Fresh Start at The Lancaster School Tuesday 13th September 2011

The ‘long tail’ of literacy underachievement Nationally 70 % of pupils permanently excluded from school have difficulties in basic literacy skills (NLT, 2008) 2% of pupils with below NC level 3 reading are likely to gain five A*-C GCSEs 6% of pupils leave Primary School functionally illiterate Leicester City 2008: 8% of pupils (321 pupils) left Year 6 with reading below NC3 (Datanet, 2009) 17 Secondary schools= 19 pupils each

Pupils with reading age of 9 years and below at Lancaster The Lancaster Story Pupils with reading age of 9 years and below at Lancaster September 2002 Year 7 56 Year 8 69 Year 9 36

Teething Trouble March-June 2002 They do this in junior school.’ ‘Miss, tell him. He keeps going ‘blah’ when I’m trying to read.’ I don’t want to do this, I’m missing Des Tech.’

Solutions and Progress “I’ve been moved up a set in History!” “Just have a go. See how many words you can read” “I used to guess all my spellings-I’m getting better at guessing them now” “RML is ours-I don’t want other kids doing it”

“I used to guess all my spellings and they were always wrong but now when I guess they’re right!”

Why choose Fresh Start/RML? Groups of pupils Develops language skills Covers reading, spelling, comprehension, writing Teaches phoneme-grapheme correspondence Structured and cumulative Word-specific knowledge (red words Age-appropriate texts Maximum participation Opportunities for over-learning

Moving On Shared results with senior management Received information re: 2003/04 year 7 cohort Cost effectiveness calculated: cost for materials - £25 per pupil Trained 2 English teachers Assessed the new cohort Grouped according to need

As a Wave 3 intervention, Fresh Start is consistently successful The Lancaster Model Fresh Start replaces NC English for approx. 40 Year 7 pupils Learning Advice and English Department continue to run programme jointly Delivered regularly by trained teachers On-going support for TA support As a Wave 3 intervention, Fresh Start is consistently successful

Data Year Number of pupils Average reading age gain (months) Average spelling gain (months) 2004-05 35 22.3 7.4 2005-06 33 18 8.1 2006-07 36 19 12.8 2007-08 39 29.6 15.7 2008-09 65 17.5 14.2 2009-10 34 21.8

Ofsted ‘The Key Stage 3 curriculum has been strengthened for example by allocating additional time for the teaching of English in Year 7 and for literacy support.’ OFSTED (2009)

Lancaster 2011 Year 7 56 Year 8 69 Year 9 36 Year 7 2 Year 8 Year 9 September 2002 Pupils with reading age below 9 years July 2011 Pupils with reading age below 9 years Year 7 56 Year 8 69 Year 9 36 Year 7 2 Year 8 Year 9