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1/ Literacy interventions: a thread. Many non-specialists find themselves having to line manage or strategically plan intervention. This can be really tough.
2/ Curriculum time is precious. The ideal scenario to me is adding time to tutor. Run your interventions intensively during tutor 3 x a week so that students do not miss out any more teaching. Plan for impactful intervention.
3/ Whether intervention runs in tutor or lesson time, here are some of the things that should be happening:
4/ Reading age test the whole school so that you know where everyone is - roughly. Reading age tests are so variable so make this clear to your SLT. The RA test is one measure among many. You need to build up a picture over time.
5/ We use NGRT and AR but only now after 2yrs of tracking can we start to see a proper picture of progress and development. Band students into need. Red students need intervention, Amber need to be on watch in lesson, Green need to be stretched and challenged.
6/ For red students, read the NGRT individual reports on each student. This gives excellent information and strategies for intervention. It means even if your intervention staff are not specialists you can have an action plan of how to help each student.
7/ I’ve redefined intervention as courses. I want students & staff to know there is a start point & end point. Students shouldn't be withdrawn indefinitely. We have 4 courses supporting students at sentence level/decoding, at passage level/compr & inference, reading fluency & EAL
8/ Students are placed on courses according to need not reading age. This is critical. Ensure the course details are written out and shared with SLT, students and parents. There needs to be transparency and purpose.
9/ If NGRT is used 3 times a year, make success criteria explicit for the interim period. Pin down what progress looks like: reading a passage fluently? using 5 key terms in independent writing? making accurate inferences? Selecting key information etc.
10/ List the expected progress and success criteria. This will sharpen up the focus of these sessions and help intervention staff begin to visibly see the impact of their work.
11/ Create a tracking spreadsheet which is shared with all staff. This sheet should contain all reading scores over time and impact statements each term. This is a couple of sentences on student progress towards success criteria or impact seen in other areas.
12/ Again, the transparency is key here. No children should be the SENCO's to 'solve'. Inclusive practice means everyone owns the progress of all children. Create models/exemplars of impact statements so that they are meaningful & focus on impact or no impact.
13/ Ensure your intervention staff use best practice from T&L - memorisation and retrieval of key words, choral repetition, explicit instruction, modelling, independent practice etc. Intervention is as much part of your T&L as mainstream lessons.
14/ Your T&L strategy is only as good as the provision in place for your most vulnerable learners. Aligning the two for inclusive practice is key.
