Institute of Education
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Every Child a Reader more than trebles school's success in reading

Every Child a Reader (ECaR), a whole school improvement strategy for literacy, transforms schools with a high proportion of pupils falling behind into ones 'oozing' with successful and happy readers. This is a key conclusion of a report published today by the European Centre for Reading Recovery, at the Institute of Education (IOE), University of London.

One school more than trebled its pupils' success at reading. The report, looking at the 2011-12 academic year, showed that more than 19,600 children received additional support as a result of ECaR. In total nearly 1,400 schools from 118 local authorities implemented the strategy as a cost-effective method to tackle literacy difficulties.
 
A case study on the impact of ECaR in Alston Primary in Birmingham shows that in only seven months -- between September and April -- the school went from 20% to 77% of pupils performing at and above age-related levels by Year 2.
 
"What is clear is that the reading interventions put in place by the lead Reading Recovery teacher as part of ECaR have been extremely effective," said the school's head teacher Mrs Sarah Preston.

"She has set up robust structures and systems throughout the school to improve standards of reading and to ensure that no child slips through the net. As a result, the school's overall Key Stage 1 reading results have been the best they have ever been."
 
Foxes Piece School in Buckinghamshire previously had reading identified as needing improvement. Working towards the goal of every child to be a reader and with the expertise of their Reading Recovery teacher, the school has been able to increase the number of children making expected progress in reading from 76% (2010) to 81% (2011) across the whole school. The most progress was made by boys at the end of Key Stage 1 (75% to 82%) and girls at the end of Key Stage 2 (76% to 84%).
 
Leighton Primary School in Cheshire employs four Reading Recovery teachers to ensure that every child who needs help to catch up in literacy receives an appropriate programme. The impact speaks for itself. Rated "Outstanding" by Ofsted for its last three inspections, Leighton has maintained Key Stage 2 English results of between 95% to 100% for the last seven years.
 
Julia Douetil, head of the European Centre for Reading Recovery, said: "These schools demonstrate what can be achieved, even for our most struggling readers, if we are committed to making it happen. From now on, if children fail in literacy we will know it was because someone, somewhere, was not prepared to make that commitment."
 
 
Editor's notes
 
• ECaR works towards closing the literacy gap and building successful schools.
• At its heart is Reading Recovery, a daily one-to-one literacy programme for the lowest achieving children aged five or six that enables them to reach age-expected levels within 20 weeks. Research shows that no other system achieves such good results so fast and so long lasting. In 2011-12 almost four out of five children in Reading Recovery caught up with their class mates.
• In addition to their core role, Reading Recovery teachers implement the ECaR strategy within a school by mapping, providing and monitoring a range of other literacy interventions across the primary age range.
 
The Institute of Education is a college of the University of London that specialises in education and related areas of social science and professional practice. In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise two-thirds of the publications that the IOE submitted were judged to be internationally significant and over a third were judged to be "world leading". The Institute was recognised by Ofsted in 2010 for its "high quality" initial teacher training programmes that inspire its students "to want to be outstanding teachers". The IOE is a member of the 1994 group, which brings together 11 internationally renowned, research-intensive universities
 
For more information visit:

Website: http://readingrecovery.ioe.ac.uk/

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