International Literacy Day 2020

International Literacy Day 2020 focused on "Literacy teaching and learning in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond". The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund is delighted to shine a light on a number of organisations and literacy-related projects supported over the years.

Literacy Pirates received a small grant to enable 300, 9 to 13 year- olds across two learning centres in Hackney and Haringey to attend 2 ½ hour sessions weekly after school and focus on drafting and redrafting themed stories that will contribute to a published book per centre. The charity said “Young people are encouraged by our pirate-themed learning space and one-to-one support from volunteers.”

The Reader was awarded a major grant of £83,711 towards the Super Reading Heroes programme for Merseyside’s looked after children, those in kinship care and at risk of entering care. The project enabled the charity to increase the number of children having access to a trained volunteer for a weekly 1:1 shared reading session for up to 6 months; offer Reading Heroes a Big Day Out at the charity’s inspiring Storybarn; an interactive story-centre located in the surroundings of Calderstones Park, providing an opportunity to get outside, read for fun and broaden horizons.

With support from PWCF, Artis Community delivered Diamond the Horse projectand engaged children, young people and families in a Gipsy Travelling community in Merthyr Tudful, Wales .The idea came out of a previous project where they created a Willow Horse to represent their Culture. The project helped to develop interaction, literacy, confidence in reading at home with the family.

Reading Matters’ Reading Leaders scheme improves literacy attainment and school cohesion by training older pupils (age 14+) to support younger ones (age 11 or 12) for whom reading is a challenge. The trained Leaders support younger readers each week with their reading. With just 10 hours of one to one support, the trained volunteers helped raise a young person’s reading age by 13 months, often more. This is life changing, enabling young people to fully engage with school life in all subjects, better preparing them for work. Performance in reading improved in 98% of cases.

Learning PartnershipsLet’s Read programme recruits and train volunteers from local businesses and communities, facilitates support for disadvantaged children to help them to gain the essential literacy and language skills they need for future educational and employment opportunities.100 children from 18 primary schools increased reading, literacy, language skills as well as their confidence and self-esteem. The children accelerated progress in reading and achieved age related targets by engaging with the programme and the volunteers.

David Rattary Memorial Trust’s Isisekelo (Bright Stars) Pre School is the only preschool available with qualified teachers in the remote region of Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa. A small grant from PWCF enabled over 40 children aged between 4 and 5 to attend preschool, many of them walking over 6km with older siblings. The children improved their reading and writing skills as well as aspirations for future education.

Find out more about the projects we’ve funded.