EDUCATION Secretary Michael Gove has called Oxfordshire’s schools boss to find out more about the county’s reading campaign.

Mr Gove personally phoned Melinda Tilley, Oxfordshire County Council children, education and families cabinet member.

He became aware of the Oxford Mail-backed campaign following a visit to Abingdon at the end of April, when Oxford West and Abingdon MP Nicola Blackwood mentioned it to him.

The scheme, in which the council has invested around £600,000, is coming to the end of its first academic year.

It aims to improve literacy standards for seven year olds and fostering a lifelong love of reading.

Mrs Tilley said the call last week was the first time she had been personally contacted by Mr Gove.

She said: “What he wanted to know was why we had come up with the idea. I told him we were following the London Challenge, but they had thrown £8m at it and we didn’t have that.

“I told him about the volunteers and about how we constantly put it in the public domain through the Oxford Mail.”

The London Challenge school improvement programme was launched in 2003 to improve outcomes in low-performing schools in the capital. It involved independent, experienced education experts, funded by the Department for Education, and saw average attainment of pupils in secondaries rise to above the national average.

Mrs Tilley said Mr Gove had also been keen to find out the details of the tender, won by the National Literacy Trust which is running the campaign, and whether it specified improvements should be long-term rather than only impacting for the duration of the project.

Mr Gove also quizzed Mrs Tilley – who was with the council’s director of children, education and families Jim Leivers and deputy director Frances Craven when the call came – on how success would be measured.

Mr Gove said: “The Oxfordshire Reading Campaign is a brilliant initiative. It is vital that children are encouraged to enjoy reading outside of the classroom. A love of reading is like a passport for life and we should never underestimate that.”

Mrs Tilley said she had not been told why Mr Gove had initially called, but was “honoured” he had showed such an interest.

She said: “What was surprising to him was the speed of the results and how quickly the children improved.

“Maybe it will be mentioned in a speech, I don’t know, but that would be exciting.”

Asked if she believed Mr Gove had shown an interest with a view to rolling the scheme out elsewhere, she said: “I don’t know, you would have to ask him that.”

Miss Blackwood described the campaign as “an inspiring example of how schools and volunteers can work together to boost vital literacy skills for local children”.