Literacy Intervention

Dame Marie Clay, internationally renowned psychologist from New Zealand, who died on April 13 2007 aged 81, championed the idea that children who struggle to learn to read and write can be helped to overcome their difficulties with early intervention; her Reading Recovery programme has been implemented, with striking success, in many schools in the English-speaking world.

Where the Reading Recovery programme has been introduced, success rates have been impressive, with around eight out of 10 of the lowest-attaining six-year-olds lifted to levels of literacy appropriate to their age within months. The learning support service in East Dunbartonshire has adapted this method, while retaining the philosophy and procedures, to support groups of pupils rather than individuals. Classroom assistants play an important role in delivering this initiative.

This seminar will draw on examples of practice which highlight how successful this approach has been in raising attainment in reading and writing with pupils in Primary 1 to 3.