• By Success For All
• Posted on Monday 29^th February, 2016

26000 too many!

“About 26,000 children are at risk of leaving Welsh primary schools over the next five years unable to read well, a campaign group has claimed. In Wales, it said the figures amounted to one in four of the poorest children and called for all youngsters to start secondary school as confident readers by 2025.”  (This was reported widely in Wales on February 22nd this year.)

Literacy standards have always been an issue – too many pupils have been, and are being, let down by the use of inconsistent methods, too little time to cover curriculum requirements, lack of expertise in schools and  too few resources. Added to that is a reluctance by too many in the system to accept and use tried and tested methods. There should be no “Welsh”, “English” or “Scottish” solution – there should be a solution that works. A solution that has been proven to work over and over again in a range of contexts with similar challenges to those faced in Wales. Life-chances should not depend on politics, geography, economics or luck.

Success for All has been developed over the last thirty years or so to address the needs of pupils from all backgrounds. It took tried and tested methods, developed them, tried and tested them again, improved them and the cycle continues.

SFA in Wales

In 2013 SFA received a grant from the Big Lottery, administered through Realising Ambition. The aim of the project was to reduce delinquency by increasing literacy levels in children at Key Stage 2 (Years 3-6).

The Central South Consortium Joint Education Service, based in Cardiff, applied to SFA to participate in this project so that they could implement SFA in local schools that had failed to respond to interventions. The first five took on the programme in January 2013, with further implementation bringing the total to nineteen and one Secondary school.

A study of the fifteen schools that implemented SFA by October 2013 showed that in the first year of implementing SFA the average progress in reading was 186% of the expected progress. In year 2 the average was 137%; the average over the 2 years was 162%. In the same period the percentage of pupils at the expected level for reading increased from 29.3% to 56% - almost twice as many able to “read well”. All indicators show that this dramatic rise in achievement will be maintained and the percentage of pupils at the expected level will continue to grow.

The report also demonstrates how SFA enabled these schools to “narrow the gap” in reading attainment.

The estimate quoted by the campaign group must be seen as a “wake-up call” by those whose responsibility it is to ensure that ALL pupils can continue their learning journey confidently into the secondary phase and beyond. The sky must be the only limit!

Success for All can be the Solution for All – and it works!

The full Wales Schools report can be read here