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As a Community Charity we have addressed the challenge of how can we help to break the cycle of disadvantage and make a real difference to our community.
The demographics of our community dictate that we must focus on the young citizens of tomorrow and tackle their priority needs.
Literacy & Health and Well Being
The Importance of Literacy
Poor literacy skills seriously disadvantage young people and greatly increase their risk of underachievement at school, truancy and experiencing social exclusion.
Poor literacy in adults has been linked to unemployment, poverty, financial exclusion and offending behaviour.
Lack of basic literacy skills is linked with low esteem, academic failure, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, delinquency, unemployment, low productivity and welfare dependence.
Literacy is an individual’s ability to read, write and speak in English at a level of proficiency necessary to function at school, at work and in society and to develop one’s knowledge and realise their full potential.
The Problem
Low Literacy
The National average for low literacy is 19% but in Sheerwater and Maybury it is nearly double this figure. Source National Census
In the UK today more than 34,000 young people leave school every year with no qualifications.
Key Stages
Achievements recorded by the Department for Education and Skills show that Maybury and Sheerwater is the only Ward in Woking where performance in 2004 compared with 1997 has declined and is the only low achievement Ward in Surrey where performance has also declined since 1997.
Literacy and numeracy at age 11
Literacy and numeracy age 14
GCSE and equivalent results
The Solution
Providing Books
- Providing books to young people is a simple, effective and relatively inexpensive way to promote language and literacy growth.
- Owning books is a critical feature of every child’s intellectual development.
- Reading aloud to children is the single most effective parental practice for enhancing language development.
- Children with books at home are eight times more likely to list reading as one of their favourite activities.
- Reading Support
- Literacy Project with Butterfly Phonics – a pilot project being run by the Partnership
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