Welcome to Jumpstart

Leap into learning

Jumpstart is a new multisensory literacy programme, which aims to teach children to read with comprehension by the end of Grade 2. Jumpstart has been designed based on the knowledge gained from neuroscience and in collaboration with schools in the Caribbean.

Jumpstart includes straightforward training guidance, coaching and mentoring for teachers, alongside classroom workbooks, flashcards and wall display resources. These are made freely available in a digital format to all schools who would like to use them.

Jumpstart is designed by the non-profit Rassmuss Foundation, drawing on their successful development of an early literacy programme in South America, and it is sponsored by the Mustique Charitable Trust.

Goals

To offer a motivating, structured and sustainable literacy support programme which will enable all pupils to learn to read.
To provide professional development and coaching to teachers and classroom assistants which will embed effective and enduring instructional skills.

Mission Statement

The Jumpstart literacy programme’s vision is to increase life-long opportunities for children on St Vincent by improving their literacy skills, so that all pupils become competent readers. The programme also seeks to support teachers in developing their instructional skills and to embed enduring best practices in the classroom.

Outlining the need

The World Bank stated in 2021 that children who are unable to read and understand a simple text by the age of 10 fall into a state of Learning Poverty:

All children should be able to read by age 10. Reading is a gateway for learning as the child progresses through school—and conversely, an inability to read slams that gate shut. Beyond this, when children cannot read, it’s usually a clear indication that school systems aren’t well organized to help children learn in other areas such as math, science, and the humanities.
The World Bank, 2021

Jumpstart seeks to help children escape the cycle of learning poverty.

Frederick Douglass (circa 1879)

In 2021 a Country Review, called Challenges and opportunities in the education system of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, was jointly undertaken by Summa, the OECS and Independent Development Research Centre (IDRC). This report identified the quality of early childhood education and reading difficulties as two of the key areas to address.

There is a clear need to offer a creative, structured and effective literacy support scheme early on in primary schools to tackle this problem at the outset. This will enable pupils to become competent readers far earlier, rather than going on into secondary school unable to read fluently. This fluency will lead to stronger comprehension skills, ensure greater access to all subjects and offer better life-long opportunities. Providing this support requires making motivating and sustainable literacy resources, as freely available as possible, and offering professional development training and resources for families alongside them.

Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.

Frederick Douglass, Social reformer, abolitionist and statesman.