The Educator Magazine U.K. Jan-April 2023. - Magazine - Page 59
READING EFFICACY STUDY
Impact on pupils’ learning
Enhancing pupils’ development
Reading Plus builds upon the foundational phonics and
phonemic awareness skills to develop pupils’ silent reading
fluency, stamina, vocabulary, and comprehension. The
study was a success as the results showed:
Reading Plus intuitively creates a personalised
programme for each pupil following a diagnostic
assessment. This focuses on the skills pupils need
to develop to reach age-related expected standards.
•
On average, pupils who used Reading Plus as a reading development
tool made 36% more progress than non-users.
Reading Plus fits in the national curriculum and Ofsted’s
framework as:
•
Control school pupils scored higher on average in their first test than
pupils using Reading Plus. However, after one term of usage, Reading
Plus pupils closed this reading gap achieving the same scores as
control school pupils.
•
Reading Plus pupils achieved a rise of six marks on their scaled
scores, ending with a pass of 102.
National data trends show that disadvantaged children
and boys are behind in reading than other demographics.
However, we found that when given the correct tools,
both groups can accelerate their reading development:
•
•
Pupil premium (disadvantaged) children using Reading Plus
made, on average, 97% more progress than pupil premium
children in the control schools.
Boys who used Reading Plus made, on average, 45% more
progress than boys in the control schools who did not have
access to the programme.
Verity Lee, Vice-principal at Sunnyside Spencer
Academy (one of the six Reading Plus schools
involved in the study) said:
“I just wanted to thank you for all your support with
Reading Plus this year. Our wonderful Year 6 tackled the
SATs paper with ease and excellent stamina and achieved
93% EXS and 43% GDS. This significantly increased from
our 2019 results of 63% EXS and 13% GD.”
An easy and smooth implementation
Our Partner Plus customer service team ensured the
implementation of Reading Plus was easy and provided
ongoing tailored support, training, and pedagogic advice
to the Reading Plus schools in the study. Support from
the Partner Plus team is unlimited and free as the cost is
included as part of a school’s licence.
•
The wide range of complex and engaging texts available on Reading
Plus ensures pupils are frequently made aware of connectedness
within the curriculum and the relevance of reading across
subject areas.
•
Pupils are exposed to unfamiliar texts from topics outside their
cultural context, with more challenging vocabulary.
•
The programme also includes visual-perceptual skill-building and
vocabulary development components encouraging pupils to build
knowledge and mastery of general academic vocabulary.
•
Disadvantaged pupils, EAL, and SEN pupils benefit significantly from
the ambitious, knowledgeable, and cultural texts on Reading Plus.
Supporting teacher workload
Reading Plus adapts the scheme of work accordingly to
support an individual’s learning needs, track pupil progress,
and predict pupil growth over time. Summative baseline
data, formative assessments and bespoke interventions
inform the curriculum and teaching methods. Teacher
workload is reduced as resources are provided with
intervention materials such as lesson plans and worksheets.
Kate Green, Project Lead and Principal at Portland
Spencer Academy, said:
“Reading Plus is a highly diagnostic tool to support the
teaching of reading. It was great to utilise a programme
that appropriately matched texts to pupils reading age
and where pupils had a wide variety of engaging text
readily available.”
“The intervention resources helped saved time with
planning as they were readily available on the
programme, matching specifically to pupils’ skills gaps.”
Try Reading Plus with a free four-week pilot
Are you interested in how Reading Plus can impact your pupils’ reading
outcomes? Book a consultation today to see how the online programme
can increase your reading outcomes, improve pupils’ reading development,
and reduce teacher workload.
Our four-week pilots are entirely free, with no
obligation to purchase. To find out more:
please email info@readingsolutionsuk.com
or visit www.readingsolutionsuk.com