New children's literacy campaign: should Mumsnet sign up?

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello everyone

The charity Save the Children, with whom we've done a bit of work in the past, is asking if Mumsnet can give its collective support to a campaign to improve children’s literacy here in the UK.

Save the Children say: “Reading is the key to a child’s future: it unlocks their potential and opens up a world filled with possibilities. For our poorest children, reading well is their best route out of poverty, but thousands of children from poorer backgrounds leave primary school not reading as well as they should.”

As ever, we'd like to know what you think about adding Mumsnet's voice to this. The aim of the campaign is to ensure that every child is a confident reader by age 11, but Save the Children's position is that to achieve this we all need to play our part. The campaign hasn't launched yet, but Save the Children will be working with a coalition of organisations, communities, parents, teachers and schools, businesspeople and politicians. They are working with a range of media, including The Sun. They don’t want to give away all their campaign tactics before the launch (understandably) but if you have any specific questions about the methods and aims of the campaign, let us know and we'll see if we can get answers for you.

Please do also use this thread to let us know what you think about Mumsnet officially getting behind this one.

Thanks,
MNHQ

[StillProcrastinating]

Agree that the Sun being involved would make me want to stay away. I support No More Page 3 , and believe P 3 has a negative impact on young people.

Such a shame STC are working with them. I can understand why, but even so....

[FabulousFudge]

catsofa - I must admit my first thought was, 'how ironic!'

I think MN know that there will be a conflict of interest/issues with The Sun being involved in this, which is why it is explicitly mentioned.

[TheresASnakeInMyBoot]

I was so on board with this, I think reading is the most important skill that children can be taught - it opens up so many opportunities for them. Then I saw that The Sun was a part of this campaign.

I just can't be a part of anything that has associations with that paper - even something like literacy which is so important.

Such a shame, as something like this is very much needed.

[MomOrMum]

This would be a No from me, for reasons already stated by others...

1. The partnership with The Sun
2. My suspicion that this won't be about increasing investment in public services, increasing support in schools across the board, investment in libraries and other community services, but instead more of a "flash in the pan" scheme
3. I suspect they aren't working with the kind of expert organisations already mentioned

[toothlessdragon]

For those upthread who have expressed a desire to help, in my experience most primary schools have reading volunteer programme and there are local groups which train volunteers in phonics etc. I don't think this campaign sounds convincing yet, nor would I be happy about working with The Sun.

[LizzyLard]

Why The Sun?! The Sun contains soft porn!! Surely Save the Children can see the dangers of drawing more children to a publication with soft porn content? Why not the Mirror, it's tabloid and accessible but not full of sexism and sexualised images. The Mirror sponsor the Children of Courage as well

[wigglesrock]

No, I can't reconcile MN supporting a campaign in conjunction with the Sun. It's all a bit vague anyway, I know Save the Children don't want to give away any of their tactics but there's no info at all.

[MagratsHair]

Will be back later to RTFT as don't have time now.

Initial thoughts are:

• any initiative that encourages children to read would be worthwhile if properly managed & I would look into any such idea to see if I could support it.
  
  
• its in partnership with The Sun? Seriously? What about the anti Page 3 campaign, how can I support both?
  
  
• From my own experience of parents/children at DS's last school, a child will not want to learn how to read if he gets comments such as (all heard last year in the playground from parents) - 'reading? What do you want to do that for?' 'Put that book away, your tablet is in the car', ' X look at your brother reading his book, haha come on X's brother come & have some fun'. When such attitudes prevail in parents its a mammoth task to encourage children to read, particularly in KS1 where parental approval is sought by the child. If the parents do not place importance on reading then a child may be discouraged from reading & I see no way of resolving that problem via charitable input. I would be more inclined to back proposals that are delivered by teaching professionals in-school as I'd be more confident of them actually making a difference. I think this campaign is noble & done with excellent intentions but I can't actually see it having much of a difference with those children who its trying its hardest to reach.
  
  
• I wouldn't actively support this particular campaign no, I would welcome the publicity it provides to encourage parents that reading is essential but I'd prefer to add my support to campaigns that I trust to make a difference & who are not associated with newspapers where women are objectified and disrespected. Its hard to take The Sun seriously as an advocate of childrens' values when they clearly do not advocate the equality of women/the mothers of these children. If Mumsnet did get behind this campaign then they would be indirectly supporting The Sun, which they cannot do whilst participating in the ban Page 3 campaign.

[KatharineClover]

Unless the campaign is focusing on increased funding / resources / training for schools, and increased funding for quality Family Learning literacy programmes then I think it will sadly be lots of hype with little real impact.

[allchildrenreading]

There are hundreds of literacy initiatives around the country and millions of pounds spent in instruction that is ineffective for many struggling readers. Save the Children need to visit schools where good phonics instruction leads to very high success rates, to study the evidence, to be transparent about the qualifications and experience of their 'team', and to outline their instructional methods. I, too, am surprised that Save the Children and Mumsnet would even consider a collaboration with The Sun.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I'm going to leave the thorny issue to one side. (Although I am surprised that MN of all sites would consider a collaboration with the Sun).

It's all very well for Save the Children to say they don't want to reveal their tactics, but unfortunately the reading debate is still alive and well in this country. Nearly a decade on from the Rose review we still haven't managed to get most schools teaching reading well. If they're going to tackle that, then maybe we could consider supporting it, but if Davis, Rosen, the UKLA and the unions are anywhere near this then I wouldn't touch it with a very large bargepole.

I can't help but get the feeling that StC are sitting on their tactics until they get support because they know it will be contentious from one side of the debate. It's difficult at this point to know which side, but the fact that they haven't got in touch with the RRF speaks volumes I think.

[edpen]

I'm sorry but I can't get passed the Sun involvement either. I despair that that publication gets into households with young children and would want to support anything that might give it more reason to do so. (all about P3)
I am curious as to why it was chosen and why RowanMumsnet highlighted it in that way.

[edpen]

sorry, would NOT want to support anything that might give it more reason to do so

[RandomDiva]

Absolutely not, due to the Sun's involvement. BeerTricks also makes the excellent point that the Sun would use their involvement to bash teachers, as would the Mail (an example of another newspaper I would be surprised you got involved with, even for a good cause, though I do get at least they are not involved with this one).

[AuntieStella]

"It's all very well for Save the Children to say they don't want to reveal their tactics, but unfortunately the reading debate is still alive and well in this country. Nearly a decade on from the Rose review we still haven't managed to get most schools teaching reading well. If they're going to tackle that, then maybe we could consider supporting it, but if Davis, Rosen, the UKLA and the unions are anywhere near this then I wouldn't touch it with a very large bargepole. "

Very good point.

[bohoec]

Great campaign to support although cautious to support something promoted by The Sun, which is not IMO an appropriate partner for a child focused campaign.

Also agree with pp comments about the campaign needing to be sensitive to adult literacy difficulties, and not make problems with children's literacy the parents 'fault'.

[RowanMumsnet]

Morning all

Thanks very much for all your thoughts and input.

If we're reading this right, along with some outright support, there are two main concerns:

a) The Sun; and
b) the exact strategy of the campaign and make-up of the coalition.

We'll ask Save the Children to take a look and see if they can give us a response to each of these.

From MNHQ's POV, we just wanted to say that, having seen the full range of coalition members - sorry, realise that's irritating - this does seem to have the makings of a powerful campaign, on an issue we know almost all MN users will feel positively about.

It's fairly standard for campaigning organisations not to divulge details of campaign strategies before launch, although we understand why some of you would like to know more before making a decision.

As to the The Sun: you're right, we did anticipate this might raise questions, which is why we mentioned it! We're fully committed to NMP3, but that hadn't translated, in our collective mind to not working with organisations that might also work with the Sun. And as one of the UK's biggest-circulation newspapers, it can be a powerful agent in campaigns. But as ever, we're here to hear what you have to say about it.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

Thanks Rowan. I absolutely agree with Save the Children that reading is the key to success and that we have a problem that does need solving. But we have chucked millions at this problem with everything from bookstart, to advertising campaigns, to in school interventions such as ELS and reading recovery. It hasn't made any difference because it's missed the target audience and been ineffective. I'm slightly worried we may end up with a glitzy campaign that ends up chucking good money after bad.

WRT The Sun, do you know if we are talking about a long list of media organisations mostly being used as a promotional aid that just happens to include the Sun, or are we talking about a campaign mostly between StC and the Sun where they will be a very vocal partner. I could live with the first. The second I think is a problem.

[debbiehep]

Bear in mind that Rosen is vociferously anti phonics.

[Badvoc123]

I would never support anything backed by the sun or the mail.
They will use is campaign to vilify both teachers and parents of kids who struggle with literacy.
I agree it would be better for STC to campaign against library closures.
Sadly, I have experience dealing with schools and teachers wrt my eldest sons issues with literacy.
None of the teachers in 3 schools had any idea now to help him, so I did it myself.
Sen and literacy training for student teachers is woeful.

[cailindana]

IMO coming from Ireland where reading instruction is quite different and literacy rates are higher, reading instruction in schools in England (don't know about Wales and Scotland, as I haven't taught there) is absolutely awful. It doesn't surprise me that so many children struggle. The absolute obsession with phonics and with teaching things in a rigid one size fits all way is bizarre and counterproductive I think.

I won't support any campaign that works with the Sun.

[KleineDracheKokosnuss]

If Save the Children has identified the demographic that includes the majority of Sun readers as being the group that the campaign needs to focus on, then it would be sensible for them to use the sun as a vehicle to convey the message.

Disclaimer: I don't necessarily oppose working with the Sun, but then I also found Page 3 useful when I was growing up as it helped me feel attractive with my spectacularly oversized chest.

However, the information given in the OP about the precise campaign is absent limited, and I would not be comfortable saying yes when so little detail is provided. As other posters have said - there's a high risk of this being yet another flash in the pan that has great fanfare to start, but ultimately goes no-where. We need a reversal of library closures and more funding (i.e. real investment), not just a lot of hand wringing Unless Save the Children have actual, concrete plans for making an actual difference - I'd say no.