Real Action is a small educational charity based in the Queen’s Park ward of Westminster. We were founded in 1997 and became a registered charity in 1998. Our aim is and has always been to advance the education of children, young people and families in the area near to our office. We do this through our two Saturday schools taught by volunteer literacy teachers. They run on Saturdays during school term times. We will also be opening a third school in October. In addition, we are working with local primary schools teaching targeted intervention classes using our Butterfly teaching method. Our impact is significant- since the establishment of our Saturday schools, we have taught over 4,000 children to read at an impressive rate: the average rate is 12 months improvement in reading age with only 20 hours of teaching.
Through our two Saturday schools (soon to become three) and in school work we help disadvantaged children to read. These children often fall behind at school and struggle to catch up. Through our Saturday schools and in school work, they improve their reading, helping their academic achievement and advancing their education. This has the effect of increasing social mobility within the communities in which we work. In addition our office, The Learning Store, also acts a community hub where local people can come to borrow books, ask for advice and support and find out more about our programmes.
