Starting with the observation that some children do not receive the support they need from their families, the Coup de pouce association – Partner for success at school launched the “Coup de pouce clé” project (“key booster”) 15 years ago for children in the first year of primary school, in partnership with their towns and the French Department of Education.
In 2010, the “Coup de pouce Clèm” (“elementary school booster”) program was started for elementary school classes.
Designed for children deemed to be slow learners or at risk of failure, the “Coup de pouce” clubs help them get over the sometimes difficult hurdle of reading, writing and arithmetic. They also introduce them to reading as a hobby and cultivate their taste for it.
In 2016, the AREVA Foundation decided to renew its support by providing funding to 23 Coup de pouce Clèm clubs in Romans, Aix-en-Provence and the Paris area. A total of 115 children receive support at a key moment in their school years.
Following a scientific approach which has demonstrated that parent involvement is crucial to their children’s success at school, this program gets both the children and their parents involved, with the parents agreeing to show interest in their children’s school work.
Coup de pouce Clèm uses a number of tools and verbal interaction. The activities offered in the clubs seek to foster the acquisition of the skills required at the end of the second year of primary school and to enable the child to develop the cognitive resources needed to enter the fourth and fifth years of primary school.
Children with learning difficulties are identified by their teachers before school vacation in October. They meet four times a week after class in their schools with an activity leader trained by the association and paid by the town. The Coup de pouce Clèm clubs receive the children in groups of five. The activity leader gives them reading, writing and arithmetic work and organizes workshops with fun materials. At the end of the session, the activity leader reads an excerpt from a “beautiful story” that appeals to their imagination and gives them a taste for reading.
In 2014 the AREVA Foundation supported 265 children from Cherbourg, le Havre, Lyon, Vaulx-en-Velin, Villeurbanne, Bagnols-sur-Cèze, Nîmes, Montélimar, Romans et Avignon in 53 “Coup de Pouce Clé” clubs and 75 leader’s coaching.
In France, the program has already benefited 80,000 children with reading difficulties. Coordinators worked with teachers to measure the effectiveness of the “Coup de Pouce Clé”. They observed that the clubs saved nine out of 10 children from early failure.