The Letterbox Club was initiated by Rose Griffiths at the University of Leicester’s School of Education and is managed by Booktrust.
It focuses on improving the educational outlook for children aged 7-11 in foster families by providing them with a parcel of books, maths activities and educational materials every month for six months.
Research shows that children in care underachieve in education but evaluation from pilots of the Letterbox Club showed a demonstrable impact with the majority of children improving their standardised score in reading.
Booktrust has received support from the Department for Children, Schools and Families and sponsorship from Penguin to extend the programme to more than 1,200 children in 2007 and 2008, with a view to involving all children in this age range in foster care from 2009 onwards.
Books included in the Letterbox Club parcels include titles by Jacqueline Wilson, Anne Fine, Michael Rosen, Francesca Simon,Roald Dahl, Jeremy Strong, Philip Pullman and Dr Seuss as well as a selection of non-fiction and novelty titles.
The Letterbox Club was originally devised to improve the situation of looked-after children within Leicester local authority, responding to reasons why children in care underachieve in education identified by the Social Exclusion Unit in 2003. Three cohorts of children were involved in the initial pilot over three years.
Visit the Letterbox Club website
Read the report about the Leicester pilot scheme (Microsoft Word .doc download 87.5Kb)
Read the Letterbox Club Winter 2007 newsletter (Adobe Acrobat .pdf format 2.86Mb)
If you would like further information about the Letterbox Club, please contact Marian Keen-Downs, Letterbox Club Programme Manager, at Booktrust:
t 020 8875 4822
e mariankeen.downs@booktrust.org.uk
