Research and Evaluation

It is really important to us that we hear from the children and families who receive Letterbox Club. We need to understand the impact that Letterbox Club has on their attitudes to reading and numbers and to understand how we can improve our offer for vulnerable children. We have run several evaluations of Letterbox Club in previous years.

Find all Letterbox Club evaluation reports

This year we are continuing to pilot a new approach to evaluating Letterbox Club at scale. We plan to gather feedback from children and foster carers across England, Wales and Northern Ireland through surveys and discussion groups.

As part of this evaluation, we have developed a survey for children receiving blue, red and green Letterbox Club parcels (aged 7-13 years).

Download the survey for children receiving blue or red Letterbox Club parcels

Download the survey for children receiving green Letterbox Club parcels

We will invite all local authorities and some schools who purchase Letterbox Club to participate in this evaluation. We will be contacting local authorities and schools directly to provide more information and to see if they would like to take part.

We will continue to share our evaluation findings with local authorities and schools in 2022 -23.

Evaluation resources (for any organisation wanting to do their own evaluation)

If you wish to run your own evaluation of Letterbox Club you can use and personalise the resources below.

The surveys are designed to find out whether Letterbox has changed how children feel about reading and maths. Children aged 7+ could complete these surveys on their own. We recommend children aged 5-6 answer with the support of an adult.

Please refer to our research guidance to ensure that your use of these materials is in line with ethical guidelines and data protection.

If you would like further support with evaluating the programme, or if you have any questions, please get in touch. If you are conducting an evaluation of Letterbox Club please let us know and share your findings with us. It helps us evidence the impact of Letterbox Club and understand how we can improve it. You can reach our evaluation team at: [email protected]

Previous evaluation resources

We understand that some organisations may wish to continue to use the evaluation resources we have provided in previous years to ensure consistency in their evaluations. You can access previous resources below.

Pre- and post-programme surveys

Pre-programme and post-programme surveys can be used before and after children receive Letterbox Club to see whether their attitudes to reading and maths change.

Post-Programme only surveys:

Post-surveys can be used after children receive their Letterbox Club parcels. You can use these if you don’t have capacity to do both pre- and post-programme surveys.