Education

School

The mission of our School group is to help teachers teach and students learn, and we accomplish this by being the leading provider of curriculum materials, assessment services and software and technology.

In 2007, Pearson School companies continued to demonstrate the effectiveness of their instructional learning programmes through research by Pearson and by third-party organisations. Some highlights include:

• Scott Foresman conducted a study to measure the impact of its highly successful Reading Street programme in its first year (2005-2006) engaging independent research company Magnolia Consulting to undertake the research. The study looked at five schools in urban, suburban and rural settings, representing considerable ethnic diversity; 994 students and 48 teachers participated. Results showed that students who used Reading Street demonstrated statistically significant improvement in reading achievement during the year. First grade students gained an equivalent of over 45 percentile points on a reading achievement pre-test to post-test and over 26 percentile points on a reading fluency test from mid-year to post-test.
  
  The majority of Reading Street users advanced in reading group level after just one year. At the beginning of the school year, 18% of Reading Street students were in intervention-level reading group. By the end of the year, the number had decreased by 10%. Twenty per cent of Reading Street students began in above level reading groups, and this number increased to 32% by the end of the year. These numbers are further proof that Reading Street will increase student achievement at all levels of learners.
  
  In the 2006/2007 school year Magnolia Consulting conducted a second year’s research, confirming again that students using Reading Street significantly increase their reading achievement as evidenced by pre-test and post-test scores.
• Pearson’s Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley Mathematics (2005) and Investigations in Number, Data and Space (2009) were selected to be included in the Evaluation of Early Elementary Mathematics programmes funded by the US Department of Education. The study is being conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., during the 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 school years. In order to be included, a programme had to meet certain criteria, such as providing research support for its conceptual framework and empirical support for the effectiveness of the curriculum. The study is in its second year and an interim report will be published in March 2008.
• Connected Mathematics Project 2 (CMP2) was selected for inclusion in a study of the effectiveness of math curricula by the Institute of Education Science, a division of the US Department of Education. The study, to be conducted in the 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 school years, intends to provide a measurement of the impact of CMP2 in keeping with the government’s No Child Left Behind goals of making educational decisions based on scientific evidence.
• Pearson has also partnered with several research organisations to fund and study the effectiveness, best practices and implementation of our new mathematics programmes. A study of the enVisionMATH programme is being conducted during the 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 school years at nine schools in eight states. A study of the CMP2 programme is being conducted by Claremont Graduate University for the 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 school years at six schools across three states. Gatti Evaluation is conducting a study of our Investigations in Number, Data and Space during the 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 school years in nine schools across four states. All study designs meet the rigorous standards of the What Works Clearinghouse, part of the US Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.
  
  Pearson has also funded a study to examine the impact of the Reading Street English Language Learner (ELL) components. The study is being conducted in two-high-risk, high-ELL school districts and will document the effectiveness of the programme with the ELL population and the best practices associated with using Reading Street for ELL learners.
• The Waterford Early Math and Science (WEMS) programme is a comprehensive educational software programme designed to build maths and science skills and concepts in grades K-2. The programme can individualise lessons, assess and track student progress and re-teach lessons to keep potentially ‘at risk’ students at grade level. The study covered first-year implementation of WEMS in kindergarten, carried out in five low-income, largely Hispanic schools during the 2005/2006 school year. When compared with their counterparts in control classes, the WEMS students made significantly greater improvements in math and science tests.
• Pearson’s formative assessment products, PASeries (Progress Assessment Series) Reading and PASeries Mathematics, were chosen for scientific review by the National Center on Student Progress Monitoring, which is funded by the US Department of Education’s Office of Special Education programmes and is dedicated to the implementation of scientifically based student progress monitoring. Both products meet the Center’s Progress Monitoring Standards for alternate forms and adequate yearly progress (AYP) benchmarks, as well as the Center’s Foundation Psychometric Standards for reliability and validity in student progress monitoring tools.

Higher Education

Pearson is the leading educational solutions company in the US, providing college instructors and students with educational content, media, and services to enhance learning. We have long been a pioneer in the use of technology to support instruction and learning, and our breadth of offerings continues to grow in use among universities and community colleges committed to raising educational achievement.

MyMathLab is an innovative series of online courses designed to work in conjunction with our Addison Wesley and Prentice Hall mathematics and statistics textbooks. A revolutionary new way of teaching and learning, MyMathLab is modular, self-paced, customisable and deliverable anywhere a student has web access. Since 2001, approximately 1.7 million students have used MyMathLab and an alternative version, MathXL. Virtually all educational institutions using both products have seen student success rates improve, and in many instances, have even doubled their pass rates.

In 2007, Pearson updated Making the Grade, Version 2.0, its report that highlights the consistently positive impact MyMathLab has on the quality of learning and cost reduction in higher education math instruction. It examines how MyMathLab can be successfully implemented in both distance – and on-site – learning environments and demonstrates the quantifiable difference that regular usage of MyMathLab has on student retention and subsequent success. Some examples are:

• DeVry University worked with Pearson to custom design algebra courses on the MyMathLab platform that would help students who struggled with maths, engage students and faculty in the learning process and provide students with encouragement, positive feedback and structure.
  
  The results of DeVry’s experience were unequivocal that this approach, with its regular schedule of automated assessment and immediate feedback, served students significantly better than the traditional teaching model did. For the three courses in which the shift in teaching was made (introduction to algebra, basic algebra, and algebra for college students), the percentage of students who passed (received a grade A or B) increased an average of 57%; the percentage of students who failed to pass (received a grade C, D, F or I) decreased by 49%; and the number of students who withdrew from the courses decreased by 24%.
• The University of Wisconsin-Stout has about 1,500–1,700 first-year students, with 5-10% being placed in a remedial algebra course and another 35% in an intermediate algebra course. Prior to 2004, when MyMathLab was introduced, failure/withdrawal rates for both groups averaged 29%. Since fall 2004, the combined failure/withdrawal rate for students in the remedial algebra class using the new system has plummeted 62%, from an average of 29% to an average of 11%. In the intermediate course the results are less dramatic, but still significant, with a 32% reduction in failure/withdrawal rates; from 29% to just over 19%.
• Quinsigamond Community College in Massachusetts serves a diverse population of day and evening students, with the average age 27 years old. It has a high proportion of adult, learning-challenged, part-time, non-native English speaking students. Roughly 93% of QCC’s incoming students test into at least one level of developmental math. Pass rates in all three developmental math classes – basic math, beginning algebra and intermediate algebra – significantly increased, with beginning algebra showing the most striking increase from the programme pilot in 2003 through spring 2006: nearly 42%.
• A study validating the Mastering Physics platform was published in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior in July 2007. In the research, David Pritchard, Ph.D., one of the developers of the platform, and two colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studied the behaviour of students performing a complex learning task with interactive tutoring on the web. The findings showed that Mastering’s unique embedded tutoring engages a much broader range of students and takes more of those students to successful completion than traditional problems. The platform also affords unique and unprecedented research opportunities into how students learn.

Community Programmes

• The Achievement Solutions group of Pearson and the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) announced a partnership to call attention to the need to shift teachers from the practice of working in isolation to working collaboratively in learning teams to improve student achievement. The two organizations assembled an advisory board of education leaders to develop criteria for what an outstanding learning team looks like and how their work is reflected in student achievement, the school and the community. Los Angeles Unified School District was chosen as the first large school district in the US to adopt Pearson’s ‘Learning Teams’ model, where teachers work collaboratively in groups led by trained facilitators to maximise their skills in teaching mathematics, science, English language, arts and social studies.
• Prentice Hall Biology authors Ken Miller and Joe Levine sponsored two high school biology teachers to attend a week-long tropical biology field camp at the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) in Costa Rica. The teachers submitted winning essays describing how their attendance at OTS would have an impact on teaching.
• Pearson Higher Education announced the formation of the Pearson Student Advisory Board, an initiative that brings college student representatives together with the company’s leadership in an effort to share perspectives and establish a dialogue on higher education and the important issues and goals of today’s college students. Twelve students from across the US were selected to serve one-year terms beginning in June. The student members are participating on working committees and are paired with Pearson executive mentors.
• The Pearson Strategic Advisory Board was created to provide the Higher Education group with strategic guidance for the company’s eLearning efforts in the US and abroad. The board, comprised of senior executives from a wide range of higher education institutions both in the US and globally, will provide counsel on emerging technologies in education and opportunities to expand Pearson’s eLearning influence in the developing world.

Awards

Pearson’s products continued to receive honours and recognition from the leading education and technology trade groups.

• WriteToLearn, a web-based learning tool that helps students develop writing and reading comprehension skills, received a number of awards during the year, including best Curriculum: Reading and Language Instruction Web Site for Grades 6-8 from the Association of Educational Publishers, and also won a 2007 Best Educational Software (BESSIE) Award as the best language arts website in the upper elementary category and an Education Review (EDDIE) Award for Best High School Language Arts Web Site, both from the ComputED Learning Center, in San Diego, California. WriteToLearn also added the 2007 Award of Excellence from Technology & Learning magazine as one of the year’s most innovative applications. It was also a finalist in ‘Best Online Instruction Solution’ category of the Software & Information Industry Association’s CODiE Awards.
• The Bridge of Vocabulary, the only explicit vocabulary intervention programme tied to evidence-based research and curriculum standards and developed for both general and special educators, was a finalist in two curriculum and language arts categories in the Association of Educational Publishers’ 2007 Distinguished Achievement Awards.
• The PAS Reading programme was a winner of the 2007 Best Educational Software (BESSIE) Award and an Education Software Review (EDDIE) Award for best language arts product for early elementary students, both sponsored by ComputED Learning Center, a leading computer education resource in San Diego, California.
• Two other Pearson products named finalists in the SIIA CODiE Awards were Chancery SMS, an enterprise-class student information system for K-12 education, in the Best K-12 Enterprise Solution category, and the Prosper assessment system, recognised as a finalist in the Best Student Assessment Solution category.
• Scott Foresman’s California History-Social Science digital path received a 2007 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers, in the Curriculum Packages, Social Studies Instruction category for Grades K-5. It was also a finalist in three categories of the CODiE Awards, including Best K-12 Instruction Solution, Best Online Instruction Solution and Best Social Studies Instruction Solution.
• Longman’s Summit programme, a two-level high-intermediate/advanced course, received a 2007 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers in the Curriculum/Textbooks category for Grades 9-12.
• Pearson Inform, the achievement data analysis and decision support tool for K-12 school districts, was recognised as the best online data analysis product in the Education Software Review (EDDIE) Awards sponsored by ComputED Learning Center, a leading computer education resource.
• Pearson was honoured in 2007 by the Education Commission of the States (ECS) with its Corporate Award, which recognises sustained commitment to, and substantial investment in, improving public education. Pearson is the first education company to receive the ECS Corporate Award. ECS is a nationwide organisation that helps US governors, legislators, state education officials and others identify, develop and implement public policies to improve student learning at all levels.

Pearson Education, UK

Rapid from Heinemann, an award-winning special educational needs reading programme for 7–11-year-olds, combines unique speech recognition software and expertly levelled books. Proven by an independent research trial to deliver more than twice the normal rate of reading progress, the programme has been designed to ensure that children who are struggling with their reading can quickly catch up. The software acts as an extra pair of hands for the teacher, and patiently ‘listens’ to the child as they practise their reading and prompts them if they hesitate or stumble, while collecting valuable reading data for both the teacher and child. With a specially commissioned ‘dyslexia friendly’ font, brilliant stories and stunning artwork, Rapid helps children achieve essential reading success.

Pearson Education employees have given their support to the Magic Outcomes programme, part of Magic Breakfast, the educational charity set up by Pearson author, Carmel McConnell, with the aim of providing nutritious food to UK primary school children at risk of malnutrition. In 2007 Pearson Education employees helped in various projects at Montem Primary School in North London launching a new Montem recipe calendar.

Maskew Miller Longman, South Africa

Maskew Miller Longman has been working with Ministries of Education in Angola, Namibia and north western South Africa to help revive indigenous languages. In many regions the local languages are under threat because of the prevalence of colonial and/or European languages. Research shows that children learn more quickly and effectively, and have higher levels of numeracy and literacy over the longer term, if they are taught in their mother-tongue for the first few years of schooling. MML has been developing materials – the first of their kind – to allow this sort of mother-tongue instruction throughout Africa. The Angolan Ministry of Education chose MML to develop reading and writing materials for the first three years of school. MML worked with local teachers and language specialists to develop orthographies so that languages could be transcribed and then used these to develop teacher-training models in 7 local languages. The materials were tested on a pilot of 100 teachers and 100 schools and in 2009 the programme will be rolled out to all schools in Angola, reaching approximately 1 million children in their first year of school.

Edexcel

Edexcel is the UK’s largest awarding body offering academic and vocational qualifications and testing to schools, colleges, employers and other places of learning in the UK and internationally. In 2007 we delivered 9.6 million exam scripts in over 85 countries, with 4.5 million marked onscreen using the groundbreaking ePen technology. Our qualifications are also taken internationally and our entire vocational portfolio had over one million registrations across 45 countries in 2007.

Edexcel has continued to develop its successful ResultsPlus programme which gives free personalised information to help drive up student attainment. ResultsPlus provides question-by-question level detail about students’ examination results through powerful, logical reports and graphics, giving an unprecedented level of information about performance and helping students to raise their attainment. Working with PEL, another Pearson division, we are launching ResultsPlus Progress, to give schools and students access to knowledge testing against the specification which will highlight learning gaps for remedial teaching to occur, before high stakes examinations are taken.

We are two years into a three-year Edexcel Bursary programme supporting the Helena Kennedy Foundation which is in lieu of sending out Christmas cards. Edexcel was one of the founding partners of the Foundation which develops the vocational skills base of some of the most disadvantaged students in society. This support will enable BTEC students to complete their further education studies and hopefully progress on to the final year of a degree course. Other partners include KPMG and 19 universities in the UK. http://www.hkf.org.uk/index.php?pageID=1&subID=32

Edexcel also sponsors the Association of Colleges’ Lifelong Learning Award, which champions best practice across the further education sector in the UK (similar to community colleges in other parts of the world). We are preparing a series of case studies to celebrate and commend best practice.

Financial Times Group

The Financial Times and its network of business publications and websites are a vital channel for helping to shape the debate on key international political, business and social issues. The FT Group also plays an important part in raising the profile of various causes and campaigning organisations.

In 2007 the FT hosted the Environmental Awards which, as well as rewarding carbon efficiency, promoted transparency from companies in measuring and recording reductions and other initiatives.

The FT also hosted the Sustainable Banking Awards which are designed to highlight leadership and innovation in this increasingly important field.

We also conducted special reports on Investing in Young People, Responsible Business, Sustainable Business, Sustainable Banking and Corporate Citzenship and Philanthropy.

In 2007 the FT continued its seasonal appeal to raise money for Camfed (The Campaign for Female Education). FT readers raised a record breaking £1.6m for the charity that dedicates itself to fighting poverty and AIDS in rural communities in Africa by educating girls. The campaign was supported by articles and photography in print and online.

We also donated two double pages in the paper to Crisis at Christmas as part of their Christmas Card Challenge, helping to raise over £1m to support the homeless.

The FT became a major sponsor of the Southwark Theatres Education Partnership (STEP) 2007, whose work culminated in a two-week free festival of theatre for young people in Southwark. Over 30 local schools participated, with drama workshops taking place in theatres around Southwark. The FT took its sponsorship further by funding a ‘drama champions’ programme, where over two days in March, 20 primary school teachers were offered the opportunity to take part in a training programme to promote drama as an effective teaching and learning tool in schools.

The FT also made a donation to the University of Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Programme which is at the forefront of multi-media journalism.

The FT is also a major sponsor of The European-Atlantic Movement (TEAM), a charity that aims to promote the understanding and discussion of European, transatlantic and world affairs to sixth-formers and teachers in the UK. As a non-political organisation, the partnership fits well with the FT’s independence as a newspaper.

In partnership with Caijing magazine, China’s leading business journal, the FT in Asia has been running journalism Masterclasses with Beijing University for six years. The aim of the programme is to bring international best practice to journalists in China. The course is sponsored by Standard Chartered and Laura Cha, formerly of the China Securities and Regulatory Committee and funds students to visit the FT offices in Hong Kong and London on short secondments. The programme has now been rolled out to students and alumni at Fudan School of Journalism in Shanghai, China (sponsored by Credit Suisse and CLSA) and at Hong Kong University School of Journalism (sponsored by the British Consulate) reaching a total of more than 100 students to date.

Interactive Data is a Foundation Sponsor of Mutual Funds Against Cancer (MFAC), one of the leading advocates in the fight against cancer within the mutual fund and financial services industries. All proceeds benefit the Center for Applied Cancer Science (CACS), part of the Belfer Institute for Innovative Cancer Science at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA)

Penguin Group (USA) supports many important causes and philanthropic organisations as a corporation, as do many of its authors. In addition, Penguin Group (USA) champions diversity and preservation of the environment with its day-to-day policies and operations.

In 2007, Penguin continued its active support of literacy, human rights and freedom of expression throughout the world with significant contributions to:

• PEN, the world’s oldest human rights organisation and the oldest international literary organisation. The PEN American Center works to advance literature, to defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship.
• Literacy Partners, a not-for-profit organisation, providing free community-based adult and family literacy programmes to ensure that all adults have the access to quality education needed to fully realise their potential as individuals, parents, and citizens.
• The National Book Foundation, which recognises books of exceptional merit written by Americans, with unique outreach programmes featuring National Book Award authors and communities participating in the writing life of the nation by reading and writing together.
• Poets & Writers, Inc., the nation’s largest nonprofit literary organisation serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. It functions as a primary source of information, support, and guidance for creative writers.
• The Authors Guild, the nation’s leading advocate for writers’ interests in effective copyright protection, fair contracts and free expression.
• The National Book Festival, presented by the Library of Congress and Laura Bush, which emphasises the joys of reading and lifelong literacy and supports both with its national events and programmes.
• Hurston Wright Foundation, the nation’s resource centre for writers, readers, and supporters of black literature, with programmes that preserve the legacy and ensure the future of black writers and the literature they produce.

Penguin Group (USA) also continued to be a major supporter of Jumpstart in 2007, raising more than $112,000 at the annual Pearson Jumpstart Challenge benefit golf and tennis tournament.

Jumpstart’s Read for the Record in September 2007 raised more than $1 million, featuring a special custom edition of Penguin Young Readers Group’s The Story of Ferdinand, setting another Guinness World Record for the largest number of children reading a single book on the same day. With 100% underwriting of the custom edition by the Pearson Foundation, proceeds from sales at Toys “R” Us, American Eagle Outfitters, and Hanna Andersson stores benefited Jumpstart’s work with at-risk children. NBC’s ‘Today Show’ created a special Ferdinand set on the plaza at Rockefeller Center, and the show was kicked off by First Lady Laura Bush, as she read to a group of children at the White House. In addition, Penguin Young Readers’ Mike Lupica, author of the Mike Lupica’s Comeback Kids series, was interviewed by Matt Lauer of the Today Show. Lupica also participated in the campaign and read aloud on the air. Other celebrities who participated included Mike Bloomberg, Frank McCourt, Sonia Manzano (Maria from Sesame Street), Meredith Vieira, Mariska Hargitay, and LL Cool J.

During the 2007 Read for the Record campaign, the Pearson Foundation matched each $10 online donation by the public with another donation of a book to a child from a low-income community. Additionally Pearson donated tens of thousands of books to Head Start and other Jumpstart-affiliated early education centers.

Penguin Young Readers Group made a number of significant product donations in 2007, including large amounts of books to Prior Lake Public Library, Anaheim City School District, Mercer High School, The Montebello Project, the Brooklyn Public Library, and the Kids Wish Network.

Penguin Group (USA)’s commitment to diversity is demonstrated with its ongoing internship programmes with City University of New York (CUNY), City College of New York (CCNY), Posse Foundation and Prep for Prep – resulting in the placement of interns from diverse backgrounds throughout the company. The company’s diversity policies have been benchmarked against best practices through participation in surveys and studies by Diversity Inc., Catalyst and Working Mother Media.

A number of Penguin Group (USA) authors are actively involved in raising awareness of green initiatives as well as regional and global crises, including the following:

Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, suggests: ‘Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.’ These simple words go to the heart of Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food, the well-considered answers he provides to the questions posed in the bestselling The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Humans used to know how to eat well, Pollan argues. But the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through generations have been confused, complicated, and distorted by food industry marketers, nutritional scientists, and journalists.

Lori Bongiorno’s Green, Greener, Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-Smart Choices a Part of Your Life is the perfect manual to help readers decide how best to spend their time and money to protect the environment. The book includes a foreword by Frances Beinecke, President of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Perigee will support Bongiorno’s green message by printing Green, Greener, Greenest on 100% post-consumer recycled paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The book will also be processed chlorine-free, and manufactured using bioGas energy.

Diane MacEachern’s Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World is printed on recycled paper using soy ink. For booksellers, Penguin Group (USA) imprint Avery created countered displays out of 100% recycled material that we will continue to use as an imprint for other titles. The book’s publicity campaign was completely paperless.

Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin’s Viking Penguin book, Three Cups of Tea, about a mountain climber who ended up building schools, which have helped educate over 24,000 kids, primarily girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has raised awareness about the education of young people – and about finding ways to promote peace – in those countries. A former mountaineer and military veteran, Mortenson is the director of the nonprofit Central Asia Institute and spends all his time raising funds and awareness in building and establishing more schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Green Penguin: As far back as the late 1990’s, Penguin became one of the first companies in the state of New York to use wind power in our warehouses and this continues today. We also opened our own book shredding operation in 2005 with all shredded books going back to a paper manufacturer in Canada. Penguin’s eco committee in the US is working hard to reduce our impact on the environment. Recent highlights include:

• Video conferencing facilities in New York offices have been upgraded and one of our three annual sales conferences is now Webex-based meaning no one travels.
• We have switched to flat-screen monitors programmed with automatic shutdown.
• All office waste (with the exception of wet waste) in New York is sent to an industrial plant for recycling.
• Focus for 2008: encourage employees to reduce carbon footprint; seek cost-effective green paper options; seek cost-effective leases on hybrid vehicles; continue development of digital business channels; bolster communication to booksellers and consumers about existing green efforts and future green goals; pursue marketing partnerships with environmental organisations.

Penguin Group (UK)

Comic Relief: In 2007 Penguin UK partnered with Comic Relief and helped raise roughly £1 million through the sale of its special titles Jamie’s Little Book of Big Treats by Jamie Oliver and Lauren Child’s Charlie and Lola book But I Do Know All About Chocolate.

Letterbox Club: 2007 saw the beginning of a new partnership between Penguin and the Letterbox Club. Penguin will donate £40,000 and free books to Letterbox, a project managed by Booktrust which focuses on improving the educational outlook for children aged 7-11 in foster care. Penguin will assist in providing each child with a personalised parcel of books, maths activities and educational materials every month for six months. Together with the Department for Children, Schools and Families, as well as programme administrator Booktrust, Penguin will work to extend this programme to over 1,200 children over the next two years with a view to involving all children in this age range in foster care from 2009 onwards. Penguin employees are also donating their personal time and skills. Penguin volunteers have assisted in the selection of books to be included in the parcels, the writing of the Letterbox newsletter and the design of the Letterbox logo.

Decibel Penguin Prize: In November 2007, Penguin published From Here to There, a collection of 16 true stories from some of the UK’s brightest new voices discovered through the second Decibel Penguin Prize Competition. The writers selected by the judges – including Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty and the novelist Kate Mosse – take us all over the world through their stories, from Uganda to Bosnia to Guyana. In the end, each illuminates the experience of immigrants to the UK, making From Here to There one of the widest-reaching and most accessible studies of immigrant life in the UK. It is sponsored by Minister for Skills David Lammy MP, formerly Minister for Culture.

World Book Day: Penguin and other publishers and book retailers throughout the UK and Ireland support World Book Day by donating funds, creating special £1 books, working with authors to attend events and bearing the cost of redemption of World Book Day Book Tokens. Penguin makes a yearly contribution of £35,000 to World Book Day and in 2007 Jeremy Strong’s My Sister’s Got a Spoon Up Her Nose was Puffin’s popular £1 title; it was the second most popular WBD book and reached number two in the Bookscan best-seller charts.

Anne Frank Trust: Penguin supports the Anne Frank Trust every year. In 2007, to coincide with the publication of the 60th anniversary Puffin Modern Classic edition of The Diary of a Young Girl, Puffin worked closely with the Anne Frank Trust on its own 60th anniversary celebrations. Puffin distributed packs containing a reader’s guide for schools and libraries as well as anniversary bookmarks, posters, and discussion topics showing how relevant the diary is to today’s teenagers. In addition, Penguin promoted the diary and Anne’s birthday online, including daily extracts on www.penguin.co.uk and www.puffin.co.uk that reached over 100,000 people. Penguin also continues its support of the Anne Frank Trust Moral Courage Award (the award is now called ‘Frankly I Couldn’t Ignore It’). The Anne Frank Awards recognise young people and educators who have shown great personal strength, moral courage, and determination to stand up for what is right. Popular Puffin author Meg Rosoff, who wrote the No.1 bestselling How I Live Now, served as a judge for the awards.

Book Aid International: Penguin and DK donate a range of titles to Book Aid International, a charity which works with schools, libraries and local publishing organisations in sub-Saharan Africa. Titles like the Eyewitness series, DK Guides, the Oceans Atlas and The Human Body are all donated. DK also sponsors and provides prizes for Book Aid International’s schools fundraising efforts on World Book Day which raised nearly £60,000 for the charity in 2007.

Book donations: As part of our recent office redesign, Penguin donated over 200 boxes of books to various charities, including the Terence Higgins Trust, Shelter, the Haller Foundation, the Children’s Society, the Oughton Children’s Centre, and Amnesty International.

Reaching Out: Every year Penguin supports the Reaching Out Competition in association with the University of Winchester. Reaching Out is part of the Winchester Writers’ Conference and is open only to those writers who are unable to attend the conference due to distance, age, or disability. Winners are selected by a panel that includes a Penguin adjudicator. 2007 winners received as a prize their selection of Penguin books at a total value of over £100.

DK Royalties: DK publishing in 2007 benefited a number of charities who received royalties from their involvement with DK books. One of these was the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) who were linked with Reef. Apart from the royalty donation, the marketing and PR campaign included links to the MCS, further raising their profile, as well as their logo going on the jacket. DK will also be continuing to work with the Royal Horticultural Society, the UK’s leading charity for gardening, a relationship that has been going for 15 years. DK is their leading publishing partner, paying them significant royalties annually and promoting their brand throughout the UK and in other territories around the world. Other charities receiving royalties from DK’s publishing in 2007 were Birdlife International for Bird, and our ongoing relationships with the Royal Society for the Preservation of Birds, the British Medical Association and the first aid societies – British Red Cross, St John Ambulance and St Andrew’s ambulance brigades.

DK Travel Donations: In 2007 DK’s Travel Division donated a large amount of Rough Guides and DK Travel Guides to various charities for events, for volunteers who work abroad, and for travel expeditions raising money for charity. Among the charities we supported last year were SCOPE; Lady Taverners, who raise money for sports and recreation for young people with special needs; Children with AIDS Charity; Link Community Development, who run various education programmes in Africa; Endangered Species International; Newcastle University Medsin Committee, who work with health projects around the world; and the Stirlingshire Friends of Charities, who fund raise for the Children’s Hospice Association Scotland and Yorkhill Hospital for Sick Children. The Travel Division also offset all author and business travel through Climate Care, who invest in sustainable development projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Health for Kids: Health for Kids is a government-backed teaching awards scheme, rewarding teachers who are teaching their children about the importance of health. DK sponsored one of these awards for the second time in 2007. DK also donated thousands of books to BTBS, The Children’s Society, RNIB and St Joseph’s Hospice. Other charities to benefit from DK’s marketing activities include the Rainforest Foundation and Bookaid International.

Matched fundraising: Penguin employees who participated in our matched funding programme helped raise over £61,000 in 2007 for various causes. Penguin had marathon runners in both the London and New York marathons and raised money for a number of charities, including the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, the Connection at St Martin’s, Barnardo’s, Demelza’s Children’s Hospice and the Alzheimer’s Society.

Volunteering: Penguin employees are involved in Pearson’s Booktime programme, giving their time each week to read to children in primary schools around London.

Green Penguin: Penguin UK has continued its green initiatives in 2007, many of which have been driven by our eco committee, made up of volunteers who care passionately about the environment. As part of our ongoing commitment to responsible paper sourcing, Penguin continues its work with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) with all of our black and white titles now printed on FSC paper, and is developing further the 96 acre Penguin Wood at Botany Bay in partnership with the Woodland Trust. Penguin is also active in environmental industry initiatives such as PREPS, the Publishers database for Responsible Environmental Paper Sourcing. Penguin employees also played their part working with London charity Thames 21 with their effort to clean up the River Thames on 28 September 2007. Finally, Penguin UK’s recent office redesign has resulted in a greener work environment with increased recycling, movement sensors to conserve electricity, and a greater focus on environmental sustainability. For more information go to: www.greenpenguin.co.uk

Made with Care: In 2008, DK is launching a new initiative, Made with Care. With this project, DK will ask difficult and searching questions of suppliers and printers and ensure that books with the Made with Care label have been produced with the most ethical and environmentally-friendly production processes possible. By the end of 2008, DK will be using purely PREPs Grade 3 paper and above-paper that comes from legal and well-managed forests. As a division of the Pearson Group, DK is already a founder signatory to the UN global compact; this sets out a series of principles against which the company is measured in the areas of human rights, labour standards, the environment and anti-corruption. Specifically all suppliers will, by the end of 2008, be certified by/with ICTI, ISO14001 and be FSC chain of custody approved. In an extension of our existing relationship with Bookaid International, every customer buying a Made with Care book on Amazon will have a children’s reference book given to Bookaid by DK to be sent to children abroad.

Penguin Australia

Green Penguin: recent highlights include:

• All lights moved to movement sensors.
• Office paper use reduced by switching to default double-sided printing.
• Personal printers phased out.
• Recycling paper proofs re-used as notepads for staff.
• First hybrid car introduced to car fleet.
• Focus for 2008: exploring green energy options; working with paper suppliers and printers to achieve FSC accreditation; and staff engagement.

Penguin Australia is a long-time supporter of The Smith Family, a national enterprise committed to unlocking opportunities for families with financial difficulties. Penguin supports their Learning for Life Programme which helps disadvantaged children stay in school and reach their full potential – there are more than 22,000 students from primary to tertiary who have been assisted through this programme.

Penguin is a key supporter of literacy development in Australia and has lent its voice to the Indigenous Literacy Project. In some indigenous communities in Far North Queensland illiteracy rates are as high as 93%. In 2007, The Indigenous Literacy Project was the core fundraising project for the Australian book industry with trade and education publishers and booksellers, libraries and schools all helping to raise $265,000 to support literacy work in these communities.

Penguin New Zealand

Penguin New Zealand supports a number of publishing and production community projects including:

• The Michael King Writers Centre Trust which was set up after the death of Michael King, the historian and Penguin author. Penguin Group (NZ) runs a writer’s centre which hosts a formal writer-in-residence who lives at the house and uses a writer’s studio. There are also other writer residents there from time to time. In addition, the centre organises creative writing groups at different levels. The trustees include senior writing and publishing people.
• Local Publishers Forum: Penguin Group (NZ) editors are members of the organising committee.
• Penguin Group (NZ) publishers play a significant role in speaking to writers’ groups, participating in and helping plan writers’ festivals around New Zealand.
• Penguin Group (NZ) does what it can to support the training of editors in New Zealand. The Publishing Director contributes regularly to the key editorial training programme in New Zealand (the Whitireia Publishing Course) and we provide work experience to trainee editors throughout the year.

Green Penguin: Penguin Group (NZ) has a number of ongoing environmental responsibility goals. These include specifying FSC certified papers whenever possible out of our Chinese and Australian printers. These are from certified sustainable use forests and documented manufacturing chains. We are also pursuing a more human-friendly as well as environmentally friendly approach to children’s books and are now printing certain products (especially Board Books) using soy-based inks rather than solvent-based and an aqueous lamination process which eliminates the use of plastic film lamination.

Penguin India

For the past four years Penguin has donated to various non-governmental organisations and to a government-run school as part of Pearson’s CSR initiative. Some of the projects we have supported include:

• A government-run school in Kallur in Tamil Nadu where Penguin has provided furniture, laboratory equipment and books for the school library.
• RIVER (Rishi Valley Institute for Education Resources), a rural education programme near Madanapalli, in Andra Pradesh, which is associated with the Krishnamurti Foundation. Penguin donated books to 13 RIVER schools.
• The Sadbhavana Trust which helps out the victims of the earthquake of 8 October 2005 in Jammu and Kashmir, especially in the districts of Baramulla and Kupwara.
• The Dr A.V. Baliga Memorial Trust which runs vocational centres and educates the children of rag pickers in the outskirts of Delhi.
• ‘Hands’, an NGO which run schools for the children of artisans and trains them to carry on the art of their forebears.

Penguin India employees also collected clothes and medicines for the tsunami affected and donated them through the Red Cross.

Green Penguin: Penguin India set up an eco committee in 2007. Some of the immediate priorities the group is focusing on include: commissioning a waste and power audit; modifying office equipment to conserve energy; reducing car use; and setting up a committee within the local neighbourhood to increase foliage around Penguin’s work area. Penguin India already uses recycled paper for many of its frontlist black and white titles.

Penguin South Africa

Each year in September The Star (a daily newspaper in South Africa) brings out a double-page chart known as the Literacy Wall. Companies are invited to buy a ‘brick’ in the Literacy Wall or to adopt a school of their choice for a year. With the money raised, they provide a copy of The Star newspaper and its educational supplements (Matric Matters, Primary Matters and Study Matters) to schools around South Africa for a year, helping to instil a passion for reading in young learners and giving them the knowledge they need to succeed in the world. Penguin South Africa decided to adopt Zamani Primary School in Kwa Thema, the school attended by the eldest child of Paul Mashego, Penguin SA's Education Sales Representative, who passed away in June 2007 after contracting Meningitis.

Penguin author Eoin Colfer visited South Africa on a recent tour and he spoke to a packed hall of excited and excitable boys and girls aged 9 to 12 year old at The Ridge School. The Ridge has adopted a school called Salvazione Christian School in their out-reach programme, and they bussed in about 100 boys and girls (who all come from disadvantaged backgrounds and live in an informal settlement), to meet Eoin. As the literacy levels of the children from Salvazione is low compared to their counterparts in other schools, Penguin gave each of those 100 children a copy of Eoin’s Artemis Fowl graphic novel.

Penguin Canada

The Pearson Foundation Development Fund has provided funding for two projects already supported by Penguin Canada. The first is an initiative undertaken by World Literacy of Canada, a Toronto based non-profit organisation that supports literacy and development work in impoverished regions of the world with a particular focus on northern India. The organisation is committed to building a community centre in Varanasi – a city in northern India – that will employ local staff who will work within the community to support adult literacy and children’s education, offer skills training and help for small businesses, provide health care, and act as an advocate for the community. This project will bring much needed resources to an underdeveloped area and will provide a safe and nurturing space for people to come together as a community. The Pearson Foundation has committed $300,000 over three years ($100,000 each year) to help with the development of this community centre.

The second project will benefit TakingItGlobal, a Toronto-based non-profit organisation that empowers young people to make a difference in local and global communities through the use of technology. The organisation is designing an online training course that will be used by approximately 250 youth leaders from around the world. This programme, called Make It Happen, will be offered twice a year in four modules. Each module will help develop different project management skills while at the same time introducing participants to the latest technology to help them achieve their goals. The Pearson Foundation is contributing $285,000 over three years for the development of course material and administrative costs.

Green Penguin: the marketing, manufacturing and production teams at Penguin Group (Canada) are currently developing paper and communication strategies that support Pearson’s overall environmental objectives.

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