Dear Rob,

Re: Lexia Pilot Interventions in Year 1 and Year 6

Many thanks for allowing us to trial Lexia throughout this academic year. The results are looking extremely promising already and we are very keen to continue using Lexia next year too.

The Year 1 teacher has reported real progress in the achievements of those children who initially struggled to master even the simplest phonics. Using the very early Lexia programmes has motivated these hardest to teach children and as a result their grasp of phonics and understanding of spelling patterns has certainly improved. The teacher is very keen that this pilot group continue with Lexia next year as Year 2s and arrangements have been made for a Teaching Assistant to supervise an additional 20 minutes of Lexia whilst the rest of the class are being registered each morning. Such is the value that staff place on the Lexia project that arrangements have also been made to begin a new Year 1 intervention commencing very early in September. Struggling young readers, lacking in confidence have already been identified.

We now have the results from the first full year of the Lexia intervention pilot with 10 children in Year 6 too, and they are looking equally promising. (see attached list) Of course, because the target Year 6 children were subject to a whole range of interventions and ‘boosters’, we cannot attribute the substantial gains the children made solely to Lexia. However staff are so convinced that Lexia played a very significant part in the stunning progress made, that they are very keen to continue it next year in Year 6 again. Plans have been drawn up for the same Teaching Assistant (who managed the intervention so very effectively last year), to repeat the exercise next year with another targeted group of Year 6 children.

All children made very substantial gains in their reading and spelling ages. Their comprehension scores (as measured by Key Stage 2 SATs results) show an Average Point Score gain of 6.6. This can be interpreted as making 6.6 terms worth of progress in just 2.5 terms. This is a wonderful achievement for children who were all identified as working at N.C. Level 3 or below at the beginning of Year 6. Out of the 10 children, all but one (who co-incidentally also had substantial periods of time off school) went on to achieve Level 4s.

The children responded well to the intervention and needed no persuasion to engage with Lexia. This was particularly impressive, given that Lexia interventions all took place as an ‘extra’ input at lunchtimes. Boys appear to have been particularly successful using Lexia, motivated no doubt by the visual learning opportunities provided through ICT.

All in all, we have been really impressed with Lexia as a package. We would certainly recommend it to others.  As part of a range of very successful interventions, Lexia has undoubtedly worked for our children and we plan to incorporate it accordingly into our future provision.

Finally, we would like to thank you too, for all your support and encouragement. You were instrumental in ‘getting us started’ on Lexia, and very patient and helpful as we were learning how to deliver it effectively.  By enhancing their learning opportunities, you have made a ‘difference’ to our children and for that we are very grateful. Forgive me for sounding rather biased, but of course no children are more deserving of your commitment than those at Whale Hill!

Many thanks once again Rob. We look forward to a very long and productive relationship with you and Lexia!!

Best wishes

Norma Newell
Head Teacher

July 2005