The Inflexion Foundation is delighted to announce it has made a donation of £20,000 to literacy charity Bookmark, an organisation that gives children the reading skills and confidence needed to have a fair chance in life.
In the UK there are 7.1 million adults who struggle to read well. Not only do they suffer from limited job prospects, poor health and low self-esteem, but they won’t be able to support their own children with reading. According to the OECD, reading for pleasure is the most important indicator of a child’s future success, even more important than their family’s socioeconomic status.
Bookmark helps address this through a flexible, volunteer-led programme, which supported over 1,400 children with their reading by this school year by delivering over 16,000 reading sessions with them. Praise from academic institutions has proven the importance of this guided tuition: 83% of teachers said they had noticed improvements in children’s reading confidence and enjoyment of reading, and 94% said it had helped their school deal with the challenges of COVID-19.
We have been supporting charities that address the needs of children for a number of years and feel Bookmark is doing a tremendous job in the space of children’s literacy at a time when there has never been a greater need. Due to the pandemic it is estimated we have lost a decade’s progress in narrowing the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers, so helping to redress this is crucial.
We’re absolutely delighted with this generous support from Inflexion. It is a shocking reality that more than one in four children in the UK currently leave primary school unable to read well. These children will often struggle in school and beyond. Our volunteer-led programme gives children the reading skills and confidence they need for a fair chance in life and with Inflexion’s help, we will bring this much needed support to more children than ever in the next school year.
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