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About
 The ‘Every Child a Reader’ (ECaR) project is a national initiative which aims to use the expertise of trained Reading Recovery Teachers to implement a layered approach to intervention initially in their own schools and then in their local learning communities. We now have 24 ECaR part-funded Reading Recovery Teachers in Hertfordshire, qualifying in July 2010, and will be training 20 more in 2010-11.
The ECaR initiative has at its heart the tried and tested practices of Reading Recovery, ensuring that the ‘hardest to teach’ children will receive the kind of personalised Literacy support that a Reading Recovery specialist provides. RR actively seeks out the lowest attaining children (between the ages of 5y9m and 6y3m) who, after a year in school, have still not begun to grasp more than a few letters or words, and may be struggling to apply items of phonic knowledge. After initial screening of all the struggling eligible children (without exception) the lowest four are identified in conjunction with the ECaR Lead Consultant, and a meeting with parents and classteacher leads to the tailored lessons beginning.
Model of Layered Interventions
Wave 1 |
Quality First Teaching |
Majority |
Wave 2 |
Early Literacy Support |
Just below average |
Wave 3 |
Teaching assistant
1-1 programme |
Struggling |
Reading Recovery |
Lowest
attaining |
Self Evaluation Tool New
This Self-Evaluation Form is for schools participating in the 'Every Child a Reader' programme, to support them in maximising impact from their implementation. Please read the preface in the document carefully to ensure you are evaluative, impact-focused and evidence-based in your statements. Remember to relate individuals' successes to whole-cohort/whole-school impact, via statistical evidence.
Further support with completing a SEF evaluatively is available here:
Further enquiries about the 'ECaR' programme in Herts
Email: kirsten.snook@hertscc.gov.uk
Waved Approach
Also running through the ECaR initiative is the ‘waved approach’ to provision mapping where, in order for each child’s Literacy difficulties to be best (and most efficiently) catered for, careful consideration is given to precisely identify and match needs to provision.
This may take the form of:
- Wave 1: Quality First Teaching for all, differentiation caters to most children’s needs
- Wave 2: group intervention (e.g. ELS, Kit’s Quest, FLS etc), usually on a ratio of 1:6 with a teaching assistant
- Wave 3: 1:1 support (e.g. statement of provision with outside agencies; SpLD base support; Fischer Family Trust, with an accredited teaching assistant; Reading Recovery, with qualified RR Teacher)
Reading Recovery comes into play at Wave 3 when conventional 1:1 support simply won’t meet that individual’s depth of need. At this point a specialist teacher in early Literacy development (the RR teacher) is needed, who is qualified in assessing and diagnosing reading and writing difficulties and able to devise a series of lessons tailored specifically to addressing that child’s barriers to learning, before they become ingrained ‘habits’. For most children (about 75-80%) who complete their lesson series this means they can be returned to age-related expectations within an average of 12-20 weeks (less than 50 teaching hours total), reducing the need for the intervention pattern throughout KS2 facing many vulnerable learners. For the few who do not return to average literacy levels by that time, extensive diagnostic information is then available to support further intervention.
One of the most unique features of Dr Marie Clay’s New Zealand-born Reading Recovery intervention is the outstanding method of professional development it brings with it. Embedded in the training is the multi-layered approach to colleagues supporting each other, through observation, feedback and a ‘cascade’ approach to skill-sharing back in school – a consultative aspect of professional development currently encouraged by the National Strategies via ‘Lesson Study’, and with globally proven effectiveness.
In addition to teaching at least four children in RR daily (8-10 across the year), the teachers will eventually be working in a wider role within their school learning communities, which usually involves supporting professional development for Teaching Assistants and monitoring the effectiveness of a range of intervention programmes. The RR Teachers may support or even take on the role of SENCo/INCo in this way, ensuring that gaps are identified and narrowed across the school, with an integrated approach to early prevention reducing the need for later, costly, intervention.
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