Schofield & Sims partners with Springboard for Children

Springboard exists because every year 1 in 5 children leave primary school without reaching the expected levels of literacy. This means that approximately 1.62 million children in English schools can’t access the school curriculum because they aren’t reading well enough. This is a tragedy that can and should be avoided. Schofield & Sims believes that all children should be given the opportunity to achieve full literacy and is delighted to have found in Springboard a charity committed to providing the right support to ensure that every child can achieve their potential.

So what does Springboard do? Working in partnership with schools, Springboard tutors provide custom interventions, tailored to children’s individual learning needs. Like Schofield & Sims, Springboard recognises that children learn in different ways and that what works for one child, may not necessarily work for the next. As a consequence no two Springboard sessions are the same, with tutors equipped with a range of skills to enable them to work with children and young people, whatever their individual needs. What’s more, to ensure that they are supporting those children that are most vulnerable, Springboard focuses its work exclusively in schools and communities experiencing the greatest challenges.

This week we were given the opportunity to visit one of the Springboard centres in North London to see first-hand the difference that Springboard can have on children’s attainment. Sitting in on a session with a lively young boy called Ryan, it was immediately apparent that the children really enjoy the one-to-one attention provided by Springboard tutors, as well as the variety offered by the diverse range of learning materials used in the centres. By providing specially trained tutors and personalised resources that support and link with what is being taught in the classroom, children can make rapid progress – in 2014 Springboard narrowed the reading age gap on average from 22 months to just 8 months. This was evident even in the session that we observed, where in an activity designed to practise spelling words beginning and ending with the ‘ch’ sound, after initially struggling to identify the word ‘church’, Ryan was quickly able to use his phonic knowledge to identify and spell increasingly complex words featuring ‘ch’, including the tricky word Christmas!

Springboard currently has 18 centres like the one we visited. The number of children taught in each centre varies, but whatever the size, the principle of one-to-one teaching is strictly maintained. Children attend two Springboard sessions a week, lasting between 30 and 45 minutes each, in a dedicated classroom full of books, games and posters designed to create a fun and inviting learning environment. These sessions continue until the teacher, Springboard tutor and the school SENCO think that a pupil has made sufficient progress to continue with the mainstream curriculum without Springboard’s support. Last year 162 children and young people graduated from Springboard.

To help support the valuable work that Springboard does in schools, Schofield & Sims has provided each of the 18 Springboard centres with a pack of books including, comprehension resources, dictionaries and thesauruses, as well as our suitably titled ‘Springboard’ activity book series, and will be offering further support throughout the year.

To find out more about how Springboard can help your school visit www.springboard.org.uk.

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