Philosophy and Principles

The Toolbox is designed on the principle that what readers need to succeed is a positive reading experience every day. If readers are enjoying reading then the learning mechanisms built into our brains will do the rest.

The greatest threat to a positive reading experience is the anxiety associated with making mistakes whilst reading aloud to an adult. We take away that anxiety by just telling them any words they do not know. This might sound overly simplistic but the amount of damage caused by anxiety in the reading experience cannot be overstated. Similarly, it is difficult to understate the beneficial effect of a positive reading experience, no matter how much help has to be given.

As well as removing anxiety the Toolbox actively makes the reading experience pleasurable by offering hundreds of topics for the child to choose from so they can read about something they are interested in.