Whatever It Takes Project – 2014/15 Full Evaluation

Whatever it Takes Project – 2014/15 Full Evaluation

Introduction

The Whatever it Takes (WiT) initiative completed its sixth academic year of activities in the summer of 2015. This annual report seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of that investment towards achieving the ultimate aim of doing “whatever it takes to get every child in Leicester reading”.

Whilst there are no specific performance measures of WiT that can definitively tell us the success or otherwise of the project, there are a number of proxy measures and indicators that this report will use to gauge overall reading outcomes in the city in recent years.

All such measures and indicators will be influenced by other factors, of course, but taken together will be used to consider the impact of WiT.

This report will consider the reading attainment of children in Leicester’s schools and their attitude to reading, using the WiT pupil survey.

The majority of the WiT investment is distributed through school-based projects and the effectiveness of these in the academic year 2014/15 are also considered. So too are the central WiT events of the last academic year. Some projects and data referred to in this report come from beyond the academic year into the remainder of the calendar year, but given the lag in finalised academic data, it has historically been seen as more timely to report them together with 2014/15 academic information.

This report encompasses all aspects of the Whatever it Takes work, including those funded from both the Dedicated Schools Grant and the General Fund.

Summary The key findings from this report are:

• Key Stage 1 reading attainment has declined and the gap to national has widened o Numbers of Level 2+ and Level 2B+ have dipped compared to last year o There was a small rise in pupils achieved a Level 3 o APS score remains at last year’s level

• Key Stage 2 reading attainment has improved and the gap to national has narrowed o Significant gains in Level 4B+ outcomes has almost halved the gap to national o Boys performance in 2015 has driven overall gains o Long term improvement is amongst best in the country

• Attitudes to reading amongst Leicester’s schools is relatively stable o More pupils read at home daily than before, but confidence in reading ability has dropped o Pupils appear more likely to enjoy reading post-transition than they have been in previous years

• Almost 80 schools received a total of around £900k to run projects during the 2014/15 academic year. o Primary schools provided pupil-level data showing good progress being made on WiT-funded projects, approximately 3.5% of the entire primary cohort in Leicester were reported upon o Secondary schools provided pupil-level data showing good progress being made on WiT-funded projects, approximately 5% of the entire Y7/Y8 cohort in Leicester were reported upon

• WiT central events contribute to main aims of project o Previously successful central work continued

Reading attainment and attitude Baseline and Context In February 2010 WiT activities commenced at a time when one in five children left Leicester’s primary schools not reading at age-related standards. The 2009 statutory assessments were used as the baseline for comparison, although the first full academic year of WiT funded projects was not until 2010-11.

Whilst the statutory assessments are used as an important proxy measure of impact by WiT, it should be noted that many things contribute to these outcomes, both within schools and outside.

Also given the nature of WiT-funded work, some projects would take seven years to make an impact on the stated aim of ensuring children leave primary school reading at age-related standards, as a child moves through their school life. WiT is not specifically aimed at improving statutory outcomes, although they do form an important part of its success criteria.

Reading Attainment at Age 7 In Key Stage 1 there has been a small dip in Leicester’s performance compared to last year both at Level 2 and Level 2B+, whilst Level 3 improved slightly.

The gap to national is now 4.1pp at Level 2 and almost 6pp at Level 2B+, although it has narrowed very slightly at Level 3. Boys at Key Stage 1 have gained much of the dip in 2014 back, with Girls performance falling slightly.

KS1 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Reading Leic Nat Leic Nat Leic Nat Leic Nat Leic Nat Leic Nat Leic Nat Level 2+ 80.8% 84% 81.4% 85% 83.8% 85% 85.2% 87% 87.0% 89% 86.2% 90% 85.9% 90% Boys 76.6% 80% 78.1% 81% 81.1% 82% 82.2% 84% 84.1% 86% 82.8% 87% 84.0% 88% Girls 85.5% 88% 84.7% 89% 86.6% 89% 88.4% 90% 90.2% 92% 89.9% 93% 88.1% 93% Level 2b+ 66.7% 72% 67.9% 72% 70.3% 74% 74.0% 76% 77.5% 79% 76.4% 81% 76.2% 82% Boys 61.4% 67% 62.5% 67% 66.4% 68% 70.6% 72% 73.4% 74% 72.4% 77% 72.7% 78% Girls 72.5% 77% 73.6% 78% 74.5% 79% 77.6% 81% 82.0% 83% 80.9% 85% 80.0% 86% Level 3 18.2% 26% 19.7% 26% 20.8% 26% 22.0% 27% 23.7% 29% 26.4% 31% 26.6% 32% Boys 16.0% 22% 16.4% 22% 18.0% 22% 20.2% 23% 21.0% 25% 21.2% 26% 22.0% 27% Girls 20.7% 30% 23.1% 30% 23.9% 30% 23.9% 31% 26.7% 33% 32.0% 35% 31.7% 37% APS 14.9 15.7 15 15.7 15.2 15.8 15.5 16 15.8 16.3 15.9 16.5 15.9 16.6 Boys 14.3 15.1 14.4 15.1 14.8 15.2 15.1 15.5 15.3 15.7 15.3 15.9 15.3 16.1 Girls 15.5 16.3 15.6 16.3 15.7 16.4 15.9 16.6 16.3 16.8 16.6 17 16.5 17.2 Source: DataNet (Leicester), DfE (National)

Reading Attainment at Age 11 In Key Stage 2 Leicester improved by 2.1pp at Level 4 or above, driven by the gain in Boys’ outcomes who increased by 3pp. The overall gap to national is down to 1.6pp, the second lowest it has ever been.

There was also a significant gain in Level 4B+, again led by the Boys’ outcomes, where the gap to national is down to 1.9pp.

KS2 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Reading Leic Nat Leic Nat Leic Nat Leic Nat Leic Nat Leic Nat Leic Nat Level 4+ 81.3% 86% 78.2% 83% 80.2% 84% 83.2% 87% 84.6% 86% 85.3% 89% 87.4% 89% Boys 77.2% 82% 73.8% 80% 76.5% 80% 80.0% 84% 82.1% 83% 82.8% 87% 85.8% 87% Girls 85.7% 89% 82.9% 87% 84.3% 88% 86.8% 90% 87.4% 88% 88.0% 91% 89.1% 91% Level 4b+ 71.6% 66.9% 65.9% 72.3% 72.6% 75% 74.6% 78% 78.1% 80% Boys 66.3% 63.0% 61.2% 68.3% 70.3% 72% 71.1% 76% 76.4% 78% Girls 77.4% 71.0% 71.0% 76.6% 75.2% 78% 78.3% 81% 79.8% 83% Level 5+ 37.8% 47% 39.1% 50% 33.7% 43% 39.6% 48% 38.0% 45% 44.0% 50% 41.8% 49% Boys 32.4% 41% 35.8% 45% 29.9% 37% 34.4% 43% 34.8% 41% 40.3% 47% 38.8% 44% Girls 43.6% 54% 42.6% 56% 37.9% 48% 45.4% 54% 41.4% 48% 48.1% 53% 44.8% 53% APS 27.7 28.6 27.5 28.5 27.3 28.2 28 27.7 28 28.4 28.4 Boys 27 27.9 26.9 28.1 26.7 27.5 27.4 27 27.6 27.9 28.1 Girls 28.4 29.3 28.1 29.3 27.9 28.9 28.6 28.4 28.5 28.9 28.8 Source: DataNet (Leicester), DfE (National)

Improvement over time compared nationally Over the last six years the improvement in Level 4 or above in Reading in Leicester has been amongst the best in the country. Using the DfE rounded data to provide comparison with all Local Authorities, there has been a nine percentage point increase in Leicester’s outcomes of this measure comparing 2010 results to 2015. Only five Local Authorities have improved in this measure by more in this timescale.

10 Leicester

KS2 Reading 2010-2015 (all) 5

0 4+ Reading in 4+

% gain/loss in Level -5 One column per Local Authority (Leicester highlighted yellow)

The driving force behind this improvement continues to be the gains made by boys, where the DfE data reports a 13 percentage point increase between 2010 and 2015, this is the best improvement in the country, matched only by one other authority.

15 Leicester

KS2 Reading 2010-2015 (boys) 10

5 4+ Reading in 4+

% gain/loss in Level 0 One column per Local Authority (Leicester highlighted yellow)

Children’s attitude to reading Given the lag of other information and the timing of the annual pupil survey at the beginning of the academic year, historically survey data has always been presented ‘a year in advance’ ie this survey data is from the 2015/16 survey not 2014/15.

Primary phase Over 11,000 primary age pupils undertook the survey this year, the second largest uptake since the survey began, which equates to 46% of all eligible pupils in Leicester’s primary schools.

This is an increase of the proportion of Leicester pupils compared to last year and given that the younger cohorts are larger in number than the older year groups, this proportion is likely to grow in future years should the survey be continued to be done in it its current form.

The enjoyment of reading results are very marginally down compared to last year, but in the longer term have been broadly stable for the last five surveys. Self reported reading ability has declined compared to last year and for the first time since 2011 fewer than half said they are ‘very good’. Some of this drop has gone into ‘good’, although ‘OK’ has risen further.

Reading at home with someone daily has risen to the second highest level since the survey began. Choosing to read books at home has stayed the same as last year, again this is the second highest level since the survey began.

Survey Results Do you like reading? Yes, definitely Yes, I think so I'm not sure No 65% 22% 7% 6% ↓ -1% ↔ ↑ 1% ↔

How good are you at reading? Very good Good OK Not very good 48% 33% 15% 3% ↓ -3% ↔ ↑ 2% ↔

How often do you read with someone at home? Usually more than a week Almost every day Every 2 or 3 days About once a week between times 42% 28% 19% 12% ↑ 2% ↓ -1% ↔ ↔

When you are at home do you choose to read books... Almost every day Every 2 or 3 days About once a week About once a month Hardly ever or never 41% 28% 16% 6% 9% ↔ ↔ ↔ ↑ 1% ↔

When you are not at school how often do you go to the local library (not school library)? More than once a week About once a week About once a month Hardly ever or never 15% 24% 20% 41% ↓ -2% ↔ ↔ ↑ 1%

Do you like the books you can choose at school? Yes, definitely Yes, I think so I'm not sure No 66% 21% 8% 5% ↔ ↓ -1% ↔ ↔

How do you feel when someone asks you to read out loud? Happy OK A bit scared Very scared 42% 32% 18% 7% ↓ -1% ↓ -1% ↑ 1% ↔

Do you know how to become a better reader? Yes, definitely Yes, I think so I'm not sure No 50% 30% 13% 7% ↔ ↓ -1% ↑ 1% ↔

Do you like hearing an adult read a story out loud? Yes, lots Yes, it's OK I'm not really sure No 59% 26% 7% 8% ↓ -1% ↔ ↑ 1% ↔

Which of the following do you enjoy reading the most? (Please choose your favourite 3)

mails Books - other - books books Poetry Picture E e Comics/ Books in in Books Websites /Manuals languages Magazines Story books Story Instructions Information Information Newspapers 69% 25% 40% 18% 8% 12% 42% 6% 25% 11% 10% ↔ ↑ 2% ↓ -1% ↓ -1% ↓ -1% ↔ ↓ -2% ↔ ↓ -3% ↓ -1% ↓ -2%

Do you think reading is for people who….? (tick all that you think are appropriate) Are Want to do Are Don't have geeky/nerds well Are boring Are happy Are shy trendy/cool many friends 14% 61% 13% 53% 19% 18% 19% ↓ -1% ↑ 1% ↓ -1% ↓ -2% ↓ -1% ↑ 1% ↔ NB Answers may not add to 100% due to rounding

Children’s attitude to reading Secondary phase Just over 3,000 secondary school students took the survey, the second largest cohort since the survey began. This equates to 18% of the entire secondary school population (not including sixth form). As secondary WiT activities are only aimed at pupils in Years 7 and 8, these year groups make up the majority of the cohort.

The proportion of Year 7s rose this year to 41% of the citywide cohort, whilst a quarter of all Year 8s and almost one in five Year 9s took the survey.

There has been a rise in enjoyment of reading, with an increase in both the ‘yes’ answers, however there has been a decline in confidence of reading ability. Those who think they are ‘very good’ are down to their lowest levels since the survey began and whilst some of these are offset in good, there have also been rises in the other two answers.

There has been a rise in those reading at home for pleasure daily and a drop in those who ‘hardly ever or never’ do so, although this still accounts for one in five students. Regular reading to help with school work has also increased.

Survey Results

Do you like reading? Yes, definitely Yes, I think so I'm not sure No 41% 36% 13% 11% ↑ 1% ↑ 2% ↔ ↓ -1%

How good are you at reading? Very good Good OK Not very good 34% 45% 18% 3% ↓ -3% ↑ 2% ↔ ↑ 1%

How often do you read at home for pleasure? Almost every day Every 2 or 3 days About once a week Hardly ever or never 28% 27% 25% 21% ↑ 2% ↓ -1% ↑ 2% ↓ -2%

When you are at home how often do you choose to read books to help with school work? Almost every day Every 2 or 3 days About once a week About once a month Hardly ever or never 12% 25% 26% 14% 23% ↑ 2% ↑ 1% ↔ ↔ ↓ -3%

When you are not at school how often do you go to the local library (not school library)? More than once a week About once a week About once a month Hardly ever or never 9% 22% 24% 44% ↑ 1% ↑ 2% ↑ 1% ↓ -5%

Do you like the books you can choose at school? Yes, definitely Yes, I think so I'm not sure No 35% 37% 18% 10% ↓ -2% ↑ 1% ↓ -1% ↑ 1%

Do you find the books or worksheets at school easy to understand? Very easy OK A bit hard/ difficult Very hard/ difficult 26% 62% 10% 2% ↓ -3% ↔ ↑ 2% ↔

How do you feel when someone asks you to read out loud? Happy OK A bit scared Very scared 30% 42% 21% 7% ↔ ↓ -1% ↑ 1% ↔

Would you like to become a better reader? Yes, definitely Yes, I think so I'm not sure No 57% 26% 11% 7% ↔ ↑ 1% ↔ ↔

Do you know how to become a better reader? Yes, definitely Yes, I think so I'm not sure No 33% 43% 16% 7% ↓ -2% ↔ ↑ 1% ↔

Do you like hearing an adult read a story out loud? Yes, lots Yes, it's ok I'm not really sure No 31% 43% 13% 13% ↑ 1% ↓ -1% ↑ 2% ↓ -2%

Which of the following do you enjoy reading the most? (Please choose your favourite 3)

mails Books - other - books Poetry E e Books in in Books Websites /Manuals ure books languages Magazines Story books Story Comics/Pict Instructions Information Information Newspapers 63% 19% 40% 30% 15% 16% 48% 7% 17% 8% 13% ↑ 2% ↑ 3% ↓ -7% ↑ 3% ↓ -1% ↔ ↔ ↑ 2% ↓ -1% ↑ 1% ↑ 1%

Do you think reading is for people who….? (tick all that you think are appropriate) Are Want to do Are Don't have geeky/nerds well Are boring Are happy Are shy trendy/cool many friends 24% 77% 19% 40% 25% 16% 22% ↑ 1% ↔ ↓ -1% ↓ -2% ↑ 2% ↓ -1% ↑ 2% NB Answers may not add to 100% due to rounding

Children’s attitude to reading Transition comparisons When the secondary survey was started in 2012, it allowed the comparison of pupils’ attitudes towards reading pre and post the transition between the phases. These data have been compared for the last four years.

The comparison is between the responses from Year 6 children in last year’s survey and those from Year 7 pupils in this year’s survey.

The fall in liking reading post-transition was smaller this year than it has been in recent years, although this is in part because fewer Year 6s had picked ‘yes, definitely’ than has been the case recently.

The drops from ‘very good’ to ‘good’ when asked about reading ability are very similar to last year. Reading at home has been the most volatile of the questions since transition data was considered, this year there was very little change in responses before and after the move to secondary school.

There has been less of a drop this year than in recent years in those who said that they know how to become a better reader, the gap of 12 percentage points and 6 percentage points in the two yes answers are both much smaller than the last two years.

A complete survey evaluation is available from [email protected]

School-based projects Context Most of the WiT funding is passed directly back into schools through grants for reading based projects. The amount of the total school-based spend varies from year to year, but generally in the region of 80% of all WiT monies are spent by schools on their reading project.

These WiT projects also provide the most direct measure of impact on children of WiT funding. Whilst end of Key Stage results give us a city-wide feel for reading abilities of Y2 and Y6 pupils, these data pick up children in all age groups across both primary and secondary sectors.

This year a much lower proportion of the work could be coded as intervention, this is in the main due to the growth in resources being purchased. Invariably more and more schools have committed to interventions from previous projects and have used the funding to purchase more resources to support this work.

The other matter of note when it comes to understanding school-based project pupil level data, is that the majority of intervention work undertaken is with the most vulnerable and reluctant readers in the city. More often than not, these pupils are starting from a low base.

Funding Schools are able to bid for a Core Grant, the key reading work that is above what they are already doing within their own general reading policy and an Additional Grant to enhance this work should funds remain after Core Grants have been awarded.

In the primary phase, funding was awarded to 65 schools for 102 projects for a total of £793,315 (average £12,118 per school):

• Core Grant – 65 schools received funding for a total of £712,902 (average £10,968 per project) • Additional Grant – 37 schools received funding for a total of £80,413 (average £2,173 per project)

In the secondary phase, funding was awarded to 13 schools for 21 projects for a total of £104,617 (average £8,784 per school):

• Core Grant – 13 schools received funding for a total of £111,902 (average £8,047 per project) • Additional Grant – 8 schools received funding for a total of £18,453 (average £2,307 per project)

Evaluations Schools are required to supply an evaluation of each project, outlining the impact and outcomes for children. At the time of writing, 93% of the assessments have been received.

Schools will not receive funding for the next academic year until the previous year’s evaluation has been submitted.

Types of project In order to get some idea as to what sort of projects were being funded, they were rated by type, based on the information supplied. The six types of project were:

• Resources – Books and resources • Intervention – Work with specific pupils • Technology – IT and software (likely to be for direct intervention) • Parental – Work with parents, carers and the community • Inspirational – Author visits, library trips, theatre trips, reading clubs • Training – For interventions that have yet to take place or general strategies • Reading Areas – Reading areas, libraries, librarian

This methodology of rating types of projects has become increasing less effective in recent years as schools have become more sophisticated in their bidding. More often than not, school projects will encompass most, and in some cases all, of the above.

There is also the obvious cross-over between the types, for example intervention may include some training at the start, technology is likely to be for direct intervention, as are resources and training, parental work is often aimed at pupils on other interventions etc.

With the above caveats, all projects were given one or two project types, based largely on the share of the funded money spent on it. This year there was a notable increase in the amount of projects that were for ‘Resources’, whilst this is normally fairly high, this year more than half of all projects had a significant proportion reserved for this.

This can, in part, be attributed to the expansion of the Knowledge Transfer Centre (see central WiT events), where schools required a significant amount of new reading stock to support the programme.

All Grants by Type (single category) 60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10% Reading Areas Resources Training Inspirational Technology Intervention Parental 0%

Project impact data – Primary Data were supplied to support the primary projects on 1042 children, roughly 3.5% of the primary school population. There were further data referred to in the evaluations, though it was presented in a format that was not usable for this comparison, either because it was aggregate data or it referred to different measures than this comparison looks at (eg phonetical knowledge).

Schools were also in the process of assessment moving beyond levels, which has impacted on the amount of data available for this evaluation, this is most notable in the significant decline in the amount of national curriculum level data provided.

Not all the data supplied were for all the children so a complete average of progress is not possible. However, averages can be calculated by the main measures used by schools:

• NC level – 372 children made an average of 2.2 sub-levels progress • Book Level – 364 children made an average of 4.9 book levels progress • Reading Age – 645 children made an average of 9 months progress • NC points – 232 children made an average of 5.2 NC points progress

The levels of progress are broadly in line with previous years WiT school-based project data.

Whilst year group details on 177 of the children were not supplied, the more even spread across year groups that was seen last year has remained the case again this year.

The most intervention appears to be between Year 1 and Year 4, with by far the lowest group in Foundation Stage. As usual Year 6 also had low amounts of intervention data, although so too did Year 5 this year.

Some projects provided length of intervention information so progress could be measured in terms of time. In the majority of cases anecdotally it was reported that progress was on the whole accelerated and where data were submitted, this would appear to be a reasonable assumption. For those projects where timescales were reported:

• NC level – 307 pupils made an average 0.2 sub-levels progress per week (1 sub-level per 5 weeks) • Book level – 315 pupils made an average 0.4 levels progress per week (1 level per 2.7 weeks) • Reading Age – 410 pupils made an average 1 month progress per week • NC points – 169 pupils made an average 0.4 NC points progress per week (1 point per 2.8 weeks)

Project impact data – Secondary Data were supplied to support the secondary projects on 476 students, this included 88 pupils who by virtue of not being Year 7 or 8 were technically beyond the scope of the WiT project. A number of these had been involved in WiT projects previously whilst still within scope. The 367 known Year 7 and 8 pupils equated to approximately 5% of the citywide cohort.

As with primary, some further data on pupil progress was presented with projects and not counted here as it was not in a format to fit.

Not all the data supplied were for all the children so a complete average of progress is not possible. However, averages can be calculated by each measure:

• NC level – 226 children made an average of 2.3 sub-levels progress • Reading Age – 421 children made an average of 14 months progress • NC points – 57 children made an average of 4.3 points progress • Spelling Age – 180 children made an average of 13 months progress

The gains in reading and spelling age were notably higher than last year and more in line with the previous year.

Some projects provided length of intervention information so progress could be measured in terms of time. In the majority of cases anecdotally it was reported that progress was on the whole accelerated and where data was submitted, this would appear to be a reasonable assumption. For those projects where timescales were reported:

• NC level – 138 pupils made an average 0.1 sub-levels progress per week (1 sub-level per 8.75 weeks) • Reading Age – 237 pupils made an average 1 month progress per week • NC points – 57 pupils made an average 0.4 points progress per week (1 point per 2.5 weeks) • Spelling Age – 104 pupils made an average 1 month progress per week

School-Based Project Summary School-based project evaluations were in the main good, with most providing a reasonable reflection of the work that has taken place using WiT funding.

There continues to be a lot of evidence of schools learning and improving on previous projects and of use of their survey data as a means for planning. The sharp increase in resources purchased this year is not as a result in decline of intervention work, but more as an example of previous projects being extended and KTC roll-out.

Whilst there is clearly demonstrable evidence of impact at a pupil-level, the numbers of pupils reported upon directly has declined, in part due to the changes in the primary sector during this academic year. There are many instances where further data exists around pupil performance but is not presented in this report as it not in a format used here.

There are also many reported gains in areas that are less quantifiable, such as self-confidence, behaviour and also improvements in other curricula areas, notably in writing.

Central WiT events Context Running alongside the school-based projects are a range of centrally organised events under the WiT banner.

The central events attempt to cover the areas of the overall WiT strategy which cannot be achieved through the school-based projects, either because schools are not best placed to do this work, because by their very nature they are collaborative or because the costs of running such events on an individual basis would be prohibitive.

WiT CPD Programme The ongoing WiT CPD programme seeks to increase the capability of the school workforce in the leadership and teaching of reading and courses are run for teaching staff and children’s centre staff as well as staff from libraries and FLEC.

259 people attended WiT CPD courses across 17 sessions, with feedback received from most of them. Representatives from 63 city schools as well as children centre staff from six neighbourhood areas and some local authority staff have engaged in a training session during the year.

The evaluation forms showed that over 99% of people thought that the courses fully or mostly matched their expectations, with the overall assessment scoring 3.8 out of 4 and relevance 3.8 out of 4.

The ongoing CPD programme for school staff is discussed at Reading Champions events (see below), as a mechanism to ensure that the current needs of schools are met.

Reading Champions The Reading Champion events provide networking opportunities for the school staff who are the leads of WiT work, as well as an opportunity to share best practice across the school community and tackle issues that are significant to all and provide general CPD through keynote speakers.

These events continue to be well attended by schools, with between 60 and 90 staff from across the city in both phases attending each event. Feedback suggests they are well pitched and there is also evidence from the school projects that Reading Champions are using this shared learning within their own environment.

The Reading Champions also shape and develop future centrally organised activities, including the CPD programme.

Ready and Reading, Supported Summer Read Ready and Reading and Supported Summer Read are an evolution of ‘6 Books for Summer’, with the aim of getting pupils to read six books during the holidays. Evidence shows that the ‘summer dip’ causes children to regress in their reading ability during the long break and reading six books would help negate this.

The original WiT ‘6 Books for the summer’ programme targeted Year 6s who are particularly vulnerable given they are also transitioning school at this point and linked into the library service’s summer reading scheme.

Ready and Reading blends structured phonics teaching with academic coaching support to provide some intervention to struggling readers in Year 6 with the aim of giving them a boost prior to transition to secondary school.

Most of this cohort are further supported through Supported Summer Read where an inspirational event, themed around the library summer reading scheme ‘Record Breakers’, brings them together with buddies from their prospective secondary school and allows them to pick six books, four of which are posted to them weekly during the holidays in line with the ‘6 Books for Summer’ model.

In total 197 Year 6 pupils took part, with complete data received for 129 pupils (12 didn’t take first test or couldn’t complete it; 8 were not on roll at expected secondary school; 19 from county secondaries where data was not returned; 29 city secondaries where data was not returned).

Data for 25 pupils who engaged in Ready and Reading in the Spring Term, but were not part of Supported Summer Read, showed that all but one made an improvement in Reading Age during the intervention. The average gain was 23 months, with 10 pupils making more than two year’s progress.

Around 160 children, including some who were not part of Ready and Reading, were chosen by schools to be part of the ‘Record Breakers’ inspirational event at Leicester Race Course, headed by authors Steve Skidmore and Steve Barlow, David Harmer and Joe Craig.

The event comprises of team building and reading based activities aimed at boosting confidence as well as promotion of reading. A further 150 pupils from secondary schools also attended the event as buddies to the Y6 children who were joining their school after the summer break.

In total 59 pupils took part in both Ready and Reading and Supported Summer Read, with complete data provided for 45 of them. The average reading gain was of 11 months, with 32 of the cohort having a higher reading age in secondary school than they had started with, the initial aim of the project was to avoid the ‘summer dip’.

113 pupils participated in Supported Summer Read having not previously been part of Ready and Reading and completed data was received for 60 of these pupils. Just over half had a higher reading age after summer than they had before it and the average gain across the cohort was three months. In total 35 avoided the ‘summer dip’.

Author Week Author Week is the regular city-wide inspirational event led by authors and illustrators over the course of a week at Leicester Tigers’ Welford Road Stadium. Over 4,600 pupils from across the city were involved, roughly one in seven 4-12 year olds in Leicester’s schools.

Feedback questionnaire responses were received from 25 schools post event and they were overwhelmingly positive. Responses for the Authors showed 72% were ‘excellent’, with 20% picking ‘good’

Over a third of respondents thought the impact on the pupils of Author Week was ‘very significant’ with a further 55% saying it was ‘significant’. 78% of respondent also thought the writing session had a ‘significant’ or ‘very significant’ impact on the pupils.

Knowledge Transfer Centre Originally funded through the Leicester Educational Strategic Partnership, in this academic year the costs were split between LESP and WiT to roll out the programme following a successful pilot in year one.

A further four schools were supported as ‘Core Schools’ working directly with Ann Smalberger in a similar way to those who had been in the ‘Core 1’ wave of schools.

In order to expand the programme, the ‘Core 1’ schools supported a further group of 17 ‘Universal’ schools, who also accessed a range of central training led by Ann.

2014 Reading EYFS results 2015 Reading EYFS results School Type Emerging Expected Exceeding School Type Emerging Expected Exceeding Core 1 36% 50% 14% Core 1 26% 57% 17% Non Core 1 45% 49% 6% Non-Core 1-2 40% 52% 8% Core 2 43% 49% 8% Core 2 46% 50% 4% Universal 1 51% 44% 4% Universal 1 43% 49% 8% Non-KTC 43% 50% 6% Non-KTC 39% 53% 9%

The four schools who were in their second year of KTC (‘Core 1’) continued to make significant gains, with a 10pp drop in those children who were ‘emerging’. The four schools who began the core programme during this year (‘Core 2’), however, did not improve.

Those 17 schools in the ‘Universal 1’ grouping showed improvement with gains in both ‘expected’ and ‘exceeding’ that were higher that those who were not in the KTC programme.

Writing Competition The annual WiT writing competition was open to children aged 5-16 within city schools to write a 500-word story based on the theme of ‘Record Breakers’.

Entries from 10 different schools were received, with a shortlist drawn up and sent to schools for judging. Ten stories were chosen by the schools as winners and were published in the WiT ‘Record Breakers’ book to be circulated to all schools in the city.

Reading Rampage On a similar line to ‘Our Best Book’, a library run project funded through school-based bidding in the primary sector, Reading Rampage saw secondary age pupils pick their favourite book, with the winner announced at a celebration event at Leicester Tigers in the summer term attended by students from almost all secondary schools.

Each secondary school was provided with five copies of the twenty long-listed titles as well as promotional material, with schools using them to vote for the winner.

Everybody’s Reading Festival The annual Everybody’s Reading festival, now in its sixth year, is a nine-day event aimed at promoting reading across the city and, in particular, engaging communities and groups who do not normally access reading.

The mechanism used to fulfil this latter goal is by funding community groups, individuals or schools to host events within their own locality. Alongside these community events are some high profile reading events which do not receive funding, but sit under the ER banner.

In 2015 over 100 events took place at 60 venues across the city engaging with over 5,000 people, making it the largest ER Festival so far.

In order to measure the success of its community Distribution of ER2015 events engagement strategy, feedback forms in the shape of post it notes were used to seek views of festival goers.

Responses were received from over 600 festival goers from over 50 festival events. They were asked five questions and for the first four digits of their post code. Almost everyone who responded said they would like to go to an event like the one they had just attended again, whilst 69% said they had not been to an ER event last year and 55% said they did not generally go to reading events.

556 people provided part of their post code and of those 79% lived in a post code area that was wholly or partially within the city boundary, with a further 6% living within the main urban area of Leicester.

The most represented post code district with 9.4% of

Birstall all respondents, was LE2 1 (Clarendon Park into North

Anstey Beaumont Thurmaston Leys Highfields) followed by LE2 3 (incorporating Knighton and parts of Stoneygate). Hamilton

Belgrave Glenfield Scraptoft Also significantly represented were LE3 0 (West End),

Western LE2 7 (the area around the Leicester Royal Infirmary Park and down Aylestone Road and Saffron Lane), LE1 1 Evington

Braunstone Stoneygate (east part of the city centre) and LE2 0 (Highfields into Spinney Hill).

Oadby Aylestone Whilst more representation again came from the Wigston Glen Parva south of the city, there was a better balance with the north than last year.

Coverage of the festival through traditional media was up compared to previous years, whilst engagement through social media higher than previous years.

A complete ER2014 evaluation is available from [email protected]

Storytelling Week Now in its fourth year, Storytelling Week is a well-establish strand of WiT, targeting children of pre- school age through the city’s network of children’s centres.

Events are held in each of the eight neighbourhood areas across one week, with further work done by children centre staff in the lead up.

Over 250 children and 200 adults attended the main events across the course of the week, with each child receiving a book and other reading-related gifts as part of a resource park. A further 680 children and 606 adults were engaged in the additional activities across the children centres.

Feedback from more than 160 adults were very positive, with 84% saying their child had enjoyed the event and 93% saying they had enjoyed the event.

Over 90% felt they had a better understanding of how sharing stories helps with a child’s learning and development and a similar number understanding the importance of songs and rhymes.

The storytellers were overwhelmingly popular and the adults felt much more confident in sharing stories with their children at home.

Feedback by average score Range 1-5 where 1 is the most negative response and 5 is the most positive response 5

2 stories songs/rhymes sharing books sharing More confident in in confident More More confident to try to try confident More engaging and fun and engaging importance of sharing sharing of importance sharing of importance storytelling event My child has enjoyed enjoyed has child My The storyteller was sharing stories at home at stories sharing I have enjoyed this this enjoyed I have Gained new ideas for for ideas new Gained Better understanding of of understanding Better of understanding Better different books at home at books different this storytelling event storytelling this 1

Feedback from almost 70 attendees was received as follow up four weeks later, with 70% reporting sharing stories and rhymes more that they had prior to the event. Half said the event had shared stories in a different way as a result of the event and two-thirds had shared the book they received more than five times.

Work with Leicester Libraries Our Best Book is aimed at Year 5/6 pupils and funded through the school-based projects. 33 schools were involved in picking a winner from a short list of books, with library staff hosting motivational events at each school. Feedback from the pupils involved showed that 72% ‘loved’ or ‘enjoyed’ it, slightly up from the previous year, and 45% of children read three or more books down from 2014. A celebration event announcing the winner was held at the end of the competition.

The annual summer reading challenge, on the theme of Record Breakers, met its target of over 7000 children participating and 63% complete the challenge of reading six books across the summer, up from the previous year.

Booktime packs were once again gifted to four year olds, with over 4,000 children gifted a pack. 471 children signed up to their local library as a result and feedback from the events showed it to be popular.

The ‘Every Child a Library Member’ scheme targeted Year 4 pupils in the summer term, signing up 1300 pupils to the library and offering the chance of winning a prize for visiting the local library, whilst also offering a list of the best reads for children aged 7 to 9.

Full evaluations of WiT funded library work are available from [email protected]

Conclusions Attitude to Reading According to the pupil survey enjoyment of reading in the primary phase appears relatively stable, There has been a decline in confidence in reading ability, it is possible that this could be as a result of the changes in primary curriculum, so as a result this measure is worth keeping a close eye on in future years.

The gains in home reading are positive, particularly when looked at in the context of the levels at the beginning of WiT activities. There is a similar picture in secondary where enjoyment is pretty stable, but confidence is declining.

Overall the survey results appear to be fairly resilient and would appear to be pretty good compared to nationally available information.

Attainment There has been a small decline at Key Stage 1 outcomes for the second year in a row which has allowed the gap to national to rise yet further. Early indications from the KTC programme show that this is having an impact in EYFS and Year 1 phonics screening test, which in turn should impact on Key Stage 1 outcomes. However the change in the curriculum for 2015/16 will make comparisons in the future harder to make.

Likewise comparisons from next year at Key Stage 2 will be difficult, however the gains both this year and over the last six years have been impressive. Very few local authorities can claim an improvement greater than Leicester’s since 2010 and this has been led by the vast improvements in outcomes for boys.

Whilst the DfE rounded data puts the improvement of boys slightly higher than local information, the gains are at, or the worst very close to, the best improvement in the country during this timescale.

In both Key Stages the long term gains from the start of WiT have been between 5 and 10 percentage points in the key measures.

School-based projects Given the changes around the curriculum, this year saw a drop in the amount of pupil level information, particularly as measured by national curriculum levels. These changes do present some ongoing challenges for the measurement of the impact of these projects.

That said data for 1,500 pupils were received and in levels of progress were in line with that which has been seen in previous years, as was the pace of progress.

On top of this further information on a wider cohort of pupils were received but not in a format able to be aggregated for this report.

As well as these gains, the reports of improved self confidence, behaviour, engagement in other areas of the curriculum as well as things such as gains in staff confidence and skills are also worthwhile but less quantifiable.

Most schools now appear to much better understand the running, monitoring and evaluation of the project than would have been the case in the early years of WiT. This has led to good self-awareness of what does and doesn’t work in their environment and how they might tweak projects going forward.

The number of schools using their survey data to help inform their needs analysis and how they might monitor projects continues to grow.

It is also evident that this intervention work is mainly targeted at the most vulnerable and reluctant readers. Some of this work could well have a knock-on effect into statutory assessment outcomes, but this link is still hard to make and in many cases takes years for that effect to be realised.

Central WiT events If is far harder, and in many cases not possible, to draw a direct link between the central events and the outcomes for children and young people, but the overall feedback from these events are that they are particularly well-received by the school community.

It is hard to think that improving the skills and expertise of adults does not have a direct link to the outcomes for children and in this regard the CPD programme would seem to be a key strand. The events are always well received and well attended and the use of Reading Champions as needs analysis appears to ensure that the offer is appropriate.

The Reading Champions events also serve as a CPD opportunity as well as networking and dissemination of best practice. In many regards the consistent attendance at these events is perhaps the best measure of their usefulness.

But clearly the correlation between ideas and practice shared at the conferences and the projects that schools undertake through WiT funding and by other means is also evidence of their success.

Ready and Reading/Supported Summer Read continues to target some of the most vulnerable readers at one of the most vulnerable times in their school life and the anecdotal feedback suggests Supported Summer Read has a significant inspirational impact. The data around the programme shows some impressive gains, for those who participate in all aspects.

It is hard to quantify the inspirational value of Author Week, arguably the most high profile WiT event, but feedback from the teachers suggest they think it does have a significant impact on the children who attend.

The writing competition has not quite had the reach it enjoyed in previous years and, whilst it still appears to be well received by those who engage with it, it perhaps still needs some further work to understand how it might offer longer term impact.

The Everybody’s Reading project continues to engage people with reading in their own communities, with feedback suggesting it is reaching those targeted groups. One assumes this will become more challenging as the festival grows, so a close eye on the commissioning of events and the distribution of them will be required.

Storytelling Week appears now to be fully embedded in the life of children centres and the feedback post event would show that it is having an impact beyond the week itself. Clearly given the challenges the city faces around school readiness this work will continue to be important.

Much of the work with Leicester Libraries continues to build on successful projects of the past and the aims of both the Libraries and WiT seemed to be well-served by this collaboration.

Overall Attainment at the end of Key Stages 1 and 2 were never the single stated aim at the start of WiT and they are a rather blunt tool given the wide ambitions of WiT. That being said, they provide a useful barometer of the work being done in schools supported by WiT.

A second year of decline in Key Stage 1, albeit relatively small, is of concern therefore. Work such as the KTC, which has already demonstrated some impressive impact in EYFS and Year 1 Phonics Screening Test may help to move the end of Key Stage outcomes back in the right direction, but focus needs to be kept on outcomes for seven year olds.

At Key Stage 2, however, the gains, particularly by boys has been hugely impressive both over the last 12 months and the lifetime of WiT. This cohort of children will have had access to WiT supported events for almost all of the time in formal education and Leicester continues to outpace almost all local authorities in the country.

When WiT started in 2009, targets were set for improvements in end of Key Stage assessments in 2015. At Key Stage 1 Leicester surpassed the Level 2b+ target of 74%, with 76.2% of pupils reaching this mark.

At Level 2+ the target of 88% was not met, with only 85.9% reaching that standard. At Key Stage 2 the original Level 4+ target was 85%, which was surpassed by 2.4%.

Given the movement away from levels, these targets being set for 2015 provide a useful point in time moment and show that whilst some good work has been done, Leicester remains behind national so further progress is needed.

The added complications of changes to the primary curriculum and end of Key Stage assessments will make longer term goal-setting slightly more difficult, certainly until baseline information is available after the 2016 tests.