For the National Year of Reading, we are sharing a series of short conversations with people who are involved in promoting reading with young people. This could be a programme, resources or a literary event, and we’re giving them the opportunity to share what they do and how people can get involved.
In this episode we are joined by Julie Taylor Education Lead at the Children’s Literacy Charity which focuses on catch-up literacy interventions for disadvantaged children. Working in primary and secondary schools in areas of deprivation, they use expert tutors to support children to catch up not just with reading but with all the important literacy skills: writing, comprehension, listening and speaking.
Julie takes us through the charity’s various literacy programmes aimed at disadvantaged children and the impact they see. The charity recruits and trains its own tutors for literacy programs and as well as helping children catch up with their literacy skills, success is seen in improved engagement and behaviour in schools. She highlights the importance of reading for pleasure and the initiatives they have taken during the National Year of Reading, including featuring an author of the month. We also talk about the significance of parental involvement in children’s literacy development and the charity’s expansion into secondary schools and to regions outside of London.
Katy
0:11
Hi, I'm Katy and
Ali
0:13
I'm Ali and welcome to Mosty Book Talk.
Katy
0:16
This episode is one of a series we are doing about book-related charities and what they're doing in the National Year of Reading. And in this episode, we talk to Julie Taylor from the Children's Literacy Charity. So we're very pleased to have with us today Julie Taylor, who is the education lead at the Children's Literacy Charity, and she's just going to tell us a bit about the charity, what they do, and we're going to talk about the National Year of Readings. So welcome, Julie. Start off. Tell us what the Children's Literacy Charity does.
Julie
0:49
Hi there. So we deliver catch-up literacy interventions for the most disadvantaged children. So right across the age ranges. So our programme Story Lab is our newest programme, and we're trialing at the moment in five schools, moving to seven schools in September, and it's a storytelling program that's all about communication and language. So the children are exposed to lots of lovely books through the program, and we do lots of talking, lots of drama, lots of movement, and we get parents involved, and the children all receive copies of the books that we use. And then we have Literacy Lab, which is our key stage one program. And Literacy Lab is literacy across the board, and it's all about meeting the needs of the children. So we it might be speaking and listening, phonics, reading fluency, comprehension, writing. So whatever the children need, whatever they've been referred to our program for. Then we have Reading Lab, and Reading Lab is our key stage two and key stage three catch-up program. And this is just a program that's for a term, and it's a real focus on reading engagement where the children are immersed in exciting books and they do lots of book talks. So we really take the pressure off from formal comprehension, but it's all about vocabulary, reading fluency, that reading practice, rereading, and comprehension through book talk. So that's a terms program. Literacy Lab is um two terms, can be three terms, sometimes four terms. And we are now in secondary school, so we're also running Reading Lab in Key Stage 3 in year seven and year eight. We have one more program, and that's our Reader Leader program. And for Reader Leader, that's all over the country, and we have freelance trainers who deliver a peer mentoring program for year 10 and year 12 students so that they can read with their uh younger peers. And that's been going for many, many years and growing. Um, and yeah, we've got about 15 trainers across England delivering that program.
Ali
3:09
And for the for the other programs, is that delivered by your trainers within the schools, or do you train the teachers to deliver the program?
Julie
3:17
So we recruit and train our own tutors. So we have a large team, we've got about 46 tutors on board at the moment, and we recruit as we're approached by schools. Once we've got confirmations from schools, we recruit our tutors who are qualified teachers or teaching assistants with experience of delivering reading interventions, and we we have regular team meetings, we do our own CPD, we bring external literacy experts in to come and deliver CPD for us as well. And what books do you use? Do you use reading scheme books or do you use what we would say real books? We try to use real books as much as possible.
Katy
3:58
Yeah.
Julie
3:59
For our youngest children, if they're still um be if they're still being taught phonics, if they need that phonics input, we do use the phonetically decodable books, but our children are very much exposed to real books. And every session that we deliver in our literacy lab programme, the children will be exposed to a lovely book and there'll be shared reading going on. We're very much, very much in favour of real books in all of our sessions. And reading for pleasure is actually at the heart of everything that we do, I would say. And at the moment, through the n with the National Year of Reading, which I'll talk more about, our children are all being delivered a new book every month and lesson plans that go alongside the new book, though that's very exciting, gift wrapped and ready for their use.
Katy
4:50
You said you you moved into secondary schools this year. Have you found that different in any way? Is it different being in secondary from primary?
Julie
4:57
That's a really good question. It's it is different, it's slightly trickier in in lots of ways because the tricky tricky logistically because children are in lessons all over the place. So it's quite difficult to make sure that we start sessions on time, we have enough time, but also finding the right subject matter that will really interest and engage those students. But we've had a huge amount of success. And one school in particular who commented on children who've gone from negative behaviour points to positive on behavior points, improved attendance, more engagement when they go back into the classroom, which was very pleasing for us to hear that that that is happening as well. And we've actually got four four new secondary programs starting in September, which is really exciting. So it's definitely growing. And I think so many children are starting secondary school with a huge reading gap, and now there is going to be a year eight reading test. I think schools are trying to get in there and get those children caught up as quickly as possible.
Katy
6:08
Yeah. Oh, interesting. I mean, because it is clearly an area that because of all the difficulties that you've talked about, fewer people work in because it's it is just easier to run programs in and with primary schools.
Julie
6:21
Yeah, and I think as well, we we do form excellent partnerships with our schools. And obviously in a primary school, it's it's much easier in terms of communication. We have a key contact in the school who's the person that we always work with and have our conversations with about the children, etc. In secondary school, somehow it's that bit more difficult, but it it's working, and I think if the schools are invested, they make sure that the communication happens and the partnership works.
Katy
6:52
Brilliant. Um, am I allowed to ask one more thing? Can you just tell us a bit more about how you get parents involved? Because they feel like they're the hardest, one of the hardest groups to reach in terms of the role that they have in supporting children's reading.
Julie
7:05
Yes. Parental engagement is huge for us, and as you say, it's very challenging, and it's really important that we have the schools on board to send out all those text reminders and so on to come to meetings. So we always start our programs with an introductory workshop for parents. Sometimes it's online, sometimes it's in person, depending on the locations of the schools. In our Story Lab program, we also invite parents to come along and watch a session, which has been hugely valuable because they can actually see that reading, that shared reading being modelled. So we get pretty good attendance on that. And then at the end of our Reading Lab programme and our Story Lab programme, we have a celebration assembly as well. And parents are usually quite good at coming to see their children in an assembly. So we give the children a certificate and we give them a little magazine to take with them and they share what they've been learning, and we also try to get feedback from parents as well. So on occasion, we have had fabulous conversations with parents who've said that they have really noticed a difference at home in their child's reading engagement. That is what we want to hear, obviously. So we try and have as much to do with parents as we can. Brilliant.
Ali
8:26
I've just got sorry, I've got one more question. Sorry, Jeannie. Um is there a charge for schools to take part?
Julie
8:32
Yes, there is a charge. So if anybody would like to um find out more about the programs and the costings and so on, please do uh contact us on info at the children's literacy charity.org.uk um or have a look on our website.
Katy
8:51
And do you work you work nationally or do you work in particular regions?
Julie
8:56
That's also a very good question. So we were initially just in London with one random school in Manchester that has been with us forever, which is lovely. But I've been at the charity now for over four years, and we've grown um across into the regions across the country. So we're in the Midlands, so we've created a hub in the Midlands. We're also in Luton, in Ellesmere Port, and in Coventry, and often that's to do with the funding and where that where the funders take us really, where where they want the programs to take place. So we are definitely expanding and we're also hopefully moving into different boroughs in London as well in September. So we're growing.
Katy
9:43
Okay. So so schools shouldn't feel sort of restricted in terms of where you currently are.
Julie
9:48
No, I think if a school's interested, please do contact us because we are trying to create hubs, even if it's not in one of our current hubs, it's still worth talking to us um because we're we recruit locally as well. So we're just in the process of recruiting in the West Cheshire area, um, because that's where the schools are, based on our funders and so on. So please do contact us if you are interested.
Katy
10:16
Nice. Do you want to tell us what you're doing, especially in the National Year of Reading?
Julie
10:20
So, yeah, the National Year of Readings Reading has actually been very exciting for the charity as we decided that we would like to feature an author of the month every month and get that author on board to make a video for our children. Then the children can see that video and have more of a sense of what an author is and what they do as they open their new book. So we have an author every month, and we've also got an ambassador for the National Year of Reading. And our ambassador is Nick Sharratt, author and illustrator. And Nick has been amazing, and we're very grateful for his support. He's actually been along to a literacy lab and shared his books with the children, taught them how to draw, had a look at their work that they've been doing using his books. He took an assembly in one of our schools, and a few weeks ago he came along to our story lab program, and that was really fantastic because we use one of his books called The Foggy Foggy Forest, which you might know. And he actually watched the session with our tutor delivering the teaching of the foggy foggy forest, so he could really see how his book was being used to teach the children vocabulary and all the repetition, the way the children joined in, and then afterwards they were all taught to draw some pictures, and again he took an assembly in the school, so he's been incredibly supportive, and we've been very lucky to have him on board.
Katy
11:50
That's nice. That's nice. So who have your some of your authors of the month been?
Julie
11:54
We've been really lucky. We've had Kim Hillyard, who and we used her book, Burt and the Bubble. We've had Rob Biddulph, which was also amazing, Nicola Davis, who's the Welsh Children's Laureate.
Katy
12:08
Yeah, we talked about it. Bethan Woollvin
Julie
12:11
Yeah, I like that Bethan Woollvin We've currently got Rashmi Sirdeshpande Never Show a T-Rex a book, which the children are absolutely loving at the moment. And one of our tutors actually made a little dragon bookmark, taught the children how to make dragon bookmarks, and has taken photos, which Rashmi has now seen, and she's delighted with the work that the children have done. Um so that one's been lovely, they've all been lovely actually, and we've got Lee Hodgkinson, and then we're very excited in October for um Poetry Day, National Poetry Day, we've got Matt Goodfellow. So we'll look forward to having a video from Matt with some of his poems. So a very big involvement in terms of the national year of reading, and which has been so successful, and we have really noticed the impact of having a new book every month in our labs that the children can just be immersed in, and then the tutors have lesson plans as well. So the work that's that's coming from that has been fantastic.
Katy
13:17
It sounds great, it's a great range of authors. So, how do people get involved? How can they sign up for find out more about your programs? And where what do they do if they if they think, oh, that sounds something that might be interesting in our school?
Julie
13:31
So our website is um the children's literacy charity.org.uk. We're also on social media, um, child's literacy. We also would really like um to tell teachers about our family learning as well, because we've got a huge amount for parents on our website. Lots of resources from speaking and listening to phonics to reading fluency, comprehension skills, writing tips, um, lots of resources to do, things to do in the summer holiday that make learning fun. And one other thing that we've been doing, and they're all on the website for schools and families to access, is we've had a story mission project for the National Year of Reading. So every three weeks, our literacy lab children get a story mission where they've got a QR code which takes them to an online book, and then they've got activities that they can do linking to the story, and then when they've completed their story mission, they've got a little passport card and um they get stickers, and at the end of the school year, they'll get certificates for all the work that they've done. So that's also been really successful, and it's all freely accessible on the website.
Ali
14:50
That's really interesting, and I think, as you said, we've been talking about the National Year of Reading. So we just what are your hopes for the National Year of Reading?
Julie
14:58
I think it's it's just about getting children to engage in reading and see that there's something for everybody to really engage their interests and find the right book. And we're seeing it in our reading labs that so many children who are not that engaged come into our labs, they'll read an extract from a novel and then they'll want to go away and read that book. I think it's just giving them that excitement through the informal book talk, particularly, that just takes them on to the next step to want to do it independently. Um, I think also working with parents, particularly with our story lab program where the children receive copies of the books, we're just seeing that really early engagement, which is so important if we can get the parents reading with their children. That is really supporting their literacy and enjoyment of books. So I think it's just promoting reading and enjoyment of reading and just maybe emphasizing that we are not just a reading charity, we're a literacy charity. Reading is at the core of everything we do, and the reading for pleasure is foundational, but it's literacy across the board. So, as I said, it can be any aspects of literacy to meet the needs of the children.
Katy
16:18
Great. Nice.