What is ReadingWise Decoding?

ReadingWise Decoding is a leading literacy intervention, used by thousands of struggling readers in primary and secondary schools across the UK. On average it increases reading age by 9 months in 20 hours delivering animated lessons incorporating multi-sensory activities.
It's been honed over a number of years to maximise impact. Regularity is key. Schools schedule 3-5 sessions every week. Each session is 20-30 minutes long with up to 10 learners, supervised by one trained member of staff. You can reach large numbers of struggling readers quickly and effectively.

“At a time when resources are getting ever tighter… and there’s greater scrutiny and accountability, packages like ReadingWise are very very good value for money because we can see the impact and they’re very straight forward to use.”
Hear more from St Ambrose Barlow High School>
How Decoding works
Decoding delivers rapid reading improvement for learners at all stages of their school life:
- Year 2: those who struggled to pass the phonics check or not making expected progress.
- Years 3-6: struggling readers needing additional support to succeed in their SATS
- Year 7: those arriving with low literacy.
- Year 8-11: support closing the attainment gap.
- EAL learners: very effective at all key stages

ReadingWise technology assesses the individual’s initial reading level and then delivers a sequence of interactive, multi-sensory lessons, each lasting 2-3 minutes. Learners must complete each lesson with 100% accuracy to progress.
Due to careful design, this is never frustrating. Learners are always successful, and they own each small success.
Once a lesson is complete, they are rewarded with a snippet of something absurd, wonderful or humorous in the form of a GIF, a 3 second video. This makes learners light up, preparing them for the next lesson.
They continue like this for the duration of the session, employing a variety of multi-sensory techniques as they progress through the lessons.

The supervisor, typically a trained TA, circulates and supports, offering a facilitatory presence. The learner's independence is an important factor in the programme's success, empowering them to fly solo.
Impact is measured by implementing pre- and post-intervention reading age assessments. Reports can be generated in order to demonstrate impact, per learner, per group or per school.
ReadingWise Interactive Technology
Below are examples of some of the activties. For a more in-depth look, please get in touch for a short demo.
Training
TAs are empowered to run ReadingWise sessions with up to 10 learners at a time. We provide a two hour training session. ReadingWise Decoding will upskill your staff, improve confidence and reading ages among your learners and make reporting on impact simple.
Book a demo
We work with hundreds of schools and several thousand learners across the UK. If you would like to explore how ReadingWise can transform reading engagement in your school, please click the orange button below and book an over the phone demo. It's free, on your terms and we're really friendly and helpful.