Impact Report 2021/22

A message from...

Bookmark’s Chief Executive

At Bookmark we want every child to read.

When we have the time and space to curl up with a good book, free from distraction, it’s a pleasure like no other.

But many children don’t have this opportunity. Literacy among six-year-olds in England has declined to the lowest level in almost a decade after learning was disrupted during pandemic lockdowns1

That's why this year, we've continued to expand our core programme of one-to -one, volunteer-led reading support, reaching 1,897 children across 23,870 sessions, both online and face to face. We've also been developing and piloting new ideas to support literacy and promote whole school reading cultures. We launched Your Story Corner to improve school reading resources. We also expanded the distribution network of The Story Corner magazine to reach even more children via schools, food banks, pupil referral units and children’s hospitals in England and Wales. And in response to the situation in Ukraine, and the arrival of thousands of Ukrainian refugees in the UK, we created the Bookmark Box for Ukraine – to give those children who’ve had to leave so much behind, something to call their own.

In the aftermath of a global pandemic, we supported more children than ever before. This is only possible because of the many individuals and organisations who have supported our work. To our volunteers, fundraisers, donors and corporate partners, and our partner schools: thank you for helping us to give children the reading skills, confidence and motivation they need for a fair chance in life.

I’m hugely inspired and excited to be leading a charity that is helping to rewrite the story for so many children. I look forward to growing and deepening the impact of what we do, so that even more children leave school reading well and go on to have the futures that they’re entitled to.

Graihagh Crawshaw-Sadler Bookmark Chief Executive Officer

Graihagh

1 National Literacy Trust

My volunteer has made me a better reader because I hated reading and now I love it”

– Child on a Bookmark programme

The children and schools we worked with in 2021/22

2

We supported children across Years 1 to 4 with one-to-one reading sessions. This is the first full academic year that we have offered all schools support for Year 4 pupils and the high uptake suggests there is demand for this. The largest group was children in year 3, the year group who missed out on school time in reception and year 1 due to lockdowns.

Our partner schools

Our volunteers read with children at 171 schools across England, from Newcastle to Newquay, including social mobility cold spots such as Bradford, and rural areas like Nanpean, a small village in Cornwall. We also reached 197 schools in Birmingham and Lincolnshire with our Your Story Corner scheme.

Defined as having received one or more Bookmark reading sessions with a volunteer.

The children we supported were more likely to be in receipt of Pupil Premium or to have English as an additional language than the

– Year 4 pupil in Coventry

I love reading with my volunteer because I love learning new words. I struggle on some words, so I just really like to read with someone.”

For children who need extra support

We help children to become increasingly confident and skilled readers.

We do this in two ways: we partner with schools to encourage a love of reading among all pupils, and we give one to one support and resources to those children who need it the most.

Our core programme

Our programme gives children one-to-one support from a volunteer, twice a week, to build their reading confidence, enhance their enjoyment of reading and support progress with their reading attainment.

Building reading confidence

The Bookmark programme is designed to give children a safe space to develop their confidence, whilst also building a trusting relationship with their volunteer.

In 2022, confidence was the second highest reason for teacher referrals to our programme at 73%. It’s also where our trained volunteers made the biggest impact.

of teachers said children’s reading confidence increased 88%

“[Children] are more … motivated to participate in class reading and lessons … before, many would have been reluctant.”

Teacher at an online partner school

said confidence was the reason for the teacher referral to our programme 73%

“I have noticed all the children who took part grew in confidence, and articulate themselves well in different situations, when this didn’t happen before.”

Teacher at a face-to-face partner school

“Seeing the positive impact on Lucy, and the massive improvement in her … confidence, has been really rewarding; it is amazing how big an impact Bookmark programmes can have on children in such a short space of time!”

Face-to-face volunteer

Sarvenaz’s

Story:

From ‘reluctant reader’ to engaged and confident

Sarvenaz was a ‘reluctant reader’ before she took part in the Bookmark programme.

The seven-year-old refused to read at home and was unable to focus during reading time at school. Her teacher, Cristiana, said: “Everyone else would have a book out, but Sarvenaz would be fidgeting, or chatting, or the book would be closed.”

In class, Sarvenaz is a confident child, but her confidence in reading was low – until she took part in the Bookmark programme. This ‘change in attitude’, Cristiana said, ‘pushed her forward’.

Sarvenaz was ‘engaged and chatty’ during the six-week programme. English is rarely

spoken by her family at home in Bradford, so the one-to -one support she got from her volunteer was ‘beneficial’, according to her teaching assistant.

Today, Cristiana describes Sarvenaz as an engaged and motivated reader. And her improved focus has benefitted her writing too. Cristiana said: “She is more willing to read as a result of the programme and enjoys reading so much more.”

"She is more willing to read and enjoys reading so much more."

Nurturing enjoyment of reading

Children’s enjoyment of reading can have a powerful impact on their engagement with learning, in fact the OECD3 reports that reading enjoyment is a more significant factor in children’s educational success than their socio-economic background.

Pupils who enjoy reading also have higher wellbeing and lower anxiety than their peers – and children recognise the benefits too. When asked to indicate why they read, children answered with reasons relating to wellbeing including: it helps them relax and it makes them feel happy.4

of teachers noticed an increase in children’s reading enjoyment 92%

“Children's enjoyment of reading has skyrocketed. Children look forward to their reading sessions and are more communicative.”

Teacher at a partner school

“Children enjoyed having that special time to play games and read with an adult.”

Teacher at a partner school

“Their whole demeanour has changed. They circled the happy face on a page where we talked about their favourite book/poem/game (without being asked).”

Bookmark volunteer

Grace’s Story:

Eight-year-old Grace doesn’t have many opportunities to read. Before taking part in the Bookmark programme, she couldn’t read independently.

Grace’s home life is ‘chaotic’, according to her teacher. She is one of four siblings living in a two-bedroom house. Her mum and her grandma, who also lives with her, have had health problems and the family is being supported by children’s services.

more comfortable expressing her ideas."

Grace was finding it hard to focus in class and her teachers decided she needed more one-to-one support.

She spends an hour each week with a Bookmark volunteer – and her confidence, her focus and her willingness to learn have all improved.

Grace is now on her second programme, and she’s an enthusiastic participant. When collected for a session, she said, ‘Yes, it’s Bookmark time!’.

Her teacher said: “Now she seems more ready to learn. She’s sharing more in class and is more comfortable expressing her ideas.”

"Yes, it's Bookmark time!"

"She’s sharing more in class and is

Boosting reading attainment

Research from the University of Leeds, published in March 2022, shows that 68% of children in Year 1 are not reading at the expected standard. 5 And the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers has widened to its largest since 2012. One in six pupils who are poor readers at age seven will not complete secondary education, a dropout rate that is six times higher than the rate for proficient readers.6

44%

of children who received Bookmark support ended the year at or above the expected reading standard.

Only 8% of children who received Bookmark support were at or above the expected reading standard before starting their programme. Whilst we are further refining our programme to push for greater impact, it is clear the programme is supporting reading attainment progression for our pupils.

41%

“Out of the 10 children participating in the programme, eight of them have made accelerated progress.”

Teacher at a partner school

of children with English as an additional language improved their reading level after completing a six-week Bookmark programme

Spending one-to-one time with a volunteer also helps children to develop related skills like reading comprehension. Half of teachers identified improvements to reading comprehension. They also noted improvements in reading fluency (65% of teachers) and decoding strategies (35% of teachers).

“My pupil started at Level 2 and was tackling Level 4 books by the last session.” Bookmark volunteer

5 Based on a study of 450 children in Leeds.

6 Source: (Hernandez, 2011)

Two years progress in four months Florin’s Story:

At the beginning of the year, eight-year-old Florin was reading at the level of five-year-old child, more than three years below his calendar age. Now, thanks to the support of his Bookmark volunteer, he’s on the way to catching up with his classmates.

Florin's school put him forward for the Bookmark programme to improve his confidence and his comprehension.

His teacher, Craig, ‘knew Florin had the potential to make progress if he had the intervention’. And after taking part in two six-week Bookmark programmes, Florin began to flourish.

Four months later, Florin has gained two years in his reading age and Craig has seen a huge

increase in his comprehension. His vocabulary has increased, his confidence has grown, and he can predict what happens next in his books.

Florin’s increased understanding is, in part, down to the Bookmark programme Craig says. It’s had a ‘really positive’ impact and he is ‘more confident raising his hand’. Craig added: “Florin is finding his voice as he gets better at English.”

“His confidence has grown, and he can predict what happens next in his books”

Our volunteer community

Each of our programmes is run by a fully trained volunteer, who dedicates one hour a week to supporting a child with their reading. We're hugely grateful to our volunteers and proud of the impact they have on children's reading – and we know they value it too.

of volunteers said the chance to support a child was the most important aspect of volunteering

“I have a health condition which affects my mobility and the opportunity to help children online has been invaluable and made me feel useful.”

Bookmark volunteer

Who are our volunteers?7

“It was so nice to interact and help the child I read with; seeing him improve over time was really rewarding!”

Bookmark volunteer

We know that our volunteer pool is not representative of the diverse communities and children that we support. We’re planning further research to understand the barriers to volunteering, and how we can support more people of all ages and backgrounds to volunteer with us.

of volunteers rated their experience with Bookmark as ‘Excellent’ or ‘Good’

Valerie’s Story:

Bonding with Dylan over books

Valerie Kennett is one of our online volunteers. She’s been reading with eight-year-old Dylan and has seen him develop from a ‘frightened’ and ‘shy’ boy to a ‘proud, confident and happy’ reader.

She said: “Our first session together lasted one-and-a-half minutes. I told him I was here to help him with his reading, and he took his headphones off and disappeared. I could hear him in the background crying and saying to the teacher, ‘I can’t do it, I don’t want to do it; I don’t know her’.”

The teacher joined Valerie and Dylan for their next session. She explained that Dylan didn’t like the camera, so Valerie switched it off.

She said: “He needed some time to get to know me. The fact that he saw me twice a week helped because I was no longer a stranger."

After a few sessions with Dylan, Valerie turned on her camera to say goodbye – but Dylan put his collar up and hid. For the sixth session, however, ‘he turned up all smiling and happy to have the camera on’.

Valerie said: “Once he relaxed, he got more confident with his reading and he started to appreciate the joy of reading more. I would give him a lot of praise, and when he remembered things from previous sessions, it really motivated him.”

By the end of the programme, Dylan had ‘grown in independence’. Valerie added: “At the start of the programme, I never thought he would be able to share his opinions with me on the books, but he became so much more confident.”

Our corporate volunteers and supporters

Our corporate volunteers are not only helping children to develop the reading skills and confidence they need for a fair chance in life through our face-to-face and online reading programme – they have given their time and expertise in a whole range of ways. This year, some of them gave up their time to help rebuild a school library, creating an environment where a whole school reading culture can flourish.

Our corporate volunteers told us that they find our online reading programme easy to balance with their day job.

“It’s half an hour, so it was easy to slot into the day; it worked really well.” Volunteer, Burges Salmon

“Sometimes I think, ‘how am I going to fit this in my schedule?’, but it’s so easy with the online programme and it is definitely time well spent.” Volunteer, Investec

It’s not just the children who enjoy their reading time: our corporate volunteers said the experience was ‘gratifying’, ‘energising’ and ‘beneficial’. One told us: “Especially when I’m working at home, having that interaction lights up your day.” Volunteer, Burges Salmon

Our corporate partners have climbed mountains, run half-marathons, taken on Tough Mudders, judged our competitions, helped pack and deliver resources and so much more. With Bookmark, there is no shortage of ways to get involved.

“Being dyslexic myself, I struggled with reading and comprehension at school, so seeing the child’s sense of accomplishment is the most rewarding aspect of volunteering.” Volunteer, Iris

“I felt so much better afterwards because it gives you that sense that there are more important things in life. You felt like you were making a difference.”

Volunteer, Close Brothers

“It’s fulfilling to do something like this where you feel you’re really making a difference to somebody. You can’t not feel good about that.”

Volunteer, Close Brothers

Working with local partners to

accelerate change

With 28% of children leaving primary school unable to read at the expected standard, Coventry has a high need for additional literacy support.

To expand their existing partnerships with local schools, Coventry Building Society reached out to us to deliver weekly, one-to-one reading for children at risk of falling behind. In addition to supporting schools with our reading programme, they also wanted to engage their teams with a meaningful and high-impact volunteering experience that would benefit both volunteers and young readers.

At the start of 2022, we launched our partnership, which saw funding from Coventry Building Society onboard five schools to our programme. Throughout the year, Bookmark and Coventry Building Society volunteers made an incredible impact, delivering online reading support to 44 children to improve their reading skills, confidence and enjoyment. We also delivered The Story Corner magazines and Bookmark Boxes for Ukraine for hundreds of children at the schools to enjoy.

Across 56 programmes, delivered by a mix of Bookmark and Coventry Building Society volunteers, 287 hours of extra reading time

was delivered by 66 volunteers last year alone. The impact of this support was evident not just in the improving attainment, but in the conversations we had with children. One child even depicted her reading sessions as her favourite place to read!

In 2022/23, Bookmark and Coventry Building Society are aiming to reach even more local children by bringing our programme to a sixth school, while continuing to support existing partner schools and their pupils.

Leanne Stanley, Senior Community Specialist at Coventry Building Society, said: “In a world of hybrid working, Bookmark gave us the solution to offer quality volunteering opportunities for our colleagues. Volunteering via an online platform has meant that colleagues from across the organisation have been able to get involved with our partnered schools in Coventry, regardless of their location.”

“287 hours of extra reading time was delivered by 66 volunteers last year alone”

Our school partners

We work in close partnership with our network of schools, helping them support children to develop a love of reading.

We collected Net Promoter Scores8 from our partner schools for the first time this academic year – and the results suggest that teachers are likely to recommend our reading programme to other teachers.

We also received positive feedback from schools that remained in our reading programme at the end of the academic year. 88 teachers responded to our end-of-year survey, commenting on the professionalism, friendliness and reliability of our volunteers, and the way they engaged with their reader.

Useful feedback on changes we could make to our resources will be acted on for future programmes.

95%

of teachers rated their experience of working with our volunteers as ‘Excellent’ or ‘Good’

of teachers felt 'Very Supported' or 'Supported' by the Bookmark team 99%

“The volunteers have built great relationships with the children. Every single child has looked forward to each session and told me how they can’t wait to see their volunteer again.”

Teacher at an online partner school

“The volunteers are so supportive and genuinely interested in each child; they offer encouragement and positive praise throughout the sessions.” Teacher at an online partner school

Net Promoter Scores from its partner schools. Net Promotor Scores are a way of measuring how likely teachers are

In 2021/22 Bookmark

Bookmark’s reading programmes to other teachers.

collected

to recommend

"I am a headteacher in a school that is supported by Bookmark. We have children that are supported by volunteers that probably have no idea what an amazing impact they have. The children thrive and look forward to their dedicated 1:1 sessions. Helping a child to read has an immeasurable impact."

"The pupils on our reading programmes can never usually sit and read for half an hour and enjoy it, they get distracted and disinterested, but on our online programmes the children are so engaged and don't want to log off!"

"The children who took part have all been so enthusiastic and motivated to read. They ask me daily 'are we reading on the computers today?' and several children talk regularly and fondly of their volunteers."

"I have noticed that the children's willingness to read is huge. I can see they are picking up more books to read at the library during their reading time and choosing which authors they want.”

Listening to the voices of children on our programme

We want to hear directly from children on our programme about what they think of their reading sessions. We ran play-based focus groups to find out more about their attitudes towards reading, and what they valued most.

Children talked about not having someone to read with at home, and how much they wanted to share their reading experiences with an adult. They had unanimously positive attitudes towards their Bookmark volunteers, and particularly valued the opportunity to read in a fun, engaging and kind environment.

“I read to myself and my pillow. I don’t read with no one because no one at home likes reading.”

“I don’t get to read with anyone.”

“I like to read with someone so they can help and see me.”

volunteer:

“I love it – because I love learning new words. I struggle on some words – not all, just a little bit, so I just really like to read with someone.”

“I love it because if I am stuck, and no one helps me out, I’d be stuck and I won’t be able to read.”

“I feel happy when it’s reading time and very laughy.”

Do children have someone to read with at home?

How children feel about reading with their Bookmark

I’m supposed to be helping them, but without knowing it, they help me.

Lifted my spirits, made me smile, and gave me a positivity boost.

– Bookmark volunteer

For children without their own books

The Story Corner magazine

One in five children in England aged five to eight don’t have access to books at home, and just over half of parents said books are too expensive.9

The Story Corner magazine aims to promote yearround reading, and tackle learning loss during the school holidays, by providing those children who have limited access to books with high-quality reading material.

This year, we expanded our distribution network to support even more children. Our summer issue reached 255 schools, as well as 40 food banks and children’s hospitals. Thanks to our supporters we we're able to donate 107,871 magazines across winter, spring and summer – up from 60,000 in 2020/21.

98%

of teachers strongly agreed or agreed that ‘the magazine is high quality’

98%

of teachers strongly agreed or agreed that ‘the magazine is engaging’

“Many of our children do not have access to reading materials at home, and having a magazine to read has given them the opportunity to have access to reading materials, but in a fun way.”

Teacher

“Parents were grateful and said they enjoyed looking at it at home with them. This means that parents are spending more time with their children reading.”

Teacher

For all pupils

Pupils who have a quiet space to read enjoy reading more, read more often, and even have higher wellbeing levels than those without. Having dedicated reading spaces and diverse, inclusive and relevant books in schools is an important ingredient in tackling the literacy challenge.

Yet a quarter of primary schools serving disadvantaged areas in England don’t have a library, and many existing school libraries lack good-quality books that are inclusive and representative of the children reading them.10

We’re helping schools to build a whole school reading culture by giving them much needed resources to foster that love of reading.

Helping schools build a whole school reading culture Your Story Corner

Between April and June 2022, we donated Your Story Corner packs containing 40,000 books, The Story Corner magazines, posters, postcards and worksheets, as well as National Literacy Trust memberships and trials of the ChatterStars vocabulary app, to 197 schools across Birmingham and Lincolnshire.

These packs gave 38,000 children in Years 1 to 4 access to more diverse, varied and high-quality reading material, encouraging positive reading attitudes and behaviours.

93%

of schools said they’ve been inspired to enhance their reading spaces and school library provision after receiving support from Bookmark

“We’re finding that more and more children are using the library – even children we wouldn’t expect to be in there!”

Teacher

of schools told us the Your Story Corner packs have made a positive difference to children’s enjoyment of reading 97%

“Our children were so excited to receive the books; we have waiting lists on lots of the books that the children are desperate to read. Children are reading outside at lunchtime again!”

Teacher

Your Story Corner – mural competition

We asked schools in Birmingham and Lincolnshire in receipt of Your Story Corner packs to share photos of their cosy reading corners on social media for a chance to win a bespoke mural for their school library.

Timberley Academy in Birmingham was chosen as the winner after it transformed an unloved space outside its headteacher’s office into a ‘Starbooks’.

Artist Sarah Harrison worked with children at the school to design the mural, which was based on her front cover illustration for The Story Corner magazine (issue one). It was customised to include the school logo and values, as well as book covers designed by the children.

Sarah said: “I loved working with Timberley to create their mural. The children would come to watch me painting the wall and ask lots of questions. Many enjoyed coming back each day to check on progress and see the artwork developing. By getting the school community involved, I hope this will enhance the connection they feel with the space, and promote future enjoyment.”

“Our children and families love the personal touches; it has got everyone talking about it! It has made our already thriving library an even more inviting space and it will certainly encourage even more visitors.”

Headteacher Catherine Harris

library more.”

Year 2 pupil

“It makes the library a happy and bright space – it might make me want to come to the

the boxes of books for us as teachers was like

Christmas’

their eyes lit up! They loved that they were new, rather than old and scruffy.”

Lincolnshire is among the 10% most deprived areas in England.

Jessica said: “We have 17 languages in our school and lots of children are recipients of Pupil Premium (extra funding for disadvantaged pupils). We also have lots of parents who struggle to read or write themselves. They’re the sorts of challenges we’re facing.”

Jessica and her colleagues want every child to leave their school a fluent and enthusiastic reader – and having high-quality and diverse books is key to their mission. Jessica said: “When we introduced the books to the children,

The books have inspired their teachers too. Jessica said: “Opening the boxes of books for us as teachers was like Christmas. We spent hours going through them. It’s easy for teachers to get stuck working with their favourite books: these books opened our eyes to what’s out there.”

The school is using the books to teach the children about diversity and inclusion, and ‘what you can achieve, even when you have hurdles to overcome’. Jessica said: “We want to fill children with ambition. The books are inspirational and aspirational. They’re making a real difference to our school.”

“We’ve spent the last couple of days totally revamping our library following the donation of books. The plan is to surprise the children after half term with a new library.”

– Teacher

Jessica Lees, Reading Lead at Bracebridge Infant and Nursey School in Lincoln, talks about the impact of the scheme at her school.

‘Opening

For children arriving from Ukraine Bookmark

We supported refugee children from Ukraine with resources to support their new start in the UK.

In April, we launched the Bookmark Box for Ukraine. The boxes were designed to help thousands of children to feel welcome and to have resources to engage their imaginations at a time when they may have left everything behind.

Each box included books in Ukrainian and English, as well as resources, games and storytelling aids to encourage therapeutic play and support wellbeing, and a SIM card to help the children and their families keep in touch with loved ones.

Yulia’s ‘Box of Treasures’

Eight-year-old Yulia had arrived in London from Ukraine three months ago, with just a small suitcase and a backpack with a handful of toys.

She is safe, but the noises of London trigger frightening reminders of the war in Ukraine. Her headteacher, Inna, described how construction work and drilling near the school caused Yulia to ‘hide under her desk with fear’. Another classmate has nightmares, caused by the sound of trains near her temporary accommodation.

Inna said: “They still have many obstacles to overcome. They may not know where their friends

and family have ended up, and they are now having to battle with a language barrier, which causes frustration and feelings of rejection.”

Stories like Yulia’s are why we put together the Bookmark Box for Ukraine: to support with a sense of belonging and to support language acquisition over time.

Inna described it as ‘a box of treasures’. She said: “Every item in the box was thought through. The welcome letter in Ukrainian made a big difference; it was so powerful.”

"The box supports children's wellbeing through storytelling, writing, and play as they adapt to their new environment and begin to settle."

– Cllr Julie Reed, cabinet member for Children and Families

What we've learnt and what we'll do next

We’re proud of what we’ve achieved this year with the help of our school partners, volunteers and supporters – but we know there’s always more to do.

Here’s a summary of what we've learnt in 2022, and the actions we’re taking to make a bigger impact in 2023.

Our reading programme

What we've learnt:

Most of the children we support are in Years 3 and 4, but older children need our help too. There is demand from schools to support Year 5 children who were in Year 2 at the start of lockdown.

Currently, our attainment data doesn’t tell the whole story because the current buckets of ‘at’, ‘below’ and ‘above’ are not nuanced enough to reflect incremental progress.

We see greater impact and improvement from children engaged in multiple reading programmes one after the other.

We received overwhelmingly positive feedback from teachers, but we'd still like to see a higher level of engagement from schools with our programme.

The action we’re taking:

We supported over 40 Year 5 pupils at 13 schools in the autumn term and we will extend this to more partner schools in 2023. We’ll review our online resources and volunteer reader training to make sure they’re suitable for the different age groups we support.

We're introducing more nuanced attainment fields at the baseline data gathering point to better understand our impact and we're making it easier for children to take part in multiple programmes.

We're introducing new ways of working with schools, including a tiered partnership system, additional literacy resources and access to CPD grants.

We’re piloting new ways to collect feedback throughout the year so that we hear from teachers/schools that leave our programme and ensure school voice is central to our continuous improvement cycle.

For volunteers, high cancellations, noise issues and tech challenges make it harder for a reading session to run smoothly and for the child to get the most out of the session.

We’re reviewing our volunteer training. We’ll also be increasing the number of session coordinators to facilitate the smooth running of sessions and we'll continue to invest in and improve technology to create the best learning environment.

We have a growing community of volunteers, but we need to increase diversity to allow for overall growth in our volunteer pool whilst retaining our original volunteers.

We will carry out more research to better understand this. We will adopt a new attraction strategy as part of a long-term commitment to address the issues of diversity, representation and inclusion.

The Story Corner

What we learned:

magazine

The magazine was well received by children and teachers at schools across the UK and we've seen clear demand from food banks allowing us to further extend our reach.

Your Story Corner

The action we’re taking:

We’ll continue to expand the magazine’s distribution. We aim to print three issues per year (one per term) and distribute 100,000 copies per term. Magazines will also be distributed as part of a package option available to schools.

What we learned: The action we’re taking:

The response to the pilot was largely positive, although it’s too early to know its full impact on whole school reading culture and school business development.

We’ll be expanding Your Story Corner to three new locations this year: Nottingham, Plymouth and Leicester. There will be a review of the project in summer 2023.

Looking ahead

We know the scale of the literacy challenge and we have ambitious growth planned over the next few years. By this time in 2025 we aim to have delivered over 400,000 reading sessions and to have partnered with 800 primary schools. This will be possible through significant growth in our volunteer community who help us make it happen every day.

To achieve this, we will strengthen the foundations of our charity. This includes a renewed approach to impact measurement and using it to drive continuous improvement, investing in our technology, so that we can deliver the best possible experience for all stakeholders, and focusing on the development of our staff so they are best equipped to deliver what is required.

We will work on retaining our current volunteer base, whilst increasing diversity within our volunteer community to best represent the children we support and further facilitate growth. We will also strive to better understand the needs of our school partners and to ensure the services we provide support their long-term literacy goals.

Next year it will be five years since Bookmark delivered our first reading session. We will be building on a theory of change process to launch a new, purpose driven five-year strategy and look forward to talking with current and new partners as we work on this strategy, to change the story for countless more children.

Methodology

We collect a range of data, from standard assessments of pupils’ reading levels, to detailed surveys. Rather than focusing solely on reading levels or grades, we use teachers and volunteers’ perceptions to gain a rounded and holistic view of our impact. This report uses data from the following sources.

Our reading programme: Your Story Corner:

• We collected pre-intervention reading level data for all children referred to our reading programme. Schools were also asked to provide end-of-year reading level data in July 2022. Responses were received for 1,315 children (69% of those reached).

• Teachers were asked to complete termly surveys, as well as an end-of-year survey in July 2022 (88 responses/35% response rate). We also interviewed six teachers throughout the academic year to build case studies.

• We conducted end-of-programme volunteer surveys (983 responses/ 51% response rate).

• We held three play-based focus groups with children on our reading programme.

The Story Corner magazine

• Seventeen schools provided pre- and post-intervention data using our reading audit survey tool.

• Teachers were asked to complete preand post-intervention surveys. We also interviewed four teachers from participating schools.

• We ran two focus groups with teachers in Birmingham and Lincolnshire.

• Questions about the magazine were included in the end-of-year teacher survey above.

The Bookmark Box for Ukraine

• We collected testimonials from 23 beneficiaries and project stakeholders.

• An interview was carried out with Inna Hryhorovych, headteacher at St Mary’s Ukrainian school in Holland Park.

Registered Charity No. 1177681

Registered Company No. 11104438

Bookmark is committed to safeguarding and promoting the wellbeing and welfare of children.