Seven non-for-profit organisations in Greater London that address inequalities in the Early Years have been selected as part of our Young People and Education Programme’s ongoing Early Years Special Initiative. Each organisation will receive grants of up to £300,000, payable over a four-year period up to 2028.  

Successful grantees demonstrated how their interventions would focus on children aged 2 – 5 years old facing socio-economic disadvantage to achieve the following outcomes: 

• Increasing children’s numeracy, literacy and language skills 
• Improving school readiness (personal, social and emotional development) 

The seven successful grantees and projects supported are: 

Auditory Verbal UK : provides highly specialised training for professionals coaching parents with deaf children to develop auditory techniques and strategies that are implemented into daily home life in order to develop children’s hearing and spoken language.  

Chickenshed: workshops for children using music, movement, sign and puppetry to combine the arts with outdoor learning, alongside training for teachers and parental engagement, to explore new ways to support young children to become better equipped for school.  

The Children's Literacy Charity: specialist intervention for children supported by tutors via small group sessions and a book gifting service to further engage and support parents/carers of their child’s literacy development at home.  

Discover Children's Story Centre: provide practical training to teachers and parents to deliver co-developed sensory storytelling sessions to nursery children. These aim to improve children’s language and oracy and help them become emotionally and socially prepared for school, while empowering educators and parents to confidently support children’s learning. 

Home-Start London: specialised volunteer delivery of tailored interventions to children and parents/carers in home settings. Delivery aims to create positive learning environments, improve children’s language and cognitive skills and develop parents’ nurturing abilities and engagement to encourage children’s development. 

National Literacy Trust: training and support for childminders using the charity’s evidence-based intervention, Early Words Together. Childminders will feel more confident supporting the literacy and language of the children in their care. They will also be able to strengthen their relationships with parents/carers, through the sharing of new approaches applied in the setting to support language and literacy development in the home. 

Peeple: delivery of a training programme for Early Years teachers and parents in STEM that builds on a successful pilot. Children will be supported in settings and at home via everyday activities that are linked to early STEM skills to improve literacy, language, curiosity and confidence.  

Phase 2, Cohort 2 of our Early Years Special Initiative will be funded through The Charity of Sir Richard Whittington. The Learning Partner for Phase 2 is SQW. 

Read more about our Young People & Education programme here.