Amid the hubbub of Budget day in Downing Street were three boys from Bristol.

The children, aged six and seven, were invited to Number 10 by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to celebrate rapid progress in learning to read.

The three boys – Jamie Myles, Wayne Andrews and Jordan Dewland – are among scores of Bristol primary pupils who have been helped by the Every Child a Reader (ECaR) programme.

They will be congratulated on their success by the Prime Minister and meet children's secretary Ed Balls.

Jamie, aged seven, a pupil at Waycroft School, will be accompanied by his mum Lisa and his teacher Trish French. Wayne and Jordan are pupils at Victoria Park Infant School, one of the first schools in Bristol to run ECaR

Bristol is one of the leading local authorities in the country for ECaR, an early intervention programme to help tackle reading difficulties.

The boys have taken part in Reading Recovery – intensive one-to-one sessions which help children to make a year's progress in reading age in less than three months.

They have also been involved with a follow-up scheme called Better Reading Partners.

Gordon Brown has taken a keen interest in ECaR for several years, so the fact that the reception was held on Budget day could indicate that more Government money might be put into ECaR and a similar maths programme called Every Child Counts.

Although one-to-one teaching is expensive, supporters say it will save the economy money in the long run by preventing people who have literacy problems getting into difficulties later in life.