Case studies
Primary 7: A large primary school in a small city
Fact file
| Location | East of England |
| Setting | Social housing estate |
| Size | Four form entry |
| Proportion of SEN | Fourth quintile |
| Pupils eligible FSM | Second quintile |
| KS2 reading results performance band (similar schools, 2013) | Second quintile |
| KS2 reading results performance band (national, 2013) | Fourth quintile |
Background
The school took part in a networking event organised for academics, head teachers and literacy coordinators. The principal kindly accepted an invitation to trial the Rhythm for Reading programme.
Delivery
The trial of the Rhythm for Reading programme ran from May to July, 2015. During this period, 30 students from Years 3, 4 and 5 took part in a ten-minute Rhythm for Reading session each week for ten weeks.
Assessment
To measure the impact of the programme on progress in reading, twelve of the students from the Year 3 and Year 5 groups were assessed on oral reading ability using the NARA, both before and after the ten week programme.
Progress report
The average (mean) reading scores from before and after the trial period were compared. A small gain on reading accuracy was expected (2 months), but there was a remarkable average improvement in reading comprehension (26 months) in the follow up assessment and a slower pace of reading (5 months).
Year 5 student voices
‘Habeeba’
In the baseline assessment, Habeeba read extremely quickly, but somewhat inaccurately. In particular, her reading comprehension age score was more than three years behind her chronological age. After the ten-week programme, Habeeba’s reading had become more fluent.
Miss told me that I read more in a flow and I can sound out hard words.
There was a significant gain in Habeeba’s reading comprehension age score (29 months) and a strong gain in her reading accuracy score (7 months). Her reading rate had slowed down considerably, but still exceeded expectation for her age.
‘Tobias’
Tobias read accurately, but slowly in the baseline reading assessment and his reading comprehension age score was recorded as three years behind his chronological age. Following the programme, he had noticed an improvement in his reading:
It’s really good because I didn’t used to know a lot of hard words like suspicious.
The follow-up reading assessment showed that Tobias had made a substantial gain in reading comprehension (42 months) and a strong gain both in reading accuracy and reading rate (six months).
The students’ names have been changed to protect their identity.