Planting a seed for life - 2005


Bookstart: Planting a Seed for Life (Final Report)
January 2005
Fiona M. Collins, Cathy Svensson, Professor Pat Mahony - Roehampton University
Download - Bookstart: Planting a seed for life (Word doc 900Kb)


Introduction

In May 2003 Roehampton University was invited to evaluate the Bookstart programme between September 2003 and September 2004. Throughout this school year the researchers interviewed parents, children, librarians, health visitors and Bookstart coordinators. At the beginning of the evaluation year there was no central funding in place and local authorities were funding the Bookstart scheme in varying degrees. As a consequence professionals interviewed early in the project voiced their concerns in relation to the financial arrangements.

During the year the government announced that Sure Start would be funding Bookstart from September 2004 and then in July 2004 the Chancellor announced that further funding was going to be introduced to allow the national Bookstart programme to be extended. This extension would give all children the Bookstart bag at the age of nine months; Bookstart Plus between the ages of 18 and 30 months and My Bookstart Treasure Box between the ages of three and four years. As a consequence the evaluation of the Bookstart scheme was written during a period of welcomed change.


Summary of key findings
Findings from the librarians, health visitors and Bookstart coordinators:

  • All the professionals were supportive of the Bookstart scheme.
  • Where local authorities placed strong emphasis on the pre-school child, the Bookstart partnership was at its strongest and most innovative.
  • The quality of the organisation of the Bookstart scheme and partnership varied across the three regions.
  • Librarians and health visitors identified the need for training to support their effective delivery of the packs and the Bookstart message.

Findings from parents:

  • The majority of parents were responsive to the Bookstart scheme.
  • Some parents needed more than the giving of a single Bookstart book pack in order to adopt the Bookstart philosophy of reading regularly with their young child.
  • The value of reading with babies and reading in the mother tongue was rarely understood by parents who spoke EAL, despite the translation of the Bookstart literature into some community languages.
  • Regular and consistent reading to and with babies and young children had a positive effect on young children’s literacy development.
  • Parents of highest performing readers engaged in a diverse range of reading related activities.
  • Home-based literacy routines and the value parents placed on books had a positive impact on children’s reading.
  • The presence of wide-ranging reading material in the home was a feature of children who were progressing well in their literacy development.
  • The regular sharing of books in the home was not common practice of the group of emergent nursery readers.

Findings from children:

  • Children chose to read popular culture texts which linked to their gender.
  • Quality discussion was a routine part of the book sharing routine of the highest performing readers.
  • The average and the highest performing readers chose to read voluntarily in their leisure time.
  • Highest performing and average reception age readers were able to name a favourite book.
  • The emergent nursery age children were unable to understand the sequential nature of a story.
  • Reception children who had limited narrative experiences did not understand the subtle nuances of more sophisticated stories.
  • A high prevalence of speech delay and a limited verbal response to a shared text were identified in emergent nursery readers’ group.