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

Of the children who were reading below the expected standard at the beginning of their programme, 92% ended the year at or above the expected standard. 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.

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).

44%

of children who received Bookmark support ended the year at or above the expected reading standard, some with as little as one term’s worth of our one to one reading support.

“Out of the 10 children participating in the programme, eight of them have made accelerated progress.” Teacher at a partner school

41%

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

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