Sunderland schools set to SHINE thanks to massive cash injection
Schools in Sunderland are set to benefit from a £630,000 windfall to improve children’s literacy and to support pupils transitioning from primary school to secondary school.
The money is being provided by SHINE Sunderland, a charitable trust which has committed to invest £11 million in schools across the city to “help improve GCSE attainment and access to future opportunities”.
£450,000 will be invested in a city-wide literacy programme led by the Northern Education Trust (NET).
The money will be used to create literacy hubs across the city, designed to ensure “every student, regardless of background, has access to the high-quality reading support they need to succeed both in school and in life”.
The initial hubs will be located at Farringdon Community, Hetton, and Red House academies with the plan to expand to nine Sunderland schools by year five.
Through small group sessions with a 1:5 ratio, students will receive 30 minutes of focused reading practice each day. The intervention is designed to build fluency, deepen vocabulary knowledge, and boost confidence.
The intervention targets students in the first three years of secondary education whose reading ages are below expected levels.
Beth Howieson, Trust Lead for Literacy and Oracy at NET, said: “This £450,000 funding will allow us to rapidly strengthen reading intervention for some of the most vulnerable readers.”
The remaining £181,284 is being invested in Kepier Academy to launch the Kepier Transition Project.
The project will be delivered in collaboration with partner primary schools which serve communities where deprivation and limited access to specialist resources, can make the transition to secondary school difficult.
Through creative activities such as expressive storytelling, role-play and music, the project will “help learners develop the confidence and emotional readiness to thrive at Kepier”.
The ultimate hope is that the project will improve attendance and GCSE outcomes at the school.
Kepier headteacher Colin Devlin said: “It’s a very rare opportunity that schools would get this level of investment with very few strings attached.
"This funding means that significantly disadvantaged learners across the city will be getting an advantage.”
The SHINE Trust is backed by local businesses and “aims to address the barriers to success that students in Sunderland encounter”.
Fiona Spellman, CEO of SHINE, expressed her pride in supporting these "ambitious and innovative" projects, noting that they help children develop the skills that "open doors to future success".