Nationally, almost half of children from low-income families cannot read properly by the time they leave primary school, and, locally, one in five of Oxford's children are living in poverty. A 2019 Oxfordshire County Council report found that the attainment gap between children eligible for free school meals and their peers is widening in the county, despite decreasing nationally. Simply put, children from the poorest families in Oxfordshire are being left further behind their school friends than elsewhere in the country. We don't think that's ok. Here at education charity, Quest for Learning, we're determined to make a difference to disadvantaged children through providing high quality tuition to help close the attainment gap. We need your support to ensure that we can continue this important work.
Why the community needs usOur aim is to transform disadvantaged children's futures through inspiring them to engage with learning. Our activities include our ReadingQuest and BookQuest programmes which give children better life chances by developing reading and writing skills, and NumSkills which supports the development of mental maths skills.
Our impact on the communityFor more than 20 years, we have inspired children to learn, while also consistently having a measurable impact on academic outcomes. In just six weeks, children working with our tutors make an average of 15 months' progress in reading, 9 months' progress in writing, and 20 months' progress in comprehension. This helps to bridge the attainment gap between children from low-income homes and their classmates, levelling the playing field: "I'm reading the same books as everyone else."
