TEACHERS and education chiefs are celebrating the first anniversary of the Oxfordshire Reading Campaign today.

The campaign has been hailed a big success, with the number of Oxfordshire children making good levels of progress in reading having jumped from 85 to 90 per cent.

The one-year birthday comes as Oxfordshire Council Council confirmed yesterday that more than a quarter of the county’s state primary schools have now signed up to the scheme.

Hundreds of seven-year-olds have been part of the year-long Mail-backed project to boost their interest in reading.

The £585,000 scheme was launched to tackle poor test results in Oxfordshire’s schools – and is one of many successful initiatives that have been carried out in the county.

It was set up by Oxfordshire County Council and run by the National Literacy Trust.

Children work with books in small groups alongside a trained teaching assistant. They also read one-to-one with volunteers – about 120 have come forward to help with the campaign.

Headteachers said yesterday that they hope to carry on the scheme when the official campaign ends in one year’s time.

Sanford in the Vale Primary School has run the 10-week programmes for 12 children so far and is carrying on with eight more this year.

Headteacher Amanda Willis said: “It has made a huge difference with the children. One child, for example, made 17 months progress in the space of the 10 weeks.

“It really caught their imagination.

“It has really brought on their love of reading. They want to pick up books.

“It definitely seems to work so we will be carrying on using it for the children who need it – not just for seven-year-olds but other year groups too.”

The Key Stage 2 results released last week showed the county’s results bucked a nationwide dip from 90 to 88 per cent.

The campaign launched with 45 schools signed up to the project, a figure which has now jumped up to 62 – out of Oxfordshire’s 232 state schools. Sandhills Primary School signed up to the project in spring this year.

Headteacher Steph Lovett said: “We are looking forward to having the full year of it this year.

“The children find it very stimulating and engaging.

“There is a really high level of interest and imagination.”

Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for education, Melinda Tilley, said: “What we are hoping now is that the campaign will be embedded in schools for them to carry it on.

“The Key Stage Two results have proved it is being successful.”