New drive to help kids hit age standards

Thursday 22 September 2016

The latest figures show that around 20% of seven-year-olds in Jersey's non-fee paying schools failed to reach their age-related standards in reading by the end of Key Stage one last year, compared to 10% in England.

It's led to a new education charity setting up, to help children get up to scratch in literacy and numeracy by the time they leave primary school.

The charity, Every Child Our Future, is being supported by a number of corporate sponsors. It has already recruited around 200 volunteers from 14 local businesses to read with five to seven-year-olds in school to support their learning and give them a bit of extra practice.

The charity is already up and running in Guernsey and in its first year helped increase the percentage of children achieving age-related standards in literacy at Key Stage 2 from 67% to 85%.

It will also be funding specialist teachers and teaching assistants to work one-to-one with children here who need more help.

Nick Kershaw, co-founder of Every Child Our Future in Jersey, said: “This is a chance to ensure that all Jersey’s children, regardless of background, can overcome their difficulties and have the same opportunities to succeed. We are very grateful to our generous benefactors as their support will ensure the success of our reading programmes.” 

Staff from Ashburton, Aztec, C5, Capita, First Names, HSBC, IPES, KPMG, Mourant Ozannes, Quilter Cheviot, Romerils, Rossborough, Sure and UBS have all signed up to go into schools to read with some of the children.

Education Minister Rod Bryans said: “The positive contribution that Every Child Our Future has made in Guernsey is impressive. Involving volunteers and businesses will improve understanding of what happens in our schools and increase community involvement.

“We welcome their help in ensuring all our primary school pupils reach the highest possible literacy and numeracy levels. All children need a solid foundation so that they can access the full curriculum later on and fulfil their potential.”

You can find out more about becoming a volunteer by emailing here.