Bookmark - Our Spring Term Review 2021

Bookmark Our Spring Term Review 2021

Thank you for your support over the Spring Term to deliver our shared mission: we want every child to read.

The Spring Term was an incredibly challenging time for children, schools and our communities.

The pandemic continued to impact children’s education with school closures in January and February, and the transition back to the classroom in March and April.

Despite the challenges of this term, our volunteers have made an incredible impact reading with children across the country and the Bookmark community of schools, volunteers and supporters has continued to grow. This termly report is an overview of the impact we’ve made, which would not have been possible without our supporters.

"It’s so lovely to be able to provide this reading support to a child. After each session, I felt so invigorated and it was great to briefly step away from my working day to do something different. It had a real impact on my wellbeing as well as on the child I read with.”

- Corporate Volunteer

Our impact this term

571

4,668

children supported

one-to-one reading sessions delivered

104

30,000

partner schools

Story Corners distributed

“The children have absolutely loved their reading sessions, please thank your volunteers. We are really pleased with the children's progress.”

- Headteacher at a Bookmark partner school

Children supported: Spring 2021 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Gender split

Pupil Premium

From a English as BAME an background additional language

Children on the Bookmark programme

Special Education Needs

The National Average

Our impact this term National Literacy Trust stamp of approval At Bookmark we are constantly working to further improve the support we provide to children. In December 2020, we commissioned the National Literacy Trust to review both our face-to-face and online reading programmes against the evidence base around effective literacy interventions for primary school.

They found that Bookmark’s programmes are well evidenced and well designed, highlighting the programme structure, training for our volunteers, the range of reading resources and the interactive elements of our online programme. They also made a number of useful recommendations, which we are taking forward. You can read the full report on our website here.

95%

of teachers said that the Bookmark programme has made a positive difference to children

83%

of teachers noticed an increase in both children’s reading confidence and enjoyment of reading

94%

of teachers agreed that the programme had helped their school with the challenges of Covid-19

98%

of volunteers said they would recommend Bookmark to a friend or colleague.

“I was so excited for this I couldn’t sleep last night.”

- A child on the Bookmark programme

Our impact this term The Story Corner Magazine Over 380,000 children in the UK do not own a single book. In December/ January 2021 we launched and distributed 30,000 copies of The Story Corner magazine, so that children in our community have good quality, diverse and engaging reading material to enjoy at home. The magazine was incredibly well received by all and we will be releasing a July edition for children to take home over the summer holidays.

“We are in an area of high deprivation where families have little access to resources, so the magazine was really well received!”

- Teacher feedback on the Story Corner

12 Days of Bookmark Our #12DaysofBookmark Christmas fundraiser really set us up for success this Spring term.

Thanks to the creativity and generosity of our partners, their teams, and our amazing volunteers, we quadrupled our fundraising target of £6,000, ultimately raising £24,846 to support more children to read!

“I believe that reading is vital to both wellbeing and independence, so I was really happy to get involved and raise money to give back to children in my local community.”

- 12 Days of Bookmark participant

Our impact this term

In-home pilot During the school closures, we conducted a small pilot of in-home provision in partnership with West London Zone (WLZ) to look at a new way to reach children who weren't in school. At the start of the programme, teachers scored their children’s comprehension, vocabulary, phonics, reading fluency, reading enjoyment, and reading confidence. At the end of the intervention, overall teachers’ scores for the group of children had improved by an average of 19%!

“We've started to see real progress from some of the children who were well below in their reading. It has positively impacted their confidence and enjoyment of reading which is a big school focus at the moment.”

- WLZ Link Worker

Reaching New Communities

26

Schools in London (2019)

104

Schools in London and across the UK (2021)

1000

Volunteers in the Bookmark community

“This term has been a transformational period of growth for Bookmark and it would not have been possible without our incredible supporters who have dedicated time and resources to helping children learn to read.”

- Kitty Higgins, CEO of Bookmark

Looking forward Thanks to your support, Bookmark has already been able to change the story of hundreds of children this year. However, demand continues to grow as we begin to see the longer term impacts on children’s education as a result of the pandemic. This summer term, we are aiming to increase the number of children we support by 80%.

Please get in touch with either Claire or Laura to discuss how we can work together to support more children to read over the coming months, and thank you again from our Bookmark community.

"We're always looking for ways to engage our employees beyond the day to day of their job. So many of our employees want to do things to give back to the communities that we and our clients serve.

Partnering with Bookmark has been perfect for that because you can demonstrably see the difference you are making to a local community. You could even know the school itself!“ - Dawn Marriott, CEO of Azets

Registered Charity No. 1177681 | www.bookmarkreading.org