Starters. In 2017, the partnership secured a grant from the People’s Postcode Lottery Dream Fund for a pilot programme that ended in 2019. Since then, Coram Beanstalk has run a slightly different version of the programme with early years settings contributing some of the cost of running the scheme – £390 per Story Starter volunteer – and Coram Beanstalk’s fundraising covering the rest.

ACTION

Story Starters recruits and trains volunteers to go into schools, nurseries and pre-schools and offer one-to-one support to three children aged three to five selected by the setting. Each child generally receives two 20-minute sessions a week, usually over the course of an academic year. The scheme is targeted at children from a disadvantaged background or those from households where there are few or no age-appropriate books.

The volunteers undergo a day’s training, bringing them up to speed with Coram Beanstalk’s approach, which is based on “dialogic reading”. Dialogic reading helps a child become the teller of a story, with the adult as listener, questioner and audience. Research has shown the approach, which is designed to make the child a more active and engaged participant in the reading process, is more effective in developing language skills than when adults simply read the book to the child with little or no interaction.

“People might ask why you need a day’s training to read to kids, but it can be harder than you would think to do characters’ voices at the same time as reinforcing the meaning, getting children involved in movement, and a lot of other things as well,” says Fuggle.

Coram Beanstalk recruits, trains and manages some volunteers directly. Others are recruited and managed by partner organisations, such as higher education institutions or local authorities.

Settings receive a box of specially selected picture books, which the volunteers use as a basis for playing and sharing stories to boost the child’s language development and emergent literary skills.

Story Starters volunteers are trained to create an unpressurised environment, taking the time to listen and get to know each child. They are encouraged to create conversations based on pictures in books that feel like fun chat to the children. They also use actions, gestures and sounds the children can copy, as well as simple props.

“Volunteers share books, talk about books and have fun with books in a way that enhances a child’s vocabulary and shows them how a book works and makes them feel books are something for them,” says Fuggle. The one-to-one support is particularly valuable. While early years settings recognise the importance of this approach, they are hard-pressed to offer it themselves, she explains.

Woodley Primary School in Stockport has been running Story Starters for two years with its early years children, and for three years in Key Stage 1. “The volunteer has access to a range of books that also get sent home to the parents, so they can access the same texts used at school,” says assistant head Rachel Owens. “She works with children to understand their interests. These are children who need additional communication and language opportunities, and it is great to have someone who can sit down and take the time to look through a book with a child on a one-to-one basis.”

Children receiving one-to-one support go on to involve their friends with what they have learned and use it in their play, explains Owens. “The children are now a lot more likely to go and choose books.” She says the school has seen some improvement in children’s behaviour. “But it is more about concentration and willingness to engage,” she adds.

During the pilot scheme, children received new books as gifts every month from the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. This is not currently part of the scheme, but Fuggle says it could be part of a commissioned programme.

Coram Beanstalk also offers two-hour Creating Readers workshops for parents, grandparents and those who regularly look after children.

OUTCOME

The plan for the two-year pilot was to work with 150 early years settings, but in the end 246 settings took part, 79 per cent of which were primary schools. The project supported 1,827 children and trained 619 volunteers, while children taking part received 18,260 books. The pilot project was evaluated by the University of Liverpool. The evaluation found all settings agreed or strongly agreed the children enjoyed their sessions and said their involvement with Story Starters was worth the time. All settings said they believed Story Starters had made a difference to children. In all, 94 per cent of volunteers agreed or strongly agreed that children enjoyed their sessions, while 96 per cent of settings agreed or strongly agreed they were enjoyed by children.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Coram Beanstalk hopes its work will provide some of the extra support disadvantaged children with few books at home will need when they return to school after the Covid-19 lockdown period. “We are aware that when children return to school after this period, the need for our support will be greater than ever so we are putting significant energy into preparing for that,” says Ginny Lunn, managing director of Coram Beanstalk. Before the crisis, the charity had hoped to reach 1,000 children through Story Starters in 2020/21. It will continue to try to source additional funding to reach even more children. It also plans to develop its own impact measurement tool, enabling it to gather evidence about children’s emergent literacy skills, social engagement and confidence.

EXPERIENCE “I AM PASSIONATE ABOUT SUPPORTING CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT”

Sarah Brady has been volunteering for Story Starters for a year. “I have been doing charity work for around 17 years and I wanted to do something with children,” she says. “I love that moment you realise they have really caught on to the story.”

James* is one of a trio of three- and four-year-olds Brady works with. “He has a particular problem with his speech,” she says. “People find it hard to understand what he says. But I have seen an amazing turnaround while I have been working with him. He has gone from not being interested in taking part at all to grabbing three or four books when he sees me come into the room.”

Brady also found it hard to understand James at first. “I keep the conversation linked to the book which makes it easier, and in time I learned what he was trying to say,” she says. “Now he is more vocal. My son had an audio-processing problem so I am passionate about supporting children’s language development.”

James’ favourite book is Chocolate Cake by Michael Rosen, says Brady. “It is a fabulous book because you can really get into the pace of it – I play act a bit with the tiptoeing downstairs. He has a particular page he likes and keeps going back to that page.”

James will pretend to read to Brady from books he is now familiar with, giving him plenty of opportunities to develop his vocabulary. “He will be going up into infant school in September,” says Brady. “When I first started working with him I thought ‘I can’t see this boy managing in school’. I look at him now and he is ready.”

*Name changed