Literacy Partner Programme
At Bookmark, we know that literacy isn’t a one-size fits all. Our Literacy Partner Programme enables us to support schools to develop a whole school reading culture, addressing their particular challenges.
Literacy support for your school
In 2024, Bookmark launched the Literacy Partner Programme. Following an in-depth literacy consultation, we provide tailored action plans to schools to help them improve their whole school reading cultures. This action plan is accompanied by targeted funding of up to £10,000 per school.
We just want to say a HUGE thank you! The books that we have received are absolutely gorgeous!! I've just spent a good half an hour looking through them and they are perfect for our context. We have massively appreciated the support over the past few months - it's been incredible. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
What does the programme do?
The programme aims to provide direct and targeted literacy support for primary schools in areas of high literacy need and is free of charge, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. Through this project, we’ll provide comprehensive literacy consultancy and develop detailed action plans aimed at enhancing the overall reading environment within primary schools. Our focus is on fostering a love for reading and improving literacy outcomes for all students.
The process
For schools joining the programme, the process will start with a simple questionnaire. This will serve as a preliminary assessment of the school’s current reading culture.
Following this, we’ll conduct interviews with successful school representatives to delve deeper into five key areas including, parental and family engagement, staff training and knowledge, current and past reading initiatives and the reading material and spaces available at the school.
Based on the insights gathered during this assessment, we’ll collaborate with each school to identify specific areas that require further literacy support and build a free, bespoke package of support worth up to £10,000.
Thank you so much for getting in contact with us and sorting all this out so quickly… you both are so incredibly knowledgeable that any question I have had you have answered so very, very quickly… this is such an exciting thing and we're so, so grateful for your support and so thank you so much.
What you’ll be able to provide for us will be so meaningful for our families and our children. And we're very, very grateful and so genuinely thank you so much.
We are so excited about the opportunity to work with you and this will make such a significant difference in developing our children’s passion for reading, especially in such a deprived area. Thank you for this invaluable opportunity!
These are the types of services and resources a school on the programme could expect to receive.
- Bookmark's volunteer-led one-to-one reading programmes
- Library space contributions e.g. furniture, shelving, displays
- School subscriptions to different kinds of literacy interventions
- Partnering with other organisations to provide expertise in literacy support and/or physical resources
- Teaching inspiration ideas and CPD training
- Book bundles, audiobooks and copies of The Story Corner magazine
- Bookmark reading scrapbooks and book clubs
- Book fairs and author visits
Data collection
We ask for information from partner schools at the start of our Literacy Partner Programme as well as mid-way through and at the end of it. This is to understand the lasting impact that has been made on a whole school’s reading culture. We collect data through questionnaires, interviews and attainment data with some schools also participating in case studies.
Our eligibility criteria is primary schools in England who have a higher than national average percentage for Pupil Premium and IDACI plus lower than national average figures for Key Stage 2 Reading results.
If you are unsure whether you meet these criteria, then please contact programmedevelopment@bookmarkreading.org.
Thank you so much for sharing our Action Plan and for the effort your team has put into tailoring it to our school’s needs. Having reviewed it, I’m thrilled with the thoughtful and clear steps outlined to boost our reading culture. The focus on staff development and engaging our school community is particularly exciting, and I can already see the positive impact this will have on our pupils. [...] We’re absolutely thrilled and deeply grateful for this incredible opportunity, and we can’t wait to see the impact of this partnership! Thank you so much.
The support offered by the LPP has been fantastic. Communication is effective and the video call with Bookmark was a great opportunity to set out the vision for the school and the hopes for working together to help transform the school reading culture.
The priority is to excite children in reading. Promote reading as a way of developing their imagination and learning about the world which in turn will make them excited to explore more of the world.
Parental engagement and the influence of the community (including social media) are huge barriers for reading. The LPP will certainly help us to support families and changing beliefs about reading across the community.
Find out more about our programmes
We partner with schools to develop a whole school reading culture and provide one-to-one reading support.
