“Any intervention is better than none.”
This is something I heard an education researcher say a few years ago, which made me pause and reflect. Often, in schools, we throw everything at a particular issue and it is hard to know what is making the most difference.
Interventions are costly; they take manpower and time to implement, taking capacity away from other things. Yet the work of organisations like the Education Endowment Foundation has made it clear that not all interventions are created equal.
Schools have a responsibility to ensure the time invested by staff, pupils and sometimes parents is used wisely, especially when it comes to an area as important as reading.
So, how can leaders make sure they are getting the most out of a reading intervention?
Look beyond reading ages
While some programmes provide information about reading ages, this will often only give a broad idea of the issues. Once those students below chronological reading age have been identified, we need to dig further into the data.
What are the main issues preventing that pupil from becoming a more proficient reader? Are there gaps in phonological knowledge? Can they decode but don’t have the fluency that will support understanding?
It is important to be as precise as possible about what the problem is. If the programme you are using does not support you in diagnosing at this level of detail, you will need to consider how else to obtain this information.
Question the conditions
When looking at the data, it’s important to be aware of the fact that tests conducted in the wrong conditions may not give us the most useful information.
For example, a whole cohort test that pupils didn’t understand or realise mattered can provide skewed data.
We need to maintain a curiosity about what the data is telling us. If something seems anomalous, explore it further.
Make sure you get the right match
Once you have detailed diagnostic data, you can then begin to match pupils to the right interventions. For example, there is little point in repeatedly teaching phonics when pupils already have the majority of the sounds secured. What they may need, instead, is time to practise, using the right materials, until they are fluent.
There is also, as researcher , little point in spending a whole term on reading comprehension skills when research shows that a few sessions will be sufficient.
Comprehension relies on background knowledge and exposure to a variety of texts, so turning our attention to pupils’ reading diets might be more valuable here than direct instruction around skills like inference.
In this case, the most worthwhile intervention might be focused on delivering staff CPD on how to get this right, freeing up resources in teaching time to work directly with those pupils who are still at the earliest stages of reading.
Time interventions carefully
When planning intervention sessions, timing is everything.
There is always a trade-off when we remove pupils from the classroom. Even during something as seemingly innocuous as tutor time, pupils may miss out on reading opportunities, aspects of the PHSE curriculum or simply the chance to reinforce a sense of belonging.
And if sessions happen first thing in the morning and attendance is an issue (which it can be for pupils who find reading more difficult), pupils may miss the intervention itself more often than not.
It’s also important to consider the frequency of interventions. It may be easier to timetable them in one-hour blocks, but sometimes a little and often approach can be more helpful.
Establish a safe space
Where interventions take place is just as important as when. If you’re delivering the session in a small group, you’ll need to think about how you ensure that each pupil gets the direct teaching and specific practice they need.
The space needs to feel safe enough for them to try, to make errors and to be corrected. Pupils who have experienced a lot of “failure” in reading often have poor self-esteem and lack confidence.
Sometimes, one-to-one will be the best approach for those students, and while this is more costly, schools need to make sure that pupils’ and staff’s time is well used.
Review, review, review
When introducing any intervention, review should be built into the process, right from the start. Once your diagnostics are really sharp, and you know what you want pupils to achieve, you can review against this. Is the intervention delivering what you want it to? Why? Or why not?
Part of the conversation here should be about building assurances that staff are skilfully using the right approach, have the knowledge to check progress and make necessary adjustments.
It’s also important to consider what happens once pupils have reached the point we want them to reach. Even if they are not yet at the same level as their peers, we need to think about moving them on and how our universal offer will build on the gains of the intervention.
Zoe Enser is the school improvement lead for a trust in the North West of England
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