Numeracy and Literacy
SIF provided funding of over £1.3m for this educational project designed to address root causes of educational underachievement across the Belfast West Social Investment zone recognised by the Department of Education, The Education Authority, and The Education & Training Inspectorate. They provided targeted and interactive support at two key levels: Key Stage II and GCSE (English & Maths).
Project Name: | Numeracy and Literacy |
|---|---|
Zone: | Belfast West |
Category: | Revenue |
Social Investment Fund Outcomes: | Reducing Deprivation |
Status: | Delivery Complete |
Funding awarded: | £1,371,440 |
About the Project
This projected was aimed at addressing the root causes of educational underachievement and improving the life chances of children, young people and their families across the SIF Belfast West zone. The project actively worked with education and community partners, inclusive of parental involvement to deliver a range of services and targeted interventions designed to facilitate the creation of a numeracy and literacy development pathway for children and young people.
The core focus was to deliver needs based programmes of support to children and their families in order to help develop literacy and numeracy skills linking to existing provision and providing added value supports.
Delivery was aimed at two specific key levels within the Education Framework:
- Provision of support to Key Stage II pupils outside of normal school hours to address issues with attainment in numeracy and literacy, hence enabling children to more fully reach their full potential; and
- Provision of GCSE supports in order to increase the proportion of pupils achieving GCSE grades A*-C in Maths and English.
Progress to date
The project has completed delivery and has made a positive contribution to addressing educational underachievement in the SIF Belfast West zone. 270 new opportunities were created for teachers and educational staff. The Accelerated Reading and Maths programmes demonstrated excellent results with 99% of children showing improved performance in these areas and these programmes were particularly useful during the COVID crisis through inclusion in home tuition packs. At GCSE level 90% of pupils improved their predicted grades in Maths and English. A positive outcome from the project has been the formation of a SIF Education Cluster Group established through the Belfast Area Partnerships. This affords an opportunity to share best practice, common issues and knowledge of programmes on a Belfast wide basis and has increased partnership working. The project was nominated and shortlisted for an Aisling Award under the Outstanding Education category and has provided a learning methodology and platform that can continue, contributing to the lasting legacy of this project and SIF.
Impacts
Monitoring and evaluation of all Social Investment Fund projects is carried out using “Outcomes Based Accountability” (OBA). The below infographic details some of the key impacts of the Numeracy and Literacy project.
