1. Evaluation of Whatever It Takes Project Period 1: Jan – Sept/Oct 2010 We pledge to do whatever it takes to get every child in Leicester reading!

2. Aims of Whatever It Takes Project (WIT) To increase “reading miles” (Rose 2009) and language opportunities for pupils who are vulnerable to under-attainment. To improve the match of books to children To improve skills/ expertise of adults to improve the effectiveness of pupil learning To improve specific, targeted interventions To improve the reading culture

3. Context in which project is working Currently around 25% of children in Leicester do not attain their age related standard for reading at the end of primary school. This compares to 20% nationally. This means that a quarter of our children are entering secondary education with reading levels below NC level 4 and there is a strong likelihood that this will impact on their overall life chances.

4. Methods of evaluation used. Immediate or shortly after evaluations of major events. Follow up evaluations some time after an event particularly to see if it has had an impact in school. School by school evaluations of school based projects. Evaluations of city wide impact – on line questionnaire, using data already being collected, new data.

5. Establishing the baseline. N.C Data. At the start of WIT in spring/summer 2010, 5326 primary aged pupils completed the survey to provide a baseline measure of reading behaviours and attitudes.

6. Some activities, outcomes and ways forward.

7. School Projects Data. Of the 63 schools who were funded by WIT for projects from February 2010 – end of July 2010 forty five had completed an evaluation by the end of October 2010. The total funding distributed to these schools was £607,000. As we did not collect baseline data from schools using a single method and as schools had different objectives this evaluation report is necessarily complicated.

8. Ways Forward... Change bidding system to guide schools more. Ensure schools have good baseline data particularly for targeted groups. Encourage transition projects involving more than one school. Encourage some innovation but only if schools are willing to share outcomes. Work more closely with LA to support and monitor WIT.

9. Central WIT events Feb – August 2010

10. Author Week Author Week took place in March 2010 and involved 10 authors working with almost 4,000 pupils from 80 schools. Feedback from every school that took part in Author Week was overwhelmingly positive using words such as: excellent, informative, entertaining, fantastic, inspirational, great question and answer session, fascinating, motivating, appropriate, great, creative, engaging, enthusiastic, insightful, inspirational, interactive.

11. Ways forward... Change week so that it isn’t just before a holiday! Give schools more guidance about what to do before, during and after Author Week. Organise story telling week for younger children – not based centrally.

12. Reading Champions’ Events These have been well attended and generally well received on the day as seen in evaluations received. The audience group is diverse as School Reading Champions can be Literacy Co- ordinators, Headteachers, Deputies and Assistant Heads, Reading Recovery Teachers, Teaching Assistants trained as Better Reading Partners or Librarians ( Secondary Schools only.) At each event over 80 participants have attended, representing the majority of city schools.

13. Ways forward... Schools have asked for more chances to network and hear about good practice. This is being built in to next event. WIT website being developed to keep people in touch.

14. Summer Read Easy This was run in conjunction with the libraries as an addition to their normal programme which was called Space Hop. WIT funding extended the scheme to encourage more children to join the library and to read some books even if the didn’t complete the Space Hop. 6121 children joined Space Hop which was a 19.5% increase on last year. 1930 children joined the library in July / August an increase of 21% on 2009. The total attendance at library events supported by WIT was 3262 plus another 2773 attended other promotional events. As a direct result of working together with WIT 8 Children’s Centres now stock books for 5- 8 year olds which makes books accessible to another group of children in disadvantaged areas.

15. Ways forward... Looking at only running one scheme this year as some parents said it was confusing. Working with libraries from start of project not joining on later. Looking at use of latest research about 6 books per child for summer holidays, consulting with schools about this. Use of Bookbus over summer period being considered.

16. Highcross Summer Reading Week This was a pilot project that took place for one week in a unit in the Highcross centre. WIT and the library service set up story telling events and volunteers talked to parents about telling stories and hearing their children read. Although the unit was used well most of the parents who stopped and came in were county parents.

17. Ways forward... WIT may look at running something in a neighbourhood instead if the opportunity arises.

18. Everybody’s Reading (ER). Over 70 events took place across the city to raise the profile of reading. Approx. 30,000 spectators heard the story written for WIT read by Bali Rai at LCFC. Copies of the story were distributed at the end of the match. In association with the Library Services WIT funded promotional events as part of ER. 4683 Booktime packs were delivered to schools for children in F2 (4/5 year olds) A total of 12 booktime events were attended by 618 children and 137 parents/ carers. 129 new members of the library were joined. Evaluation of ER events is not yet complete. Early discussions suggest that we need to further target some communities which are harder to reach. We need to work through existing organisations that have good links with some of our targeted areas.

19. Ways forward... This year ER events are taking place in communities. We are making contact with local groups that are already successful Internet cafes are to be used to get adults writing stories about Leicester. Hopefully these will be published in a glossy, accessible magazine circulated and used. This will link to the Spark story writing competition for children.

20. Spark Writing Competition. WIT worked in partnership with the Spark Children’s Festival to commission a book of stories written by Leicester children. The book was illustrated by ‘A’ level students from St Paul’s and published in the Autumn of 2010. Two copies were distributed to every school. Only about 100 children took part in the competition. The young people who illustrated the book did a wonderful job. We are not sure if the book has been used in schools.

21. Ways forward... This year there will be the opportunity for all schools to form panels of judges to read the finalists ‘stories. We hope moiré schools will be involved. The age range has been extended to include younger secondary. There will be workshops offered for school staff who want to find out how to stimulate good writing. Our target for number of entrants is at least 300.

22. What is the potential suggested by early impact of where we can go with this project?

23. Learning from others. Dunbartonshire. Wolverhampton.

24. Future Plans for Evaluation WIT has put in a bid to De Montfort University to be part of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership. This means that a graduate will work with WIT full time to evaluate every aspect of the project including the new CPD programme.