News Articles

Providing prisons with resources for 5,000 inmates a year to learn to read

The Guardian Rachel Williams (December 9 2009)

It is seeing the transformation in prisoners who have learned to read, and those who are now ready to help others, that makes her job worthwhile, says Julie Carthy, development manager at the Shannon Trust. [The Guardian]

You don't need academics to tell you that phonics work

The Guardian Eric Allison (April 21 2009)

If ever an academic exercise threatened to be long-winded and expensive, it was the one flagged up in last week's Education Guardian, in a piece about the merits - or otherwise - of teaching illiterate adults to read by phonic methods. A proposal to "carry out a substantial, randomly controlled trial comparing phonics with other mainstream methods of teaching adult literacy has been put to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) by a team of academics from London University's Institute of Education and the University of York". [The Guardian]

New mentoring scheme pioneered at Portland and Dorchester prison

Dorset Echo online news (26 March 2009)

PRISONERS in Dorchester and Portland are being read more than their rights in a pioneering new prison mentor scheme.

A group of literate inmates have volunteered to become mentors so that they can share their reading and writing skills with other inmates.

The Toe by Toe scheme has only been running for five weeks at Dorchester prison and already they are seeing impressive results. [Open PDF]

Toe by Toe

(PSN 261, Oct/Nov 2008)

“The single best thing introduced into prisons in the last ten years.” That’s how Stephen Shaw, Prison and Probation Ombudsman describes the Shannon Trust’s Toe by Toe reading scheme. Now rolling out a new Reading Network in the West Midlands Young Offender estate, the charity is helping to reshape offenders’ prospects. PSN visited HMYOI Brinsford, the hub of the network, to find out more. [Open PDF]

Learning to read

Alphabet soup

How women inside are teaching fellow prisoners to read

Women in prison tell us they read this magazine aloud to friends inside, who can’t read themselves. If you are reading this article then you are OK but many women in prison struggle with their ABC, and may be too embarrassed to say so.

Prison education departments run reading classes, but some women may not be ready for these, or feel like going to education. [Open PDF]

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