Main Content
Session Information
14 SES 08 B, Parents and Literacy Interventions
Paper Session
Contribution
The 'Letterbox Club' is a project that aims to improve the achievement in reading and number of children aged 7 to 11 in public care in the UK. Each child who is a member of the Letterbox Club receives a parcel once a month for six months, addressed to them personally at their residential address, and containing reading books, stationery items and a maths game. The children decide for themselves what to do with the materials provided; the majority choose to engage in reading and playing number games with their foster parents, siblings and other family members, as well as using the materials on their own.
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. The national pilot showed children's reading and maths scores that improved by more than would be predicted compared to national norms, and indicated increased levels of engagement between children and carers in educational activity at home.
At ECER 2010, we examined the ways in which the Letterbox Club might contribute to building children's resilience, which "involves a person faring better than might be expected in the face of serious adversity" (Gilligan, 2008), and considered the extension of the programme to Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, countries which have different ways of organising children's services.
This paper aims to track the process followed in the development of the Letterbox Club across the entire period of activity from 1998 to 2010, in order to examine the issue of how educational research can have an impact - a current concern across Europe and further afield. We have already considered the direct impact on participating children and their foster carers at previous conferences; the main focus of this paper is to discuss the key elements that led to the successful impact of the research on policy and practice in the education of looked-after children, and which encouraged a large enrollment in the programme by local authorities in 2009 and 2010.
The project will be considered in four stages. Stage One (1998 to 2002) studied foster carers', social workers' and teachers' views of their roles in overseeing and promoting the education of children in foster care. Foster carers were interviewed to explore the ways in which they might be enabled to support their foster children, through professional development courses or a handbook, or the direct provision to carers of educational materials to use with children.
Stage Two (2003 to 2006) looked at ways of providing materials directly to children instead, and developed an effective, practical and economical programme. This facilitated an application for substantial funding, and led to Stage Three (2007 to 2008), a national pilot, which is described briefly above.
Stage Four saw the programme becoming a self-financing subscription service, and a rapid expansion across the four countries of the UK. A change in government in 2010 may further influence the impact the programme might have in the future.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Department for Education and Skills (2007). Care Matters: Time for Change. Norwich: The Stationery Office. Fletcher-Campbell, F. (1997) The Education of Children who are Looked-After. Slough: National Foundation for Educational Research. Gilligan, R. (2008) Promoting resilience in young people in long-term care - the relevance of roles and relationships in the domains of recreation and work. Journal of Social Work Practice, 22: 1, 37-50. Griffiths, R., Comber, C. and Dymoke, S. (2010) The Letterbox Club 2007 to 2009: Final Evaluation Report. London: Booktrust. Jackson, S. (1994) Educating Children in Residential and Foster Care. Oxford Review of Education, 20 (3), 276-279. Martin, P.Y. and Jackson, S. (2002) Educational Success for Children in Public Care: advice from a group of high-achievers. Child and Family Social Work, 7, 121-131. Social Exclusion Unit (2003) A Better Education for Children in Care. London: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
Programme by Networks, ECER 2021
00. Central Events (Keynotes, EERA-Panel, EERJ Round Table, Invited Sessions)
Network 1. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations
Network 2. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)
Network 3. Curriculum Innovation
Network 4. Inclusive Education
Network 5. Children and Youth at Risk and Urban Education
Network 6. Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures
Network 7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education
Network 8. Research on Health Education
Network 9. Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement
Network 10. Teacher Education Research
Network 11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance
Network 12. LISnet - Library and Information Science Network
Network 13. Philosophy of Education
Network 14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Network 15. Research Partnerships in Education
Network 16. ICT in Education and Training
Network 17. Histories of Education
Network 18. Research in Sport Pedagogy
Network 19. Ethnography
Network 20. Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments
Network 22. Research in Higher Education
Network 23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education
Network 24. Mathematics Education Research
Network 25. Research on Children's Rights in Education
Network 26. Educational Leadership
Network 27. Didactics – Learning and Teaching
Network 28. Sociologies of Education
Network 29. Reserach on Arts Education
Network 30. Research on Environmental und Sustainability Education
Network 31. Research on Language and Education (LEd)
Network 32. Organizational Education
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