Webinar: transform your pupil premium learners’ reading with Letterbox Club

Reading brings profound and wide-ranging benefits that can have a lifelong impact on children. The research shows that reading regularly can: 

• Improve social mobility and economic attainment for children experiencing disadvantage
• Develop happier and healthier children with better mental wellbeing and self-esteem 
• Help children to develop empathy and creativity 
• Support better attainment results across the curriculum and not just literacy. 

However, reading for enjoyment declines as children move through school… How can Letterbox Club help? 

We ask Letterbox Club children their views on the programme and the impact it’s having on their reading behaviours. Here’s what we know: 

• 96% of children say they like or love Letterbox Club 
• 86% of children reported that they like or love the books in their parcels 
• 68% of children are reading even more independently since receiving their parcels. 

Through our research with schools and a targeted pilot with 10 schools in Wales we know that schools tailor the use of Letterbox Club in ways that work for them. Examples include: 

• A way to engage families – either being invited into schools to be shown the parcels or being sent home to support the home-school connection
• Parcels gifted to children to take home and enjoy with their families or trusted adults 
• Resources in the parcels used for small group work or 1:1 ELSA support as conversation starters
• Used as a language assistance tool to support their EAL students. 

Ruth Dunmore, former Deputy Headteacher at Westbrook Primary Academy in Haverhill, Suffolk, shared her experience of using Letterbox Club. 

The school demographic is made up of approximately 50% of children in receipt of pupil premium and post-COVID her school were struggling with disengaged families and reaching particular groups of children. Ruth and her team wanted to do something special for these children and families and get them engaged with a love of reading so looked at Letterbox Club as something for children to have at home, as many of their families didn’t own books at home. 

One of the most immediate responses from children was the pure joy it brought – one of the youngest bought her book in for show and tell. Families went on to join the local library to read more; and older children would come in for Book Week dressed as a character from their Letterbox Club book. 

Gill Lewis, bestselling children’s author, explains why she chooses to explore the natural world through her children’s stories – especially in Willow Wild Thing, an example of one of the books you can find in the Letterbox Club parcels. 

“For children that don’t have access to the natural world or outdoor spaces, you can show them a different world and engage them through the power of books and stories. Their eyes are opened to trees, natural green space – which allows children to use their imagination and create their own world where they belong.

“It is important for children to be able to see themselves through stories. In Willow Wild Thing, one of the characters called Mouse, lives with his grandmother – there is no explanation for this in the story – it is just something that is. For children that this relates to, they can see themselves represented and for characters living similar lives to themselves. It normalises different living arrangements and experiences – which then encourages children to have more agency over their emotions and their views of the world, which in turn develops empathy.”