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This month our Star School is..
St Alban’s CE Academy, Wolverhampton!
We spoke to Attiye Passey who is the Reading Lead and has been using Lexia with all pupils in school.
How is Lexia used in your school?
We use Lexia slightly differently to how the program was initially introduced. We’re based in quite a deprived area. We’ve got lots of children who were very affected by COVID and, I’m sure like every school, we had significant gaps with some of our children. So, we’ve used Lexia to support all children rather than just a group.
All children work four times a week on Lexia and the class will be split so that the class teacher has a smaller group of children to target their specific needs. This can be happening while the rest of the children in the class work on the online tasks that are completely based on their ability.
Part of the teacher’s role from here is to, while they’re planning, look back at the Lexia progress and what the children have struggled with to then tailor make their next set of lessons.
We could do this as part of whole class reading but it’s a little harder to target all of their gaps, particularly in our school were we have a diverse range of needs. A program like Lexia allows us to take a more focussed approach.
Teachers use Lexia and across the week and children have access to it when they come in first thing in the morning. We are also very lucky to have an amazing library here, so we target key groups of children who we know need that extra usage or might not have that opportunity at home.
Have you noticed a positive change in pupils’ motivation to succeed in literacy? Can you give an example of a Lexia success that sticks out to you?
Yes, massively! First of all, they love Lexia!
Some of our reluctant readers are the first ones on Lexia every single day, which is amazing. As a school, to be able build that enthusiasm up has been very special to see. All the teachers have been very motivated as well. Our jobs are hard, but I think, because they feel as though they’re being given that extra time to focus on the needs of their children and to go into detail on what a specific group of children need in that session without worrying about jumping to all the eight different places they need to get to in the class.
On average, within the first 5 weeks, most children had made at least 2 months progress which was massive for the school! We noticed our bottom 20% of children, our more vulnerable learners, have made significant progress in starting the program. We’ve now got more children the potential of reaching greater depth as well. So, Lexia has managed to target all learners.
I’d say the biggest impact has been children’s enjoyment of reading, but also teacher workload. It feels more manageable and, even though we’re still working just as hard, we’ve now got artificial intelligence also supporting those children, so nobody gets left behind. It’s made a massive difference to the environment and the feel of a reading lesson rather than feeling like we’re racing to a finish line.
For example, we had a child who is in year five and they were accessing spring term reception expectation of reading initially. He could identify sounds but wasn’t necessarily mixing them together and blending them. But now, he’s reaching end of year one reading skills. He’s on stage 5 now and his confidence has just come on leaps and bounds!
Generally, the confidence of children, particularly those who liked reading but knew it wasn’t an area that were comfortable with, they’ve really come out their shell and they’re just giving things a go! The moments on Lexia where it recaps tricky words and things like that, as well as the repeating games to secure and embed knowledge. They’ve loved those and it makes them remember it.
In addition, we’ve noticed the difference in writing across school as well since then. They say that, if reading is breathing in, writing is breathing out. You must have the two together. If you are not exposed to a wide range of text and that rich vocabulary, you are not going to learn to write. We have found the two to be marrying up much more in school, which is lovely to see.
How have you used rewards to motivate and celebrate success on the Lexia program?
We have only introduced the reward system fairly recently because we found at the beginning, they’ve just loved it. There’s not been anybody who’s been reluctant. We always praise in assembly.
I take some time every month to look at the progress data of each class and feed back to the class teacher to encourage them to praise their children. This is what they’ve done.
We are a very small school, so I am lucky to be able to get to know all the children myself. This means that if I am walking down the corridor and I see a student who I know is making good progress, I can say “You’re doing an amazing job on Lexia!”. It is that verbal praise that is having a big impact at the moment.
We’ve just had World Book Day, so we’ve just ordered a lot of free books ready to give children as prizes. We have a Reader of the Month each month in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 which is based on their Lexia progress and their individual journey on Lexia. This is so we can celebrate all learners and not just those that are meeting their age-related work.
How useful have you found the myLexia reports in terms of demonstrating progression and informing planning?
Really good. Initially, I started off by looking at the data myself and then sharing the relevant information with staff and condensing it to make sure that it quickly accessible.
Our next step will be to arrange myLexia training for all staff next half term, so they can understand the detail of the reports. I’ve found it incredibly useful to be able to see if anything’s been highlighted. It’s allowed to identify groups of children that need specific intervention and plan accordingly.
Being a small school, staffing is very slim, but the reports help us to pick up on the students’ needs and add these into the school day where we can. It has been very helpful in that sense to inform our daily planning.
Being able to see it clearly on paper, where they started compared to where they are, is just incredible! I remember the first report I printed, I could not believe the progress they had made on the program!
How have you expanded Lexia into home-use? How have parents responded?
The parents really like it. Parents have been extremely impressed with it.
We’ve got a few families who might not have the access to it because they don’t have access to the technology. But as I said, because we’re targeting those pupils in school at lunchtime, all children have a similar opportunity.
We’ve got some kids where Lexia is all they do at home! They have pride in their work on the program which is great for us! It’s been a nice experience for them to share that with their parents as well.
We’re going to look at offering some walk-in Lexia workshops for parents in the Summer Term just so they can see what Core5 is about and how it works. We’ve sent out the letter and we’ve given them that sort of support but, as we expand it, we’re going to start looking into that so parents know how best to support them outside of school as well.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
To be honest, I think the main thing has been how open LexiaUK have been as a company. I was very honest with my Software Consultant and made her aware that our children have a very significant need. She was so understanding and flexible and was able to listen to our needs and come up with a package that supported what we want to achieve with the program. Her support was immeasurable, and I think that is quite rare to find in a company. She was totally understanding of our school situation and that has really benefitted us implementing it using the model that works for us. We are very grateful for that.
What feedback have you had from your Lexia pupils?
Generally, the feedback has been extremely positive. Lots of them very excited by it. They love all the levels. We were worried initially that some children might looking over shoulders and comparing themselves to their peers, but they don’t seem to do that. They are just generally very engaged and very excited by it and lots of children will often talk about their progress too. I popped into the library the other day and some children were excited to tell me what they had been working on and which sight words they were learning. It’s been generally a positive response. I think it made them see reading in a completely different light. They have understood how reading can unlock their imagination! Those that have found reading a book quite difficult have been given a new confidence to have a go now.
Step into the Literacy Spotlight
Our Star School for October is…
Upton-by-Chester High School, Cheshire!
We spoke to Alex Parry, who is the Lexia Coordinator at the school. He told us how Upton High has benefitted from rolling Lexia out to their Year 7 and 8 pupils, and their plans for expanding this into Year 9 this year!
How did you first come across the Lexia program and what led to the school’s final decision to purchase?
Over the last couple of years, we have been looking at completely restructuring our English intervention and offering it to as many learners as possible. We wanted to see how a focus on how the English department could support other core subjects such as maths where low literacy may be restricting access to other areas of the curriculum.
This led to the creation of several different roles in school such as a Literacy Intervention Manager, and me and my colleague Mel who deliver the Literacy interventions. We were looking at how to maximise the involvement of learners and of course, being a school, value for money was very important as well. So that is where Lexia came in.
I fit our idea of independent, student-led progress and addressing very specific areas for learning. Especially in English, not everyone has the same difficulties, it’s a wide variety of things. We were really impressed with the variety that was available to us with Lexia, and for the price as well, we couldn’t believe it. We thought the value for money and what the learners were going to get from it was incomparable from anything else.
What do you feel makes Lexia stand apart from other reading skills software products on the market?
For me, it’s tailor made. It’s student-driven, independent and it’s allowing them to focus on their gaps in their English knowledge. It’s brilliant because, the parts that they are already secure in, they fly through and make lots of progress. They are always really happy to tell me, ‘Sir, Look! I’ve completed 8 units today!’.
When they get to the parts they are finding more difficult, they then come out of it feeling that they have a bit more understanding and are making steps in the right direction towards understanding concepts or key ideas that they weren’t as confident with before. It has been so wonderful to see that kind of progression being made.
How is Lexia used in your school?
Lexia makes up the middle stage of the school’s intervention program which is students that need some support but may not necessarily be the lowest ability in school. We conduct a STAR reader test at the beginning of September, January and April half terms which gives us an indication of reading age.
Anyone who has a reading age of 9 or above, but is still below expected level, goes on Lexia. We currently use the program with Year 7 and 8 and we are looking into expanding this into Year 9 next year. We also use an NGRT to double check our identified students and meet with the Head of Literacy Intervention to come to a consensus on our final Lexia cohort.
Our students complete 2 hours of Lexia per week per class. We currently have 5 Year 7 classes and 4 Year 8 classes so that works out to 18 hours of Lexia per week that I lead. So, each students get 2 hours of focused Lexia time per week with me in school so we can crack on and see what they need. Any remaining time of their usage targets are normally set as homework.
This is all backed by our rewards system in school which is a real strength. Our student love to earn rewards are very eager for it, especially in Year 7.
Describe the impact that Lexia has had on your pupils. Have you noticed a positive change in their motivation to succeed in literacy?
I mainly look at the data as I am not a classroom teacher. When we have completed our assessments, we have seen improvement time on time. This term and as we were testing them towards the end of the year, we are seeing increases of around 2 years on their reading ages which is incredible. This is the benefit of Lexia if we make it consistent and embed it. Rome wasn’t built in a day and we can’t expect these children to catch up completely in a matter of 4 months. It’s been a steady progress due to the hard work that they have put in and the engagement with the program that they have had, which has enabled them to make these jumps and go up two years in a year. It is so pleasing to see that!
Can you give an example of a Lexia success that sticks out to you?
There is one lad, in particular, who I am so proud of! He comes in and he works so hard. He is so passionate about working with the Lexia software. When he came in this year, he was just over that 9 years reading age, so he just fell into the range for Lexia.
In his most recent reading test, he has come out above chronological reading age, something like 13.5 years! When I saw that, I was so thrilled for him and he was thrilled as well. He came to us with quite low confidence, which is true for a lot of learners coming to us. It is not necessarily their understanding, it’s their confidence in the application of it.
I think that practice in a low-pressure environment can bring on huge changes. That’s what we saw with this learner in particular. He’s absolutely smashed it! His work, according to his English teacher, has improved at every review stage. We are absolutely thrilled with that.
How have you used rewards to motivate and celebrate success on the Lexia program?
We have a competition and first place gets a £10 Amazon Voucher, 2nd Place gets a tub of chocolates and 3rd gets a big chocolate bar. They also have the chance to earn stickers throughout their Lexia time. Every time they compete all their minutes on Word Study, Grammar or Comprehension they get a sticker. They also get another sticker if they complete all 3, so they are able to earn up to 4 stickers for usage.
In addition to this, the person that completes the most units progress gets an additional 2 stickers. So, they all have the opportunity to earn up to 6 stickers a week. We have found this has led to some healthy competition and given them an incentive to complete that extra half-hour at home. This has been very useful for us in continuing to monitor that progress.
We definitely want to reward learners for engaging with Lexia because I think there are times that learners can maybe see it as a negative thing and they may not understand why they need the extra support with reading. For us, it is all about changing that perspective and making intervention a place that they want to come, a place where they can progress and a place where they are celebrated.
I think that the rewards system that we have come up with for Lexia has really helped us achieve this, especially as we have been developing and tweaking it towards the second half of the year. This has led to an increase of engagement with Lexia and we have had engagement at home as well which is also down to the parents’ involvement. Their encouragement of their children to us ethe program at home has been a massive boost.
How useful have you found the myLexia reports in terms of demonstrating progression and informing planning?
The myLexia platform has really been a useful tool in me being able to see progression both in terms of minutes and units gained. With our rewards chart it forces me every week to look at every single learner and see the progress they’ve made. We can identify from that how they’re progressing their needs going forward.
It can also prompt us to have those conversations about their effort and make them aware that we are monitoring them, and we are looking for that progression. It’s been such a useful tool for that. From there, with the extra resources that Lexia provides, the Lexia Lessons to support and the Skill Builders that we give them at the end. They have been so good in allowing us to double check progress and really make certain that they’re on the right track.
With assessments like the STAR Reader test, especially with the test conditions, lots of learners struggle in that environment and you may not see an accurate reflection of their progress. myLexia allows me to get into the nitty gritty without the need for formal testing. I can go to my line manager and show them all the work they have completed on Lexia. It has allowed us a further insight and given us more data to look at and try and get as clear a picture as possible as to where every learner in intervention is.
What main piece of advice would you give to a school that was just getting started with Lexia?
Keep on with it! Give it time. If it is a new intervention strategy to you, there is so much to delve into and so many tools that you may not be aware of yet, so I would say to take the time to get your head around it. Likewise with the learners, giving them the time to interact with the software and progress is important. With time, learners can begin to identify the situations and topics that they struggle with and allow them to address them with consistent practice and build those skills up.
What feedback have you had from your Lexia pupils?
They have really enjoyed the rewards system and the encouragement they get through Lexia. They like the manageability of it and they feel like they have a choice on what to work on. That is really important for a lot of our learners. They love being able to choose and say, ‘I’m not feeling Grammar today, I’ll move over to Comprehension’, they love that because they are not forced down one route, they can take it at their own pace.
The flexibility of it and their ability to break it down into bitesize chunks is so much better. They don’t feel overwhelmed, they are not being hit with 30 or 40 pieces of information and being told to memorise them all. It’s easily digestible which makes it easier for them to retain and they love that.
Do you have any additional comments on why you feel Lexia has been successful in your school?
I think that Lexia has fit so wonderfully with what our vision of how we want our interventions to look like. Lexia has helped us achieve those goals quicker than we would have imagined. It’s been so positive in terms of student engagement and how much they’re enjoying it. It’s been so good for us to see it incorporated in the way it has and that wouldn’t be possible without LexiaUK, with the check-ins that you do.
The support from our SLT has also helped in terms of allowing us to remove learners from lessons twice a week to come and work on Lexia as well as the support from the classroom teachers. I think it’s a testament to the Lexia software that staff have bought in this year and as a school we have all collectively bought into making it work and it wouldn’t be possible without that. So, I cannot thank the school and LexiaUK, with their support, enough.
Step into the Literacy Spotlight
Our Star School for June is…
Theale Green School, Reading!
We spoke to Rebecca Wilson, a Higher-Level Learning Mentor at the school, who is responsible for running Lexia sessions. In her interview, she shares some fantastic success stories from her pupils and gives us some valuable advice on timetabling and staff training.
How did you first come across the Lexia program and what led to the school’s final decision to purchase?
I have been working at Theale Green School in the Inclusion Department for 8 years. Last year, when I was promoted to HLTA and took over literacy support, I noticed that there was a bigger need than I first thought. As a small team, we were unable to cater for as many pupils as we would have liked, and it was a challenge to tailor support to the individual needs of the pupils to the extent that was needed. It was also very difficult for us to track progress of the students with data evidence. I started looking for an online platform that could help us with this.
Our executive SENCO had heard of Lexia, but did not know too much about it, so I looked online to find out more and thought it looked good. I was able to phone up and speak to a Lexia consultant who supported us in setting up a trial at the start of the academic year and we just absolutely loved it! It has really revolutionised the way that we work. We have been able to triple the number of students that we are able to support while still tailoring support to their individual needs.
What do you feel makes Lexia stand apart from other reading skills software products on the market?
We did trial another product to compare but it mainly focused on comprehension skills, and we felt it wasn’t covering all the skills that we needed. There was such a diverse range of skills that we needed to support the ‘COVID hangover’ we are experiencing, the gap has widened and the number of students needing support has increased.
We are seeing an increase in students starting secondary school who are needing support with their phonics. This is something that we have not previously had to deliver, so we needed to either create a whole new programme of learning ourselves or find a program that did it for us and Lexia was the one that met our needs. It had the scope to support our lowest ability students, but still was able to support our higher ability students, who perhaps needed a boost to their self-esteem and confidence. It can also support pupils who have difficulties engaging with their work, as opposed to those that have a big gap in knowledge, so it is something that works on both ends of the scale.
How is Lexia used in your school?
My daily routine is extremely full and busy! I wish I could create many more Lexia groups but, because most of our pupils who are using Lexia are SEND and Pupil Premium, we are keeping the groups quite small. The maximum number of pupils we will have in one Lexia group is 6 students with 2 groups running at a time.
We are lucky to have a small computer suite here in the Inclusion Department, so it is a nice, focused atmosphere. We take our students out of lessons twice a week, so they complete at least 2x 45-minutes sessions each week. Our goal for the future of our Lexia Implementation Plan is to offer a 3rd session to support pupils meeting their usage targets more often.
We have also started a partnership with parents so, in addition to the 2 sessions in school, we will encourage them to do one or two more 30-minute sessions at home over the course of the week. We have also been working with the English department this term who are looking at setting Lexia as one of the English homework activities for Lexia pupils.
Describe the impact that Lexia has had on your pupils.
There has been a huge shift! When we first introduced the program our students were hesitant about being taken out of their lessons to do literacy. After a few sessions they really warmed to it. Now when I come to the classroom to take some students out to do Lexia, they all ask me if they can come too!
Students are now very positive about it. They really like consistent praise and reward and have thrived as a result.
Claire Lloyd, Theale Green’s Headteacher and Assistant Head SENCO also answered:
Claire: The Lexia programme has been a huge hit with students, parents and staff. We are seeing improvements not just in literacy but with higher self-esteem of students – they go into lessons feeling more positive, no longer seeing unfamiliar text as a barrier to their learning. The students enjoy the choice element, how it is delivered with IT alongside some taught sessions. The students have also loved the certificates and seeing their success as they complete a level.
Parents have been pleased with the flexibility it offers for accessing sessions at home as well as having a clear understanding of how their child is progressing.
Mrs Badarello (Headteacher): Lexia has been a seismic change in terms of how as a school we support students with literacy needs. Students are very positive about it and it has now become the “normal” way of doing things which is incredible. The impact of Lexia was witnessed by the school governors on a recent visit.
Can you give an example of a Lexia success that sticks out to you?
There were are that I think really deserve a mention. I’ll call them Student A, Student B, and Student C.
Student A is in Year 7 and was very disengaged in their learning and had high social needs. They were often out of lessons due to disruptive behaviour but would always engage with Lexia. They were our first student to complete the entire Word Study Strand. It was amazing to see that big green tick! This student is now on the advanced zone for the remaining 2 strands, so they are well on their way to completing the whole program!
We have another Year 7 pupil, Student B, who has very slow processing skills but really likes short snappy activities. PowerUp has really been able to keep their focus and they’ve been able to achieve 17 certificates since starting. This student started the program on the first level of the Comprehension strand and now they are working at Level 12! It is mind-blowing! This student works very hard and completes Lexia sessions at home too. It just goes to show that pupils who reach their usage and complete extra sessions at home are really making a positive difference to their progress.
Finally, Student C is in Year 9. They were really struggling with their self-confidence in their abilities. They use a laptop for extended writing in lessons, but even then, was struggling to write a lot and stay on task. With Lexia, this pupil has progressed amazingly. They have achieved 12 certificates so far and I have received feedback from their English teacher telling me that their confidence has sky-rocketed! They are now putting up their hand in lessons which they weren’t doing before. It has taken a few terms for them to get to this point. Lexia is not an overnight fix but the sustained effort is really making a positive impact. This student has also recently won our streak competition with a streak of 424 and went on to receive a Headteacher’s Award for their effort!
How have you used rewards to motivate and celebrate success on the Lexia program?
The praise and rewards aspects of the program has been something that we have really wanted to focus on from the start. Having a robust reward system for Lexia has made a huge impact. I have been able to use a lot of the school reward systems, such as house points, and have also used the certificates. We print them off and the students love taking them home. They also receive Super House Points with a note home to parents, so that the parents can see how well they are doing.
I have discovered that there is no age limit to enjoying a prize box! We have downloaded the Lexia Loyalty Cards which they love stamping themselves as they progress through their Lexia sessions. They are always looking forward to when they have saved up enough stamps to get a prize! I have restocked the prize box over the Easter break, it is full of smelly pencils, bendy pencils and other stationary along with a few sweets and lollies. The most coveted prize, however, is the queue pass for the canteen! I write the date on it, so it’s a one-time use only! They really like choosing that prize which goes to show that prizes don’t need to cost very much at all. It works really well!
We have also created some additional resource sheets that allow students to track their progress term by term. Many of our students find it difficult to deal with a lot of information all at once so we have found that this smaller version of tracking progress has been helpful. They complete these at the start and the end of each term, and it asks them how confident they feel in Word Study, Grammar and Comprehension. At the bottom they can describe something they have been able to complete in a lesson that Lexia has helped with. For example, one student recently recognised that the work they have done in PowerUp meant that they could give an example of an adverb when asked in their English lesson. They were very pleased with themselves for remembering thanks to the catchy song in PowerUp!
How useful have you found the myLexia reports in terms of demonstrating progression and informing planning?
They have been very helpful. The first term we used the reports, it took a bit of investigating to find out what everything did. LexiaUK’s training really helped us there too. We booked an additional training session, and it was useful to review the little ins and outs of the data information available. There is a lot that you may not think is there unless you click it, and then all this detailed information comes up!
The new Skills Check data has been very helpful. We look at what percentages students got and use this data to identify who may need a little additional boost with a Skill Builder. It’s helped us to use these resources much more efficiently. We use the data to choose who benefits most from a skill builder and it allows us to be much more focused on which skill builders to give the students. For example, if we see that a pupil has gotten less than 70% on their Skills Check, we will usually send the Skill Builder home for them to complete as a homework.
We have also found the Skills Status reports very useful. The visual bars showing the movement from the Foundational Zone to Intermediate and then on to Advanced has been life-changing for me in helping me evidence progression for our senior leadership. The Assistant Head SENCO will come to me and say, “I have a senior leadership meeting and need data on how the students’ literacy is progressing”, and I can produce this at the click of a button!
What main piece of advice would you give to a school that was just getting started with Lexia?
We have found that timetabling has had the biggest impact to our Lexia implementation. We made sure to consider which lessons were appropriate to take pupils out of to complete Lexia avoiding their core subjects, PE, and PSHE. This has really helped to ensure that everyone gets a minimum of 2 sessions. We have also considered which pupils will benefit from one-to-one sessions, so we have been able to ensure that additional needs are met.
I would also say that training a good number of staff has a positive impact too. There are two of us HLTAs and a number of TAs trained on the program. This means that they can take Lexia sessions and support these students as well. It may only be an hour or two out of their week, but it adds up to make a big difference!
We have also added and trained the English team to use the myLexia reports so they can see their progress of their students. This has really helped with the communication between departments. It helps us get feedback and see the impact of Lexia elsewhere in the curriculum not just within their intervention sessions. English staff have been involved in Lexia training so they can use the program themselves and check in to see the progression of their students directly.
What feedback have you had from your Lexia pupils?
I would say 99% of them have said they really like the program. They love the streaks most of all, it really keeps them motivated. I think that the verbal encouragement they get from the program plays a part too. Being told they are ‘sensational’ and ‘awesome’ keeps them going. A lot of them are quite excited to be using it. In future, I would like to build on this and for Lexia to become part of their routine at home as week. Even if it is just once per week, it is a goal of mine that I think will make an even greater difference.
Do you have any additional comments on why you feel Lexia has been successful in your school?
I think the main reason for our success with Lexia is because we have had support from the whole staff at all levels. From the top, the headteacher and governors, all the way to the TAs and support staff, everyone has been on board and working towards the same goal. I also think it’s been a success because we have worked hard to integrate it into school life. It’s become part of the way we do things, not just an add-on. Teachers now know that if they have a student in their class that is struggling due to literacy skills, that we have something in place to support them. It’s very much a team effort.
We have also been able to create some dedicated spaces to Lexia in school. In the Inclusion Department, we have small computer suite that acts as a Lexia classroom. We have a literacy display board in there and work to maintain a calm, quiet environment for pupils to learn and build their literacy skills. Even for pupils who may have been disruptive and sent out of lessons, they are very calm once they get into our Lexia space. It is a safe space for everyone.
Step into the Literacy Spotlight
Our Star School for May is…
Oasis Academy Leesbrook!
We spoke to Abbie Macguire and Beth Meacock who are reading tutors at the school. They have been able to successfully use Lexia PowerUp along with their Primary teaching experience to support pupils in Years 7 – 10 in boosting their literacy skills.
What do you feel makes Lexia stand apart from other reading skills software products on the market?
Abbie: We are both primary trained so we have come across a lot of other reading programs. For us, we have found Lexia much better for tracking progress. Other programs have allowed pupils to work independently but I don’t feel like they gave me, as a teacher, the ownership of what they were doing like Lexia has. I can clearly see what they can do and what they have struggled with.
Beth: The fact that myLexia is so easy to navigate is a plus for me too. It gives such a precise, detailed run-down of each child’s individual progress. It is definitely one of the highlights of the program and what really sets it apart.
How is Lexia used in your school?
Abbie: The students that use Lexia are based off the NGRT Assessment data that happens at beginning of the school year. We go through all the pupils and their reading ages and select those pupils who have a reading age 13 months below their chronological age. These pupils make up the Lexia cohort for that year and attend intervention sessions with us.
Beth: We run 4x 1 hour Lexia sessions per day on Monday and Tuesday and then on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we have and additional morning for each group. Each group has 2 sessions per week and we see all year groups from Year 7 to Year 10 so it is used very widely in school. Lexia session take place in the library where we have computers and space available for the students to work on PowerUp.
Describe the impact that Lexia has had on your pupils. Have you noticed a positive change in their motivation to succeed in literacy?
Abbie: It’s given them the confidence to read out loud because, quite often, the pupils’ we see don’t always have the fluency to read confidently out loud. Through Lexia and the help and support they have received, it has given them a lot more confidence.
Beth: Yes. We ran a pupil voice just before Christmas and asked the pupils if they felt that Lexia has positively impacted them in other lessons. All of them reported that they had been able to apply their learning to English lessons as well as a few other subjects as well. Some of the said that they had been able to apply vocabulary knowledge they had gained through Lexia to Geography and other subjects.
Can you give an example of a Lexia success that sticks out to you?
Abbie: We have a Year 9 pupil that joined us in September with a reading age of below 10. He started the PowerUp program in the Foundational zone but has since completely finished the whole program! He has been very engaged with the Lexia sessions and has completed all of the homework we gave him and that effort can be clearly seen in his progress. This has also reflected in his reading age since we tested again in January.
Beth: He has actually achieved a higher reading age than his chronological age!
Abbie: We were blown away with the results! He really put the hours in, and now he no longer needs intervention, he is GCSE-ready and has caught up his reading skills according to his age.
How have you used rewards to motivate and celebrate success on the Lexia program?
Beth: Each session, we choose a ‘Student of the Session’ and they receive a Lexia certificate and a bag of sweets. We also have a ‘Student of the Week’ which is a school-wide award where we nominate someone to get a little goodie bag from the office.
Abbie: We also have a Student of the Month where we print and laminate all the level certificates they have achieved and present them with a goodie bag with sweets, pens and bookmarks. We also provide them with Lexia badges, we have ordered some lightning bolt badges that we put into the goodie bags as well. The students also get recognition on the school’s social media and on our website as well.
Abbie: Before Easter we also held a little creative writing competition during our lessons. It was the last week and students wanted to do something a little different. We gave them a brief e.g. to include adjectives, noun phrases etc and allowed them to choose a setting of their choice. We had loads of entries, but we managed to whittle it down to our top 5 and they won an Easter egg. We have since made this into a display in the library where we are based.
How useful have you found the myLexia reports in terms of demonstrating progression and informing planning?
Abbie: We keep track of the reports every day and check in on each of our groups. We have the classes organised on myLexia so it is easy to check in on each specific group as they are timetabled. We can see who is progressing and who needs additional support. The LexiaUK training session we had last week was really useful for this as well.
Beth: We got a few hints and tips that we had not yet come across such as how the Lexia lessons are assigned to pupils and how to find out how many attempts pupils had completed of a unit. We have found the progress data very helpful to inform who we choose as our Student of the Week and use the usage and units progress data to help us decide. It’s been very helpful to be able to keep track of that sort of detailed data.
Abbie: We also need to produce a spreadsheet of the data for the literacy team, so having it all there has been really helpful to keep us on track. We send the Parent Reports home in the Student of the Month packs so it’s nice to be able to update parents and for them to be able see the progress they are making and what level they are up to.
What main piece of advice would you give to a school that was just getting started with Lexia?
Beth: I think the main thing we would say is consistency is key. It works really well in our school because our roles are dedicated to delivering Lexia and we can ensure that pupils are getting access every single week.
Abbie: With us both coming from a Primary setting and having our own classes, we know how hard it can be to try and run various interventions alongside class teaching. It can be easy to lose track when you are juggling so many different things. Having trained members of staff responsible for Lexia has meant that it can be consistent, the kids know who to come to and can get into the routines needed to make progress. The fact that they can develop a positive relationship with their Lexia tutor has mean that engagement in the sessions has been high. Building those relationships is so important! Often, pupils at secondary that struggle with reading can be quite disengaged with lessons so it is important to make the sessions and those connections as positive as possible.
What feedback have you had from your Lexia pupils?
Beth: We will provide some quotes from our Pupil Voice questionnaire below but generally a lot of them have really enjoyed how calm the sessions are. We turn the lights down and try to keep the environment as calm and as positive as possible which has helped them work better on the program. They are nice, relaxed and in the zone when accessing Lexia so they have responded very well.
Here are some quotes from the pupils about the Lexia program:
Year 7 pupil: “It has helped me in English with my spelling. I found reading in front of other people hard because I can be quite shy, but Lexia has made me feel more confident to read to the class. “
Year 8 pupil: “I now know what a verb is etc. Also, I’ve started reading at home before bed because of Lexia. I didn’t really do that before.”
Year 9 pupil: “It’s especially made a difference in English. I didn’t know how to spell some words before but now I can.”
Year 8 pupil: “Word study helped me in English because we were reading Romeo and Juliet. We talked about dramatic irony which I had already learnt about in Lexia.”
Do you have any additional comments on why you feel Lexia has been successful in your school?
Abbie: I think for use, it has really opened our eyes at how important it is to nail the reading skills as early as possible to ensure they get that access to the curriculum. It has been great that they have been able to access the program independently without needing direct intervention from the teacher all the time. It really helps them take that ownership of it.
Beth: It’s nice as well how the units are quite short so they constantly feel like they are progressing and getting better. It doesn’t stay on one thing for too long so it really helps to maintain their attention and engagement for longer.
Abbie: The streaks have been great for this as well. The get a real kick out of building their streaks. It’s really interactive and engaging and we can see from a data perspective that it really has an impact too! It works!
Step into the Literacy Spotlight
Our Star School for April is…
Wallbrook Academy, Dudley!
We spoke to Kiran Satti who was responsible for rolling the program out in school and throughout the Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust. She shared some of her insights into how they have found Lexia in school and what they considered when rolling the program out across the trust.
How did you first come across the Lexia program and what led to the school’s final decision to purchase?
Jen, who at the time was the Deputy Director for Primaries, shared it with me during the first lockdown. At that time we had 3 primary schools in the trust using Lexia. We sat down during one of the lunch breaks and she said ‘let me show you this reading programme’.
It usually takes me a while to form an opinion of something like Lexia because I am a firm believer of getting a book in their hands and developing print knowledge, but what I saw with Lexia instantly was the way in which it takes into account the developmental stages of the children regardless of age. I was excited to see how it looked at their reading development stages and how it could be used easily by the teachers. To be fair, once I saw what it could do, I was sold quite quickly which doesn’t happen for me often!
I trust Jen’s judgement and knew that what she brought in would be of a high quality. We trialled it with the children so we could see the impact it had before rolling it out more widely. Jen’s excitement for the program was one factor, but actually seeing what it could do and how it worked with our pupils is what really sold it to us as a trust.
What do you feel makes Lexia stand apart from other reading skills software products on the market?
It is very effective in terms of impacting a child’s progress and I say this from both a leadership and a teacher perspective. I have seen the impact it has quite quickly, but it is not simply putting a sticking plaster over the issues. It is the developmental stages that the child goes through and the incremental progress that you can see with it. The way that the technology is used, it impacts the child effectively because it is so responsive to each pupil’s needs and where they are at that point in time.
The aftercare with LexiaUK as well and the support we got in terms of implementing it effectively was great. Implementation is key with anything new that you bring into school. Just because you bring something in at school doesn’t mean it is going to work. It needs to be effectively implemented to have the impact. I think having my Literacy Software Consultant, Chris, and the Lexia team was instrumental in making sure that we were using it in the best way possible. The way in which every little question we had was answered and we always got responses very quickly was something that I really appreciated when we were first rolling it out. It meant that I had the confidence to ask those questions and ensure that it worked in our school context.
Finally, I think that it is just really easy to use. The way the data platform allows you to look at groups of children as well as specific children, and how much you can dig down into that detailed data. It is instrumental in terms of supporting our lowest 20% of readers across all primaries because I could go to the teachers and use the data to inform those conversations about progress and intervention.
How is Lexia used in your school?
Once of the most important aspects of bringing Lexia into a new school was ensuring that it was timetabled into the curriculum. It wasn’t to be seen as an ‘add on’, it is part of the reading provision that we provide to the children. It can be an intervention for Key Stage 2 children which is also how it is used, but for early years and Key Stage 1 children it is very much about building it into the reading package that we provide so it is always timetabled in.
We target the lowest attaining readers first and designate time every morning to Lexia to make sure that they meet their usage targets. One thing that I found is that, as the children got used to using it, especially in the mornings, it meant that they were ready for the day. Their attitude to school and their learning was improved as they had already had some success on Lexia. Success is addictive and it was great that the children were able to associate that learning with success and take that into the school day.
As part of the implementation, I was very important that there was a Lexia trained adult with the children regardless of the group size. This meant that, especially for the lower attaining pupils, we could be quick in addressing any gaps when they got stuck. We were able to quickly print out the Lexia Lessons during the session and complete them immediately or as a follow up activity the next morning.
We also made sure that Lexia was built into the phonics provision we have as well. We found that for some of our pupils, blending was a big concern, so using the program as part of their phonics session was very helpful to give them additional practice with that skill.
We made the decision in a couple of the schools to get the children on Lexia as early as possible because it could only benefit their phonics. If they were using Lexia alongside their phonics, we were seeing good progress with these children so that when they got to their phonics screen check, they were much more likely to be successful. Because the starting points for a lot of our children are very low, the extra practice they got from Lexia helped build that foundation of listening skills, syllable awareness and sound formation that they needed to be successful later on.
Describe the impact that Lexia has had on your pupils. Have you noticed a positive change in their motivation to succeed in literacy?
Lexia for me was a godsend in many ways because it accelerated progress, especially for the children that we caught early. As part of our assessment system, if we can see that they are not making expected progress at the beginning of their phonics, then they go on Lexia quite quickly because we know that with Lexia, alongside their phonics, they will make progress.
It’s the confidence as well. I cannot stress enough how confident the children became after using Lexia with their phonics. All of the work they were doing on Lexia was feeding into their phonics and the two worked well in tandem with one another.
What was helpful for me as a teacher as well as a leader was the consistency of the program. When working in lessons, often the children would comment ‘oh, that came up in Lexia today!’ so it was clear that the approach was working, and they could apply this learning to their lessons.
The instant feedback that the children get is also invaluable. I think that is what they like the most because they can see when they are doing well or if they needed more help. It is a very responsive program and very engaging too. They love the certificates and being rewarded for the work they do on Lexia.
You can see that it is very accurately pitched because it is always linked to what I am teaching in the classroom. It’s helped me support my colleagues as well. As a teacher that has a keen interest in reading, I often take for granted the specialist knowledge needed to teach reading skills. This may not always come as naturally to other teachers, especially those who teach older year groups, so Lexia has enabled them to provide this level of support to the children who need it. It does not only help the children but can empower the teachers’ subject knowledge as well to a certain degree.
Can you give an example of a Lexia success that sticks out to you?
There was one pupil in particular who absolutely hated everything about school because they didn’t think they could do anything. Starting them on Lexia was a bit of a struggle to begin with but once they started seeing the success and understood how to use it, they started engaging with it. It’s that idea again of success being addictive. Because it was so easy to use and they was seeing that success, their independence and confidence grew. They then started helping other pupils log in to it as well and was like a mini teacher!
What was special about it was that their confidence went sky high! This child was so negative and now they wanted to read the books and make sure they were on the right level. They would be the one to speak up in lessons when they noticed a sound that they had been working on in Lexia came up in the lesson. That is all you need from any program, the level of engagement and confidence it gave them was amazing.
This pupil was one of 4 that we had flagged as not being ready to pass the phonics screening but 3 out of the 4 did. I put that down be Lexia being part of their daily provision. I used this example to showcase across the trust just how important the implementation of Lexia is to its success. When it is implemented properly and used regularly, it has such an impact, not just on children’s learning but across the curriculum. This pupil was able to access a lot more because they could read a lot more.
How have you used rewards to motivate and celebrate success on the Lexia program?
Positive praise, always. We give Dojo points for engagement, so it is based on the reward systems that we already have set up in school. We use the Lexia certificates as well. I think that is the thing I have used most to reward the pupils on Lexia. It is all done for you and they love getting the certificates!
I think the feedback and the responsiveness of the program is a reward in itself. The fact that they can clearly see their progress as they work through the program and the circles filling in keeps them going.
How useful have you found the myLexia reports in terms of demonstrating progression and informing planning?
The diagnostic tools and the data that it gives you is so detailed. I am a proper geek when it comes to reading data so I am really happy with it! The level of depth you get is great. When I showed the Principal, who is very much about data, he was extremely impressed by it. It takes a lot to impress him but he was speechless. I was very excited to show him the data and the fact that he was as excited about it as me meant it must be good!
The depth of knowledge that you get about a specific child is incredible. With other programs out there, there is only so much surface level data that you can get from them. The depth of myLexia data meant that I could pinpoint certain additional interventions that we needed to work on. Whether it was rhyme or syllables, I could see what it was that the children needed and bring that to the classroom.
Because of how detailed it is, it has really supported my colleagues with their subject knowledge as well. For some teachers that don’t have the skills and experience of working with early years reading, it has been helpful to give them that insight and the resources they need to support the children.
Even something as simple as the usage reports have supported things like tracking attendance and had helped us adapt our approaches to introduce home use, for example. Sending their log ins home was a helpful step for these pupils and we could still track their progress in the same way as we would in school.
The richness of the data can be intimidating to some because there is so much information! But I think for me, it was brilliant because it gave me all the information that I could possibly want as a reading lead. I could then use that data to help other teachers move forward with it. It’s the depth and detail that you get with Lexia that you don’t get with other programs.
What main piece of advice would you give to a school that was just getting started with Lexia?
Train your teachers up well! I always say that staff need to play with it first. Log into the program as a student so you get a good insight into the student experience. I then held some tutorials for staff to go through the data and see the level of detail we could go into. I would continue to work with any new staff and support staff to ensure that everyone was on the same page.
I think training all staff, teachers and TAs alike, is crucial to a successful implementation. It was important that we all had a shared understanding of why we were using Lexia and that everyone was on board with how responsive is was and the fact that it generates intervention planning for you. It was essential to get those benefits across so that it would be used consistently in class.
As a leader, I did a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of setting it all up initially. I could use some of my designated time to ensure the groupings were done, timetabling was in place, the accounts were created and initial assessments were complete so that teachers could hit the ground running.
Once it was all set up and the staff were trained, the monitoring of the implementation was also key. Throughout the process, I had the confidence that I could direct staff to raise any questions they had because I knew I had the team at LexiaUK there to support me. There was never a moment where I felt that I was just ‘left to it’. The relationship that I had with my Software Consultant was invaluable. It was great to have a contact that knew how I work and with confidence I could go to them with any question.
When introducing the program to teachers, I took everything step by step. We would do dummy runs of Lexia sessions so they felt confident running a session, then the next term we would delve deeper into the reports. I think with anything new its always best to chunk it out so everyone can get the absolute best from it.
What feedback have you had from your Lexia pupils?
They really enjoy it! I can hand-on-heart say that the children all enjoy using it. When I used it with my classes, I never had a negative response when I said it was time for Lexia. They were all very eager to get their laptops out and get started each session. It enabled them to become more independent learners which I really loved. Even though it was mainly there to support their reading knowledge, never once did I get the impression that it was something they didn’t want to engage with. There were even some other children in the class asking ‘why can’t we go on Lexia?’. It was lovely seeing their confidence grow as they used it. As a teacher, there is nothing I want more in my classroom than pupils feeling confident in their learning. It made them feel safe to learn.
Do you have any additional comments on why you feel Lexia has been successful in your school?
I think the support that I got from Chris and LexiaUK team had a big impact. Having a warm and friendly person to go to with any questions I had was really helpful. I wanted to get it right for the staff and I wanted them to feel the same as I did that there were no such thing as silly questions so having that culture and ethos with Lexia was great.
Finally, it was just seeing the joy on the childrens’ faces when they see that they have completed an activity and have moved on to the next one. It’s just a brilliant resource to have and I love Jen for having shared it with me! We introduced the program during COVID which was very difficult but it actually gave us the time to get to grips with it and understand what it could do for the children. It’s become part of our provision as a trust. I say it’s part of our reading provision because it isn’t simply a ‘bolt on’, it’s a part of our core provision.
Thank you Lexia! The whole team is brilliant!
Step into the Literacy Spotlight
Our Star School for March is…
Pembridge Hall School, London!
We spoke to Mhairi Paton who runs Lexia sessions with the school’s Year 2 and 3 cohorts. She told us how they have engaged their Lexia pupils across the whole school and embedded the program into their school life.
How did you first come across the Lexia program and what led to the school’s final decision to purchase?
We are a girls’ school and decided to purchase Lexia after we found that a lot of our girls were coming back after the Covid lockdown with quite big gaps in their learning.
We wanted to find a program that did not necessarily need to be teacher led but could be supportive to teachers. Our SENCO was recommended the program by another school who was already using it.
What do you feel makes Lexia stand apart from other reading skills software products on the market?
All of the teachers found it very user friendly and the kids were very engaged with it. Those were the two main things we were looking for. It really supported their learning but it was engaging enough not to feel like a formal lesson. Engagement was a big factor, especially as we are asking pupils to come in at 8:15am to complete their Lexia time. It’s got to be fun!
How is Lexia used in your school? Please provide details of your daily routine and how you ensure that you reach recommended usage as well as which pupils use the program in school.
We use data to select our Lexia cohort. The whole process is very data-driven so we work out which pupils across the year groups require the additional support. We have assessments every term so we can be fairly flexible. If one of the girls meets their age-related expectation, then we can take that pupil off the program and use the license with another pupil. However, I must say that when we told the parents we were taking them off of Lexia we found that the parents didn’t want them to stop because the girls were getting such a benefit from it! It was working so well, they wanted to keep it.
We run Lexia sessions first thing in the morning before school. We invite pupils to come in early 3 days each week to complete Lexia time. I set all the laptops up with their login cards so all the girls need to do is come in, put their headphones on and they’re off! At a minimum they complete 30 minutes each session but I can usually keep them a little longer before they go back to class and start the school day.
The program itself recommends the usage for them and I have found that if they are reaching those targets, it really does make the difference to their progress. You can really see the difference in progress between those that are coming in only once a week versus those that are consistently reaching their usage targets. We are also encouraging parents get pupils logging in to Lexia from home as well. This seems to be having an impact and it has a knock-on effect. Those that are logging in are getting certificates and praise, so it encourages the other girls to try and complete Lexia time at home too.
Describe the impact that Lexia has had on your pupils. Have you noticed a positive change in their motivation to succeed in literacy? Can you give an example of a Lexia success that sticks out to you?
I have definitely noticed how enthusiastic they have been with it. I have noticed a few occasions when a student might have struggled with something in class and once it pops up on their Lexia program, they have gotten the practice they needed to complete it successfully. The fact that they have then been able to go back to class and overcome those little challenges has been great!
We had a girl who was really struggling with question marks, so I decided to manually move her to that level on the Lexia program and set that as a task for her. In the weeks that followed, her class teacher had said that there had been an improvement in her work after completing the practice on Lexia Core5. When they later revisited the topic, they had found that clear progress has been made in this area in the long term too. It was great to hear that from the class teacher!
How have you used rewards to motivate and celebrate success on the Lexia program?
We have a whole school assembly where we share a number of awards for sports and academic success, so Lexia certificates are shared and presented then.
If the girls achieve a certificate while in a Lexia session, I make sure to print it immediately for them. This means that they get the instant gratification of their achievement. They are always very proud to go back to their class after the session to show off their certificate!
We have also found that the certificates are very helpful for parents too. The way in which they break down everything they have completed in their level has been valuable for parents to see.
I have seen the printable stickers in the Core5 Resource hub so my next step will be to print out some stickers to give out in the sessions.
We have found that they program provides the girls with lots of intrinsic motivation as well. A lot of the girls have picked up on the visuals along the bottom of the screen that tells them how many units they have completed. This element has really driven them to want to get the next level, especially when they can see that they only have one or two units left!
How useful have you found the myLexia reports in terms of demonstrating progression and informing planning?
They are so visual, so they have been very helpful. When we have been speaking with parents who may have had concerned about what they were gaining from these additional morning sessions, we have been able to print reports to show them exactly the skills they have been gaining over that time. It can really drive usage as well. We can clearly see a trend between those girls who are meeting their usage and the progress going up.
It has been great to share these reports with class teachers as well, I can simply print the reports and send a PDF which details everything a student has been learning. It’s been very handy to give the teachers that instant feedback.
What main piece of advice would you give to a school that was just getting started with Lexia?
My main tip would be to have everything set up for the Lexia session before the pupils come in. Particularly for younger pupils who can spend a bit longer logging in, having everything ready means that they can come straight in and get on with it! It really helps us to maximise the time they have on the program.
Another tip I would give is to share and celebrate every little bit of progress you are seeing. Getting that recognition in front of their class and the whole school has really given them a boost. There is a positive atmosphere in our Lexia sessions to the point where we have other pupils in school have been asking if they can join! For me, this just shows that they are really enjoying it and it is not just seen as an additional lesson. They’re seeing it as a fun session.
What feedback have you had from your Lexia pupils?
They absolutely love it! They get really excited about it. There are a few girls in school that I don’t tend to see at other times of the day but when I pass them walking around school, they are always keen to tell me how they have been getting on with Lexia and share their excitement for the next session. Because it is a personalised program, we have also been able to complete sessions with multiple years at once, so they have formed friendships across year groups and become a little Lexia crew! It’s been lovely to see.
Do you have any additional comments on why you feel Lexia has been successful in your school?
I think for me, it is the independence that the girls have been able to have over their learning. Once they get into the flow and the routine of Lexia, there has been a big difference. They can clearly see and track their own learning which is really driving them to get to the next stage and progress even further.
I have also noticed an impact on their Digital Literacy skills. They are becoming much more familiar with logging into the computers and understanding how to navigate to the website or open and close a page. We don’t always get the chance in lower school to practice those skills so having them learn this on top of their literacy has been a bonus!
I think for a teacher, having 22 girls come in for an intervention session all at once could be quite overwhelming, but with Lexia, it is actually a joy! They can just come in, put their headphones on and they are all working on personalised, targeted work. That give me the time to monitor and make sure they are all supported.
Step into the Literacy Spotlight
Each year, around one quarter of students do not meet the expected standard in reading by the time they reach secondary school (DfE, 2022). Increasingly, the need for specific intervention in foundational reading skills, such as phonics, has become vital in ensuring that all pupils can achieve academic success across the whole curriculum.
Often, it can be a challenge to find age-appropriate resources and staff that have the knowledge and skills to teach these early reading skills.
Why is Phonics & Decoding so Important?
Learning to read is not a simple task. It is made up of multiple processes and skills that work together to achieve full text understanding.
This is commonly explained by the Simple View of Reading (Gough and Tunmer, 1986) which explains that full reading comprehension is made up of both language comprehension and decoding skills. Deficiencies in any of these core skills can then lead to differing issues in reading accurately and with understanding. Watch the video below to learn more about the Simple View of Reading and how reading can be broken down into these core competencies.
Which Foundational Reading Skills Should Students be Practising?
The basics of reading can be broken down into a few key skills. For non-proficient readers, explicit practice of these core skills is vital, which is why Lexia PowerUp Literacy features each of these skills in the early levels of the Word Study strand:
- Blending: The ability to combine sounds together to read words. This can be practiced by providing students with separate sounds and asking them to blend them together to create words.
- Segmenting: Conversely to blending, students also need to be able to split words into their individual sounds, this is known as segmenting. Practice by listening to words and splitting them up into their individual sounds. This skill forms the basis of spelling.
- Confusable sounds: Often, students come to secondary with some misconceptions and may confuse similar sounding graphemes, causing inaccuracy in their spelling. Practicing distinguishing between these sounds helps to address these misconceptions, empowering pupils to be more precise with their spelling.
- Letter-Sound Correspondence: Once student have a grasp of verbal sounds, introducing the various graphical representations of sounds enables students to apply their knowledge to word-reading. This can then be built upon by breaking up and reading multi-syllabic words.
- Fluency: This skill acts as the thread that weaves all foundational reading skills together, by practicing decoding until it is automatic, fluency is achieved along with the ability to better comprehend text. Revisiting these skills regularly to support automaticity is vital to confident and fluent reading.
The Structured Literacy Approach
PowerUp utilises a Structured Literacy Approach to teach these foundational literacy skills which means it is built on 4 main principles:
- Systematic and Cumulative – Concepts are sequenced in a logical order and builds gradually.
- Explicit – Concepts are taught directly and clearly and each skill is clearly modelled.
- Multisensory – Multiple learning modes are utilised to ensure that all types of learners are catered for.
- Diagnostic – Initial assessment means that content is pitch exactly at the student’s level.
Real Schools, Real Stories
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Our Star School for February is…
Bury CE High School, Greater Manchester!
We spoke to Kevin Blood (English and Literacy Learning Mentor) and Natalie Davies (SpLD Teacher/Exam Access Arrangements Assessor), who use the Lexia program with a broad range of students between Year 7 and 11.
How did you first come across the Lexia program and what led to the school’s final decision to purchase?
Natalie: It was me that initially found the program online and was given the task of researching different products. From my research, I found it to be the best in terms of the features it offered and how it could help children at our school. The research was passed on to the previous Head of English who then went on to submit a bid to the Headteacher and Lexia was purchased. We have had the programme around 3 years now. We really rate it!
What do you feel makes Lexia stand apart from other reading skills software products on the market?
Natalie: It’s very targeted. The targeted learning pathways mean that each pupil is doing work that is exactly targeted to them at their level so it’s not too hard. It gives them exactly what they need to know. I think it is also better than other programs out there because it caters to such a wide range of ages and abilities.
Having Core5 aimed at primary level and PowerUp aimed at secondary is a great bonus. Other programs don’t seem to offer that; its usually one program for everyone with sometimes quite ‘babyish’ graphics which aren’t suitable for high school pupils. PowerUp offers the same level of support for our pupil’s but the graphics are more appropriate.
Kevin: Another thing we discussed that made the Lexia program stand out is that it was originally developed in 1984 so it is both long-standing and has updated with the development of new technology. Lexia has set the trend but has also kept right up to date.
What I like about it is that the pupils make progress quickly. We know that practice makes permanence, and Lexia doesn’t let a student move on with an ingrained error. It will always take them back to the skill and enable them to practice it until they get it right.
One of the challenges we have at the secondary level is that, for whatever reason, certain issues can become ingrained. So having Lexia to find those gaps they have and not letting them go until they are corrected is great. The Lexia Lessons are pre-prepared for us to deliver so it is really handy to address needs as and when they arise.
This supports teacher workload especially with all the stresses within the education system at the moment. The Skill Builders are helpful as well. They consolidate knowledge and ground their learning really well.
As Natalie said, it’s age appropriate. The content is right for each year group and having a separate program, dedicated to secondary-age pupils stood out for us. We do have some of our learners that use Core5 as well if they come to us at a lower level and then we can prepare them to access PowerUp when they are ready. We have found Core5 particularly helpful for our pupils with EAL.
One other thing that makes it stand out is that it is looking for learner feedback all the time. We really like to focus on learner engagement as well as it being aligned to the college and career-ready standards. This is especially good for our Year 10s and 11s.
How is Lexia used in your school? Please provide details of your daily routine and how you ensure that you reach recommended usage as well as which pupils use the program in school.
Natalie: We currently have 71 pupils on the program across Years 7 and 11. They access Lexia during form time and they also have a dedicated one-hour session per week with either Kevin or myself.
So the way this works is that there are two 20-minute morning sessions a week per year group. Instead of going to their form class, they come to the library where we can facilitate two groups at a time because it is quite a large space.
For pupils that have been assessed and have been placed in our Urgent Intervention category, they also get an additional hour session a week, on top of the 20 minutes, so they get plenty of time to catch up.
We also send Lexia home as homework which the parents appreciate and the pupils like to do as well. It’s been good to email parents termly reports as it helps to bring up the usage they get at home. If parents get access to the reports, it helps to get them on board as they are more involved with their child’s learning. It is all about communicating with parents.
We have one pupil who has almost finished the program because they have been so engaged with it at home and because we have a good relationship with parents we can pass on that information.
We have found that Lexia can cover a lot of needs in school. We use it for SEN pupils and, as a dyslexia specialist, I have found it helpful to use Lexia to support these interventions too.
We have a large cohort of EAL pupils that it has helped and it has also covered the disadvantage gap too, supporting our pupil premium and Free School Meals students. It covers a wide range of needs and every pupil is getting the support they need.
Describe the impact that Lexia has had on your pupils. Have you noticed a positive change in their motivation to succeed in literacy? Can you give an example of a Lexia success that sticks out to you?
Kevin: Yes, we have. There are a lot of pupils who are currently accessing Lexia that now attend the library during social times and some are now even librarians! We have received positive feedback from teachers, saying pupils are engaging and performing better in lessons, with some pupils volunteering to read aloud who would never have previously. I think that has been a real positive.
Natalie: That is a massive achievement! Having pupils come to our sessions and telling us how they have read out loud in class, I couldn’t believe it! You can really see how it has affected their confidence.
Kevin: The engagement with the library has been very apparent this year, it has recently been improved and as soon as it opened again a lot of our Lexia students were straight in as they now have that confidence to use it.
Natalie: It is great. Having those basic literacy skills has massively brought the students confidence up across the school.
Can you give an example of a Lexia success that sticks out to you?
Natalie: We have had a few that we can think of! One pupil, which we will call A is now in Year 9. When they were in year 7, A’s reading age was 7 years and 9 months. A has been accessing the programme since Y7 and their reading age is now 11 years. They never read aloud when starting at Bury Church and during last year’s school Christmas Carol service, they read out a passage in front of the whole school and staff. A is also now a librarian and, because they have improved their confidence when speaking as well, they regularly volunteer to be a tour guide on Opening Evenings for prospective Y7 pupils and their parents.
Kevin: We have another pupil in Year 9, who we will call M. M came on the radar for intervention after a spring STAR reading assessment this year which gave her a result of 7 years and 7 months. M has been accessing the programme for 7 months during form time twice a week along with a 1-hour lesson per week with me. We recently retested them and their reading age is now 11 years and 5 months. M is now ‘At Benchmark’ and no longer needs to access Lexia. That is such a huge leap in such a short time. I was blown away when I saw the result!
They stand a good chance of accessing the whole curriculum now. One thing I noticed that helped this pupil in particular was the work they did on Greek and Latin roots. Having this knowledge has really opened up a lot of the science curriculum as well as the social sciences. Talking with the student about these concrete examples of where it can be applied to the curriculum made the student understand the benefit of the work they had done.
How have you used rewards to motivate and celebrate success on the Lexia program?
Natalie: We use the Lexia certificates, they are printed off monthly, so pupils’ achievements on the programme are continually reinforced. During the form time sessions, we hand out raffle tickets for pupils who are making good progress and engaging well with the program. On the second session of the week, we do a raffle for each year group and 5 pupils get picked to get a prize!
For small group 1-hour sessions, each student has their own bespoke literacy reward chart and receives stickers for working well which equate to prizes. This works very well. They go mad for it! They always want to show us how many stickers that have gotten each day. It has been a real motivator for them.
How useful have you found the myLexia reports in terms of demonstrating progression and informing planning?
Kevin: The Lexia Parent Reports are very useful for me for informing parents on where their child is up to, and it opens a channel to frequently communicate with parents without adding to teacher workload. I don’t have to go and compose an in-depth report myself, it is all there. They are clear and well broken down and, if there are any questions, parents can get in touch and we can discuss it further.
The Parent Reports also provide an good opportunity to promote home usage in a targeted and focused way. When a report goes back home, it encourages parents to keep their child using Lexia at home because they can see what it is the students need to work on exactly.
The Student Skill Reports are made available to teachers as they come off the programme, so, at that point, quality-first teaching can take place based on the information given which allows for differentiation. It is reinforcing good practice across the whole school.
We log on to myLexia up to 3-4 times a week to check on pupils’ progress and establish if any require further support with Lexia lessons. Lessons are completed during form and small group sessions with specific members of staff. We have found the lessons helpful in informing planning across the school. They are nice and quick to deliver which is particularly helpful during our form group sessions.
Natalie: It is good that the system also provides the answers to the Lessons and Skill Builders as well, especially when you are marking a lot of them at once. It’s a real time-saver!
What main piece of advice would you give to a school that was just getting started with Lexia?
Natalie: I think we both agree that there must be a structured approach to delivering this online intervention. It can’t just be a case of purchasing Lexia and putting pupils in front of a computer. That’s how we have been so successful at this school. You need to make sure that you set specific times, dates, constant monitoring for pupil engagement and the communication with home to promote home access.
The use of prizes alongside the certificates is a big thing that we would recommend. It really helps to motivate the pupils.
We also recommend staff that are using Lexia should complete the training offered by LexiaUK. We found that very helpful at the start to support us navigating through the different systems and finding out about all the features that make life so much easier, like the log in cards. Lexia provides the tools for the structure, you just need to know how to access it and apply it. That’s why the training is so important.
Having consistent staff delivering Lexia is also very important. For example, Kevin and I run the interventions and that works well because we understand the pupils needs and we know how to deliver Lexia effectively. It also helps in building that relationship with your Lexia pupils, because having reading difficulties can make students feel vulnerable and having that rapport can help them succeed. Parents appreciate having a specific person to go to as well.
Kevin: I agree, it all comes down to the structure of it. With limited time, a somewhat rigid structure is what makes it work well. Everything is there, you just need to build a structure and a routine around it.
What feedback have you had from your Lexia pupils?
Natalie: They love it! They are so enthusiastic about it. Quite a few of the pupils have said they like the videos and find them funny. They also really like the streaks, a lot of our kids call them strikes! They get excited when they get a strike! They also like the way they can track their own progress from their Student Dashboard and, of course, they love the certificates!
Do you have any additional comments on why you feel Lexia has been successful in your school?
Natalie: Lexia has had such a massive impact on our pupils and, in a recent Ofsted inspection, we were told that our pupils, from accessing the program and the support we deliver at school that ‘the school has improved its systems to identify the specific barriers that cause some pupils to have insecure reading knowledge.
The support that these pupils receive is effective in helping them to become confident and fluent readers.’ (Ofsted, September 2023) It just shows how much it has actually helped the pupils and, for Ofsted to pick that up, we were really impressed!
Kevin: Just to add a personal note as well; when I was in school, I struggled with reading as well. Reading intervention back then was much more basic but it changed my life. It has inspired me to keep going in my role as I know the impact it has on students’ lives. Us as a staff and Lexia are able to help these kids access a better quality of life. Particularly for pupils that have come from a disadvantaged background, that can make a world of difference.
I appreciate the value that Lexia has brought to our pupils. If I had Lexia when I was a kid, I would have made progress much quicker and may not have felt as self-conscious about reading too!
Step into the Literacy Spotlight
The ability to comprehend and use a rich and diverse vocabulary is paramount for students to access all subjects in the curriculum successfully. A crucial aspect of developing a rich disciplinary vocabulary lies in understanding the morphology and etymology behind many of these academic words. The study of meaningful word parts such as prefixes, suffixes, Latin roots, and Greek combining forms, enables students to build a strong foundation for deciphering unfamiliar words, fostering a deeper understanding of language across various disciplines.
What is Morphology?
At its core, morphology is the investigation of the structure and meaning of words, focusing on their individual components. These components include prefixes, which are added at the beginning of a word; suffixes, added at the end; Latin roots, providing the core meaning of a word; and Greek combining forms, which offer additional depth to vocabulary. An understanding these word parts acts as a toolkit for decoding the academic language that permeates all aspects of the curriculum.
Why Teach Morphology?
Teaching morphology is not just an exercise in linguistic exploration; it is a powerful strategy to enhance vocabulary acquisition. By breaking down words into their morphological components, students gain a set of building blocks that they can apply to unfamiliar terms they encounter. This can have a far-reaching impact on a student’s access to the curriculum, as morphological structures are not confined to a single subject but are pervasive across various disciplines.
How Can I Implement Morphology in the Classroom?
- Make Visual Links – Morphological word parts can be abstract, making it challenging for students to remember them. One effective strategy is to establish visual links by associating these parts with images. Our Core5 and PowerUp program begin morphology activities with simple picture-matching exercises, enabling students to create lasting visual connections that support the retention of this word knowledge.
- Break Down Unfamiliar Words – Encourage students to break down words they come across to increase morphological awareness. Analysing the meaning of word families as well as comparing words with similar components, all foster a deeper understanding of language structure. Both Core5 and PowerUp provide students with opportunities to identify, categorise, and compare word parts, reinforcing their knowledge.
- Use New Word Parts in Multiple Contexts – Implement a school-wide and cross-curricular approach to reinforce the use of new word parts. Encourage students to recognise these morphological elements they discover in various subjects to promote a holistic understanding of language. Core5 allows pupils to apply their knowledge by using morphological word parts in different sentences, while PowerUp challenges students to identify newly acquired word parts in passages of academic text.
Conclusion
Incorporating morphology into vocabulary instruction offers a dynamic approach to enhancing vocabulary skills across the curriculum. By building pupils’ knowledge of morphological structures, and with the help of programs like Core5 and PowerUp, educators can accelerate vocabulary acquisition and empower students to unlock academic language. Morphology is not just a tool for language enthusiasts; it is a key to unlocking a world of knowledge and understanding across a range of different subjects.
Lexia Core5 Reading | Lexia PowerUp Literacy
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We are thrilled to announce our first Star School of 2024 is…
Coombe Road Primary School, Brighton!
We spoke to Sheila Walker, who leads on the Lexia program in school. She told us how the Lexia program has been a longstanding fixture in their school and how they have been able to maximise Lexia by using it with their entire Year 2 cohort.
Read the full interview below.
How did you first come across the Lexia program and what led to the school’s final decision to purchase?
We are going back a long way now! I looked into it and, after doing some research and reading some case studies, it seemed like it would have a good impact. Looking into the costs as well and pricing it out per pupil, it appeared to be excellent value.
Once we rolled it out in school, we quickly saw the impact it was having on the children and their progress with reading, so we have stuck with it ever since! We have been using it for about 6 or 7 years now!
What do you feel makes Lexia stand apart from other reading skills software products on the market?
I think the graphics are superior when you look at other providers and the children are really engaged with it. Generally, it reached the majority of all of our children over the years both in terms of engagement and the results. Once children get into the routine, they really love it. It’s been embedded in our day to day school life really well. Parents are aware of it as well. It’s really just part of the school now!
Even with the difficulties with budgets in schools at the moment, it is well worth keeping Lexia because it’s effective.
How is Lexia used in your school? Please provide details of your daily routine and how you ensure that you reach recommended usage as well as which pupils use the program in school.
Currently we are using Lexia with 23 children in Year 1 and 24 children in Year 2. That is the whole of our Year 2 cohort and all but 5 of Year 1 who would struggle to access the system until they reach a higher level of reading.
In our termly progress meetings, we will look at the school data and identify if we want to put any additional students onto Lexia, if they are ready. In these meetings, we may also decide that some children have flown through it and caught up to be age-related in reading so we will remove them from Lexia to free that licence up for another pupil. We can be flexible in that way.
We have a timetabled Lexia slot for each class in the IT suite every day. With each class we have 4 groups working on the online program while 1 group takes part in guided reading with their teacher. This rotates each day so that every pupil gets at least four x 30 minutes sessions per week on average.
For the past 3 or 4 years, we have provided Lexia to the whole of Year 2 and that has had a good impact as they have gone into Key Stage 2, giving them a good grounding of phonics and reading skills. This year, we have also decided to concentrate more licenses to the majority of Year 1 as well to extend that impact. Our hope is that after 2 years of Lexia, the majority of our pupils will be flying by the time they reach Year 3! We have found that using the program with a whole class has been much easier to implement than having just a few pupils from each class. This way we know we are getting the full impact from it.
Describe the impact that Lexia has had on your pupils. Have you noticed a positive change in their motivation to succeed in literacy? Can you give an example of a Lexia success that sticks out to you?
Yes, when a child in the class achieves their next level, we make sure that we celebrate them. They get claps and cheers from their class during the session and a certificate is printed for the Headteacher to present in Celebration Assembly on Friday. They are all very proud when they receive their Lexia certificates and enjoy taking them home to share with parents.
One thing that has really helped all pupils is that, it doesn’t matter which level they are on, the progress is celebrated nonetheless. The children are all genuinely pleased for each other’s achievements so it has helped create a really positive atmosphere.
We have also seen the impact during our termly pupil progress meetings where each child is discussed. It has been really affirming to see the progress seen on the myLexia reports corresponding with teacher’s observations. Even if there is a difference, it can really help us identify where additional support may be needed. On the whole we are finding that it is speeding up their progress to where they need to be.
Can you give an example of a Lexia success that sticks out to you?
I had a child that I used to work with in Year 2 when I was a specialist TA. I worked one to one with pupils on their literacy skills and this pupil in particular had and EHCP for their Speech and Language needs. We began using Lexia as part of his intervention program and by the end of Year 2, he could read every key word right up to year 6! He also got 40 out of 40 when he retook the Phonics Screening test so he was one that really stood out to me as one that Lexia has made a big difference to.
How have you used rewards to motivate and celebrate success on the Lexia program?
In addition to the certificates and celebration assembly, we have found that parent consultations have been effective for motivating pupils. Sharing successes with parents has been helpful for keeping the children going on the program. We also have a house points system so teachers can give out points when a pupil has really excelled on Lexia.
Pupils are generally very motivated to engage with Lexia. They love all the games and graphics that come along with it. They are always wanting to know what the next level’s theme might be so there is a lot of motivation built in.
How useful have you found the myLexia reports in terms of demonstrating progression and informing planning?
I keep an eye on the myLexia reports and will let the class teacher and TA know when any pupils require any further support. I also download the Lexia Lesson Plans and Skills Builders and provide the appropriate resources to staff so that they have everything they need to get pupils past the point they are struggling with.
This is important because we don’t want the pupils to begin to lose motivation if they are getting stuck on a particular activity. They TAs are also good at spotting when a pupil needs help as the progress bar changing colour at the bottom of the screen is an easy visual to check as they are walking around the IT Suite.
This approach works well as I can use the reports to inform teachers and TAs if children need additional support, and they can decide the best course of action for each pupil. In some cases, it can be that simply sitting with the pupil to support them with the online activity is all that’s needed, while for others, 5 minutes away from the program to work on a quick paper-based activity will get them back on track, they get back on the program and then they’re off!
What main piece of advice would you give to a school that was just getting started with Lexia?
I would probably recommend that they focus on a class or two at a time when starting out. Getting the routines in place before introducing it to more pupils.
I would also recommend that it is timetabled that pupils get slightly more than their recommended weekly usage on the program. This really helps to give their progress a good push!
Finally, I would recommend having someone, like myself, to oversee the program and discuss results regularly with teachers. This helps both teachers and pupils see the impact of the program on their progress which can help spur on its use even more.
What feedback have you had from your Lexia pupils?
We had a child come into our office this morning and say to the SENCO, ‘I’ve just completed my Level 8 on Lexia yesterday and I haven’t had my certificate!” I had only just printed off the certificates, so I replied to the pupil, “I think you’ll find it’s just there on that desk!” They are really proud of their achievements, so they are really aware when they are due a certificate. Generally, they are all really positive about the program – I don’t remember the last time a child said they didn’t like Lexia.
Thank you for speaking with us, Sheila! Look out for your Star School certificate and book voucher arriving soon!