Guest blog from Reading Solutions UK
According to the Education Endowment Foundation’s Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2 Guidance Report, schools should focus on:
- Developing strategies that improve literacy for the whole class.
- For pupils needing additional support, schools should accurately diagnose their capabilities and difficulties in order to match them to appropriate, evidence-informed interventions that target specific areas of difficulty.
DreamBox Reading Plus is a reading programme, which can help you address all of the above.
What is DreamBox Reading Plus?
Reading Solutions UK is the sole provider of the award-winning reading programme DreamBox Reading Plus in the UK, supporting over 1,400 schools with their reading development needs.
The online reading development programme creates stronger readers through evidence-based, adaptive technology that helps every pupil succeed.
Pupils begin the programme with a baseline assessment, which measures their reading strengths and skills gaps. Based on these results, Reading Plus will place each pupil on a personalised learning journey, adapting its content so pupils access age and level-ability texts.
Pupils eligible for pupil premium and SEN (Special Educational Needs) pupils benefit significantly from the programme’s personalised scaffolding, adaptive technology, and varied informative and cultural texts.
Sunnyside Spencer Academy Project Feedback
- Sunnyside Spencer Academy is located in an area of high deprivation, with 56% of their pupils being eligible for pupil premium
- Many children who join their school enter below their chronological age for reading with underdeveloped communication and language
- Over 20% of their students have SEN.
“Due to working in a disadvantaged area, pupils lack a varied understanding of vocabulary, which impacts their comprehension. Using Reading Plus, pupils can now independently make a point, find the evidence, and explain without any adult support."
“The programme also allows me to clearly see their progress and if they need intervention support."
“Our Y5 class have shown the most progress. Prior to using Reading Plus, only 19% of the class were reading at their correct reading age."
"After one year of use, 70% of the class are now reading at, or above, their reading age.
“Thanks to Reading Plus, pupils have developed a love of reading.”
How Reading Plus works
Guided by the most prominent reading and pedagogical research from the last 30 years, Reading Plus is designed to develop fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension – bridging the gap between learning to read and reading to learn.
Reading fluency is an essential skill for pupils to become proficient readers, and Reading Plus is the only literacy tool that addresses the hidden hurdle of silent reading fluency through patented technology. Features to achieve this include:
- The Guided Window which utilises a moving box which guides the reader's eyes across a text at a bespoke speed, keeping pupils focused while developing their fluency, stamina and independent reading at a year-appropriate rate
- The Vocabulary Component which contains words selected through extensive analysis and research. Pupils master vocabulary, which they then encounter within the texts.
- A comprehensive reporting suite which provides educators with quick access to reports detailing pupil, class, school, and trust data – making it easy to evidence impact, reduce workload, pinpoint pupils in need of extra support in specific skill areas and track progress over time.
Proven results
Reading Solutions UK partnered with Derby Research School and Spencer Academies Trust to determine the efficacy of Reading Plus. The results showed that on average:
- Pupils eligible for pupil premium using Reading Plus made 97% more progress than pupil premium eligible pupils in the control schools
- Boys who used Reading Plus made 45% more progress than boys with no access.
The study also found that EAL and SEND students using Reading Plus made significantly more progress than pupils of the same demographics who did not use the programme.
Get four weeks full access to Reading Plus – for free
See the impact of Reading Plus before you decide whether to purchase.
When used as recommended, during the pilot, we expect pupils to achieve an average of:
- Six months of comprehension gains in text complexity
- Increase their reading speed by 20 words per minute.