Literacy news
New research report reveals ongoing success of Every Child a Reader programme
18 Jan 2010
Research undertaken by the Institute of Education has monitored the long term effectiveness of the £10m Every Child a Reader programme, under which six year old children who had the greatest reading problems were given one to one tuition by specially trained Reading Recovery teachers for half an hour a day over four to five months in 2005.
Researchers Jane Hurry and Andrew Holliman monitored the progress of nearly 250 of these very disadvantaged children. Their research report, titled The Impact of Reading Recovery Three Years After Intervention, concluded that the long term effects are still being felt in 2009.
These Reading Recovery children, now aged nine, are reading and writing significantly better than similar children who did not have the benefit of the tuition. However, in maths, where neither they nor their control groups had had any one to one tuition, they are experiencing the same level of difficulties.
The researchers also found that Reading Recovery children were significantly less likely to be identified as having special educational needs at the end of Year 3.
Jean Gross, former Director of the Every Child a Chance Trust, now beginning her job as England's first Communication Champion for Children, said:
"It is fantastic to see the long term positive effect of Reading Recovery. These are very vulnerable children, with all sorts of ongoing difficulties in and out of school, so the immediate impact of the programme might easily have disappeared over three years. It hasn't, and the children now have a real chance in life."
