CATERING for the needs of struggling readers in primary education can be challenging.

However, careful planning and training can reap great rewards.

In an innovative new programme called Wave 3 being run by Worcestershire County Council’s learning support team (LST), children who are struggling are able to catch up on their reading age.

The LST has a specific role in supporting children with special needs and learning difficulties in mainstream schools throughout the county.

Victoria Crivelli is training coordinator and special education needs (SEN) teacher for dyslexia and information and communication technology (ICT) for the county council.

She explained how best practice has been the key to success of their catch-up reading programme throughout the county.

“We work within the School Action Plus stage of the SEN code of practice together with some of those pupils with statements of SEN, in a variety of ways.

“As part of our remit the LST is responsible for helping schools find suitable Wave 3 interventions to help narrow the attainment gap,”

she said.

Children who have been identified as needing Wave 3 interventions have special educational needs which may be either related specifically to literacy or mathematics or may have issues associated with other barriers to their learning.

Provision at Wave 3 often involves the adjustment of learning objectives and teaching styles, as well as individual support.

One of the successful methods used in Worcestershire is a fully complementary intervention programme called Rapid Reading from Heinemann.

This combines standard intervention methods, for example finely levelled fiction and nonfiction books, with an integrated speech recognition software programme.

The Worcestershire learning support team are great believers in the power of information technology to engage struggling readers in intervention programmes.

To set up the pilot programme, two first, three primary and three secondary schools were chosen, including the Perdiswell Primary School in Bilford Road, Worcester.

A total of 40 children, at key stage two, were placed on the trial and included those who had been identified as having a reading ability between National Curriculum levels one and three.

In deciding on the placement of children, the teacher matched the intervention with the needs of each child to ensure that each pupil took the small but important steps they needed to move from a low reading ability towards full integration into mainstream learning.

Mrs Crivelli said: “Intervention programmes on the whole tend to be quite labour intensive as they often involve a lot of preparation.

“We were therefore keen to find something that was easy to use and kept preparation to a minimum.

“I felt that one of the keys to the success of this particular programme was the thorough training of the teaching assistants at the pilot schools.

“The LST staff knew that it was important for them to feel confident with the product and therefore were motivated to use it.

“The training included sessions on how to introduce Rapid to the children, setting the context and introducing the comprehension activities.

“I believe that the speech recognition element is unique.

“It gives children the opportunity to practise reading and then review the text independently, at a speed and pace to suit the individual.

“The programme is very patient in the way it prompts and supports the child as they read out loud.

“It also provides a simple glossary to identify unfamiliar words.

“An interactive quiz helps check comprehension. The program records and analyses each child’s reading performance and then rewards them with motivational ‘Power Points’.

“All this can be carried out without the direct supervision of an adult and because the software records each session, the teacher or teaching assistant can track the child’s progress at a separate time.”

Mrs Crivelli said pupils have so far reacted positively to the programme and been enthused by the way it works.

“The feedback from the pilot schools was that the children were very motivated by the programme where, previously, their self-esteem was often very low,” she said.

“Their increase in confidence is amazing and they really enjoy using the books and software and working independently.

“The combination of books and software helps to fill in the gaps for children, particularly those who don’t get to read regularly at school or at home.”

Following the success of the pilot the team made a bid to get funding to cover not only the Rapid Reading books and software but a number of laptops which are now loaned out to schools on a 12-week rolling programme.

The programme has now been expanded to 39 schools in Worcestershire, looking after the needs of 165 children altogether.

● For more details about this programme and interactive demonstrations, visit heinemann.co.uk/rapid.