Coram Beanstalk are delighted to publish a new impact report for the year 2021-2022, following two years of disrupted service, in which schools were intermittently forced to close and move to online provision.

Headline statistics show that in spite of challenging circumstances, we were able to help almost 5000 children become more confident, able readers.

• 94% of our schools saw overall progress in reading as a direct result of the our one-to-one support;
• 94% of our schools saw this extended to an improvement in the children's general attitude to learning;
• 91% witnessed an improvement in confidence and self-esteem;
• 90% reported improved engagement with reading; 
• 98% of our reading helper volunteers would recommend us to a friend.

Amy Lewis, our new Head of Coram Beanstalk had this to say:

"I’m proud to work within Coram, the longest serving children’s charity with a history of creating better chances for children. I’ve worked within Coram Beanstalk for nearly 11 years now in a variety of roles. This may seem like a long time to be with one organisation, but to my mind there’s a good reason for that; I firmly believe in the importance of what we do for children and the power of volunteers and one to one connection. This means I haven’t lost my motivation to keep moving forward and I am now in the position to create better chances for children as Head of Coram Beanstalk. At Coram Beanstalk we’ve just had the pleasure of collating our latest impact report, this has involved looking over handwritten records from our schools, volunteers and children (which have included some particularly brilliant drawings of ‘something that made you feel happy this week’) and reading through comments and review scores from our school and volunteer surveys. A theme running through the ‘things that make you happy’ is, perhaps surprisingly, drawings of people and animals! Much as we may be in slight despair at the infringement of ‘tech’ into the lives of our children it seems that they do recognise that it’s the living, breathing things in life that give you a good feeling. This is also reflected in the comments left by schools and reading helpers, speaking warmly of the enjoyment of our one-to-one reading sessions. People and relationships are at the heart of what we do and what I will be focusing our core work on; building a vibrant, thriving and connected volunteer community across the country, giving face to face support to the children that need it most. I’m absolutely certain that it’s the time spent in building a trusted learning relationship between volunteer and child that brings about the progress that we are able to evidence through facts and figures."

Read the full 'Story of Our Year 2021 - 2022' here