Several studies have established that the educational standards of children in public care in the UK are lower than should be expected (Jackson, 1994; Fletcher-Campbell, 1997; DfES, 2007). The ‘Letterbox Club’ is a project that aims to improve the achievement in reading and number of looked-after children aged 7 to 11. Our paper to ECER in 2009 reported on key features that contributed to the success of this intervention in 2007 and 2008, during a national pilot in England with 1500 children and 50 local authorities, funded by the DCFS (Department for Children, Families and Schools). This paper will examine findings for 2009, when the project worked with a further 1000 children and their families in 27 local authorities in Northern Ireland and Wales, and with a cohort of 22 children and families for “Letterbox Extra”, a pilot project for children with special educational needs.
Each child who is a member of the Letterbox Club receives a parcel once a month for six months. The parcel is addressed to the child, not their carer, at their residential address not their school, and contains reading books, stationery items and a maths game at the child’s own level of attainment. Many carers join in by reading or playing games with the children, but there is no assumption that this is required. The pilot test results showed reading and maths scores that improved by more than would be predicted compared to national norms, and questionnaire and interview data outlined high levels of engagement between children and carers in educational activity at home. Key elements of the success of the project seem to be the engagement of the child in their own learning, the personalised nature of the parcels, and the enjoyment of receiving parcels over a sustained period of time, with potentially a significant impact on children’s confidence, self-esteem and resilience.
In seeking to understand more these associated social and personal benefits, this paper considers the concept of resilience (Jackson and Martin, 1998; Fraser, 2004) as a way of examining the links between educational achievement for children in care, and their needs in terms of well-being and social care. Building resilience, which “ involves a person faring better than might be expected in the face of serious adversity” (Gilligan, 2008), is seen as an important way of improving a child’s life chances.
A second focus of the paper concerns the extension of the project to Northern Ireland and Wales, which have different ways of organising children’s services. This raises issues about the different perspectives of teachers, social workers and foster carers regarding the balance between educational and social priorities and the varied understandings by professionals and carers of each partner’s role in the child’s life. We also consider the contribution of other professionals and community members which the project has enabled: for example, library staff, health professionals, and extended family members both from children’s foster families and birth families.
