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Sheila Wolfendale and Trevor Bryans, Who Cares? Trust, 2004
This 15-18 month intervention took place in 2002-03 and aimed
to raise the literacy attainment of a number of children in
foster care, as well as offering support to their foster carers.
The children were aged 10 to 13 (school years 5 to 7), were
in settled or fairly settled placements, and were 'behind
with their literacy' as reported by their teachers and/or
foster carers and in need of additional support. The 68 participating
children - 39 boys and 29 girls - came from three areas of
Kent. The Kent Looking after literacy initiative was
a partnership venture between the Who Cares? Trust, the National
Literacy Association and Kent Council funded by the Colyer-Fergusson
Charitable Trust.
The package of provision included:
- a Psion hand-held computer, with introductory training
on its use, for each child;
- book tokens at the outset of the project and a constant
supply of books for children to keep during the project.
A range of books was made available, all donated by publishers;
- monthly home visits from a project visitor, who kept records,
took books for children to choose from, worked with the
children on their Psions and generally offered encouragement
and support;
- Reading Passports given to each child to record views
on books read;
- foster carers and children 'signing up' to the project
via a Project Agreement;
- a reading roadshows to raise awareness among carers and
others of the importance and pleasure of books and shared
reading for this group of children;
- an introductory session for children and carers to raise
awareness of the project aims, objectives and methodology.
The project ended in a Creative Achievement Day, a celebratory
event at which project children received their certificates.
- At the end of the project every child's reading comprehension
improved and only three children's reading accuracy did
not improve. Seven children's spelling scores did not improve.
18% of the project children were now functioning at an average
or above average level for reading, spelling and comprehension
on the WORD test. There were no age or gender effects
- Giving children books was highly valued by the carers
and particularly by the children themselves
- The children who gained most were those whose pre-test
scores were below average. The intervention had least effect
on the children who had more significant literacy difficulties,
or who had above average test scores at the beginning of
the project
- Although some children really valued and enjoyed using
the Psions, the overall use of them was limited and inconsistent,
and attitudes to them were ambivalent
- The number of books read by children in the previous month
(as reported by them) had no significant effect on any aspect
of children's scores
- There was a significant correlation between the carers
seeing children read and the post-test scores on all the
WORD test measures. This suggests that the single most important
factor in determining progress was whether the child actively
took up opportunities to engage with the project and read
independently
NB It was not possible in the project to compare progress
of the project children with a control group, and there was
a lack of linkage with schools.
The project group recommended that local authorities, local
education authorities and each school should develop and implement
a policy for supporting the literacy development of pupils
in public care, consistent with the requirement for each such
pupil to have a Personal Education Plan and the support of
a designated teacher.
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