Uh oh, you are using an old web browser that we no longer support. Some of this website's features may not work correctly because of this. Learn about updating to a more modern browser here.
One in five children in the UK can’t read well when they leave primary school. For children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, the figure is more than one in three.
By the time they reach secondary school, many of the UK's poorest children have fallen even further behind.
We help disadvantaged children fulfil their potential at school – and in life.
Between 2010 and 2018 we ran the FAST programme, which helps tackle the educational inequality that exists between poorer children and their better off class-mates. FAST builds stronger bonds between parents, schools and communities to make sure children get the support they need to do their best at school.
In 2018 we published the findings of Europe’s first Randomised Control Trial (RCT) of FAST, which found that the programme can be an effective mechanism for engaging parents in their children’s early education. FAST was also shown to have a positive impact on children’s social and behavioural outcomes, remarkably, for the whole year group and not just the children who participated. 83% of parents that began FAST attended six or more sessions, which is an unusually high retention rate. There are great lessons to be learned from FAST’s ability to capture parents’ imaginations and keep them coming back week after week.
You can read more on the findings of the FAST RCT here.
You can also read our blog here.
We are no longer delivering FAST in the UK – instead we are taking the RCT findings and our experience of delivering FAST and applying them to our Families Connect programme. Families Connect focuses on engaging parents and families with their children’s learning. It focuses on literacy, numeracy and social and emotional learning, providing parents with the skills confidence and techniques to support core elements of their child’s early development.
Your browser or network settings do not allow features used by this page. Please try a different browser or network.
