An Online Reading Programme for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
In most cases, children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND) struggle with reading, writing, and literacy more than their peers. According to research from teachers and health visitors, “only 35% of children with SEN had the emergent reading skills expected for their age by the time they started primary school [reception class, KS1], compared with 82% of their peers without SEN. By the time children left primary school, only 38% had the reading skills expected for an 11-year-old, compared with 83% of peers.”
That’s an enormous reading gap that primary schools (KS1, KS2) and secondary schools (KS3, KS4) are struggling to fill, especially with more children than ever having SEND needs. Currently, 1.5 million children in the UK are identified as having SEND, whether or not they are in mainstream schools.
ReadingWise can equip your school, teachers, TAs, and Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENDCos) with highly targeted and tailored literacy intervention modulesthat can help pupils with SEND. ReadingWise can improve their reading quickly and effectively.
"Jake started working with the Pupil Support Teacher as part of a group of children receiving a literacy intervention. When tested at the end of the ReadingWise intervention Jake’s reading age was 12 years 9 months; he had achieved a significant increase in reading age of 3 years and 3 months."
Improve Phonics, Decoding, Comprehension, and Vocabulary for SEND Pupils
Our programmes cover Phonics (Zip), Decoding, Comprehension, and Vocabulary. ReadingWise is a viable 'one stop shop' for literacy intervention for SEND pupils. This streamlines delivery for your school's SENDCos and literacy leads. ReadingWise can deliver significant reading improvement for each pupil falling behind, whichever area of reading they are struggling with. ReadingWise often delivers disproportionate gains for disadvantaged and SEN learners.
For Primary, Secondary Schools, Multi-Academy Trusts, and Special Schools
ReadingWise programmes are effective in both primary and secondary special school settings, for pupils with special needs, and those who are struggling with reading in other ways. For over a decade, we've worked closely with primary and secondary SENDCos, literacy leads, and teachers in special schools to improve reading.
Our team has vast experience supporting schools and training teachers in every type of school from the smallest rural primary to the largest inner city secondary and from small multi-academy trusts with 4 schools to larger groups with over 50 schools.
Evidence-based reading interventions
Our programmes have been evidenced by the Department for Education ('gold standard' RCT) and by Cambridge University. The impact we deliver has been consistent across over 300,000 pupils across the UK.
The government-funded study showed that ReadingWise accelerated pupils' reading ages almost twice as fast as traditional classes. An average reading age increase of almost 10 months was achieved in under 1 term. The quantitative analysis was conducted by the widely respected Professor Becky Allen. The report can be read here.
More than a Literacy Intervention
Pupils with special needs and disabilities can have a wide range of reading and literacy challenges. One reason mainstream schools with SEND pupils and special schools choose to work with ReadingWise over other literacy interventions is our deep experience across a vast range of schools in the UK.
Our team has experience with every reading assessment, and many different school reading projects, and has delivered many thousands of hours of training to school staff at every level. They have participated in government-funded randomised controlled trials and studies by Cambridge University. Our capacity to align your staff and your reading intervention policy is a powerful factor in delivering success.
Knowing Which Pupil Needs Which Intervention
With every school, ReadingWise supports teachers and SENDcos in conducting a pre-launch assessment programme. Depending on your focus - Decoding, Comprehension, Vocabulary ⏤ English Teachers, Literacy Leads, TAs, and SENDCos receive in-depth training on how to deliver the modules effectively. They can then target the appropriate cohort of pupils depending on their needs.
2 hours of Online Training
Staff at every level, including teachers, TAs, literacy leads, and SENDcos, are then trained in Zip, Vocab, Comprehension, and Decoding, the four modules available to raise reading levels for SEND pupils in both primary and secondary schools.
Our training is highly effective yet streamlined, recognising the value of your staff's time. ReadingWise pioneered online training in 2015 and can deliver to large groups of staff in 2-hour sessions remotely. Our training is extremely efficient and your staff will be ready to deliver the programmes and will make an impact quickly with minimal time lost.
Our training is always highly rated by staff. The DfE-funded study found that 82% of staff found our training very good or excellent.
Integration with other school systems
ReadingWise is a range of online modules. As with any online programme, pupils have their own logins. Numerous schools deploy a range of MiS (Management Information System) such as SIMS, Arbor, or Bromcom. We have experience in all of them, and work with integrations such as Wonde to eliminate administrative tasks for your staff.
Find out more about our:
Boost your school's literacy results for SEND pupils: Arrange your 20-minute demo at a time to suit you.
Find out everything you need to know about ReadingWise with our friendly, knowledgeable team.
