Tiger and Tim
The Pitch
Problem statement
The problem: kids literacy levels are at an all-time low in the UK and the “literacy gap” is at its widest level since records began. We want to address this. 25% of kids leave Primary School unable to read and write! The financial cost of poor literacy to the UK economy was considered to be more than £37bn a year - and this was BEFORE Covid. There are also a lack of books at home for many poorer children; a lack of guidance outside of the classroom; a reliance on the digital world; and little to no good and engaging educational video content on the most popular video platform for children, YouTube. There cannot be many more pressing issues in Manchester, than closing the literacy gap.
Solution
The solution: Tiger and Tim. We develop youngsters through our extensive (i) videos, (ii) social media work, (iii) blogs and (iv) educational materials. Literacy is the centrepiece of all of our work however. Reading, writing, listening and speaking would all be developed using this grant money and we would spend this on producing several short videos for children in Manchester / their pre-schools, as well as associated learning resources. The impact is simple: to help kids fall in love with learning and literacy by falling in love with Tiger and Tim. Children can then use all of our other free resources we have produced once they have consumed the content from this grant.
Why are we best placed to deliver?
Tiger and Tim has over 1.5m views across streaming apps. We have up to 20,000 organic website hits per month, plus several thousand social media followers. We haven't done any marketing. People love the quality of our content, its uniqueness, and the fact it is helping numerous children across the UK. We want to do this in Manchester too, in a focused way. Our founder, Tim Hague, was a former BBC broadcaster and was awarded Fellowship of the RSA in 2020 because of his work to improve literacy. Tiger and Tim have already had collaborations with the likes of The Duchess of York, The National Literacy Trust, Twinkl, The World Literacy Foundation and more. Our experience speaks for itself.
Focus Areas
Delivery plan
Budget breakdown
| Animation | £1,750 |
| Filming and editing | £500 |
| Educational resources development | £250 |
| Paid advertising | £500 |
Beneficiaries
10,000 people
Expected impact
Since everything about Tiger and Tim is educational, the positive impact that will occur are varied. However, associating reading and learning with entertaining video content is key given the challenges mentioned previously, as is increasing “buy in” from the parents to encourage further learning, literacy and enjoyment. We want to make more focused content for children and this grant will allow us to begin doing that. In addition, the impact that will occur as a result of this work is so important, namely encouraging literacy skills amongst children at the START of their education. If we can “hook them” early on in their learning journey, the chances of them developing positively from ages 5-16 increase significantly! Reading and literacy becomes a good habit, and the literacy gap will inevitably decrease in the Manchester area if quality organisations like ours, are supported.
Track record
Tiger and Tim is a new operation (born during COVID-19) and this is our first application for a grant. . The fact that we have already worked with the likes of The National Literacy Trust, The World Literacy Foundation, The Duchess of York and the biggest private resource for parents and teachers in the UK, Twinkl, illustrates the strength of what we are trying to do. Our founder, Tim Hague, was also nominated for and approved as a Fellow of the RSA purely because of the work he is doing to promote literacy and learning in the UK. We are a social enterprise that was created purely to help people in a time of need, and to address a BIG problem: the literacy gap for children.