This month our Star School is…

Meden School, Nottinghamshire!

We spoke to Stephanie, who is the Lexia Lead at Meden School, and Emma, who supports Lexia sessions. They told us about the hugely successful launch of the program that they had this year.

How did you first come across the Lexia program and what led to the school’s final decision to purchase?

Stephanie: We came across it when we noticed from our termly reading tests that there was a large gap between where they were and where they should be. Our HLTA discovered the program and did some research into it. We then put a presentation forward to the Headteacher to tell them about the PowerUp program and that a certain amount of usage time has been proven to see results.

We started fully rolling it out in December as a trial to allow us to see if it worked. I was able to get enough data to prove to SLT that it was working really effectively with our students.

What do you feel makes Lexia stand apart from other reading skills software products on the market?

Stephanie: I think it is how interactive it is. Emma, who comes in and supports me 3-4 times a week, would also agree with me.

Emma: Yes. I also think as well, it’s the fact that it customises support to each individual student. It really is aimed at building their whole literacy skill set but in a really unique way that is designed just for them. I think that is fantastic skill that, even as teachers, sometimes we can find difficult to grasp and set those specific targets for students. The Lexia program does it for us which is amazing!

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.

Stephanie: We have 150 pupils from Years 7, 8 and 9 on the Lexia program now. They complete their 30 minutes, three times a week. Students who go on the program are determined by their reading test results that we run each term.

We split the students into small groups of about 10-12 so we can provide any support if needed. We have 3 groups of Year 7, 3 for Year 8 and 3 for Year 9 who all have timetabled slots for Lexia every week.

First thing in the morning, before the groups come in, I will log into myLexia and check who needs additional intervention, who needs Skill Builders and decide which students I will sit with as they work on the online program. Some of our students have SEN, so prefer to be actively working through the program with me supporting them side by side. We tend to offer differentiation in how we deliver the program depending on each individual child.

The Skill Builders are usually sent home as a homework activity so that we can include parents in the program. This helps us to encourage parents to sit down with them and be involved in their learning. It doesn’t always have to be a parent, a sibling can also help and get involved. We even joked that even the family dog could sit next to them while they do a skill builder! It’s all about building that independence and autonomy and not forcing the idea that it’s something ‘must do’ but something that can be helpful to them.

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?

Stephanie: I do a 4-weekly review of how the students are progressing. In my most recent review, it has showed that about 30% of pupils Year 7 have moved from the Foundational Levels to Intermediate. In Year 8 and 9 this figure was more like 34% that moved up into the Intermediate material. We have also just had our reading test results back in and as a result we have identified 12 students that can now come off the program and have caught up completely!

A couple of students I can think of started the program with their skills not even at Foundational level but are now working in the Advanced levels. Their progress has really flown since starting it even though they have had the same timetabled usage as the rest of the class!

How have you used rewards to motivate and celebrate success on the Lexia program?

Stephanie: I have created sticker charts for the student that have really encouraged students to interact with all aspects of the program. Some can be hesitant to complete some of the Grammar activities. So the sticker charts means that they have the chance, depending on the number of units and levels they complete, to get stickers, sweets and other incentives.

I have noticed that, since introducing the charts, they are completing more units because they have that incentive. The outcome at the end is that they get a school trip or something like a pizza afternoon near the end of term.

We have found this has really helped keep them motivated because it can be hard to keep up 3 30-minutes session every week so its been really good to offer both smaller and larger rewards. I didn’t think sticker charts would work so well but the love getting a sticker!

Of course, we have also folded the Lexia program into our wider school rewards system as well. They get Golden Tickets when they do particularly well, and the top achieving students will go on the reward trips at the end of the year whether it be a cinema trip, bowling or the theatre. We do all sorts!

We also share success with parents by sending home postcards. We can write on those small successes such as they have met their usage targets or have gotten to the next level. This really keeps parents involved.

How useful have you found the myLexia reports in terms of demonstrating progression and informing planning?

Stephanie: The reports are amazing! We both use it and the information it gives is to the finest detail. It has got everything you could need. The best thing for me is how it flags up what the students are struggling with. Some of our students aren’t the most confident in asking for help. It really helps to know which students might be needing some additional support so we can be more proactive in approaching them before they leave it too long without asking for help.

The usage reports have been very helpful to tell us who how many minutes students have achieved overall as well as the skills reports to see how everyone is progressing. I can print these out individually and as a group to help me use these as a comparison as well. They are very comprehensive and helpful!

How have you expanded Lexia into home-use? How have parents responded?

Stephanie: While we haven’t yet rolled out home use, we have been able to send home the parent specific myLexia reports. This helps the parents see the progress and see specifically how their children are doing and what skills they are working on.

So far, we have sent the Skill Builders home which have been great to promote self-regulated learning at home. We would be interested in finding out more on how they can access Lexia from home, and this could definitely be a way we could develop the use of the program further.

Is there anything else you would like to add? Please provide any personal comments on why you feel Lexia has been successful in your school.

Emma: The way it is moulded to each student is what I find so fantastic about Lexia. We have lots of students using it but they are all at different points on it, so we are assured that they are working at the appropriate level for them.

Stephanie: Something that I have noted is the videos. I can see the kids chuckling at them and they are really engaged with it. All the rap, poetry and songs within the videos, they seem to like it and respond really well to it. Those are the main things; it engages them but it’s also personal to each student which I think they like as well because it’s much better that always doing paper and pencil activities.

They do get really involved; I can see one student in the room with us right now bobbing her head to something, so I know she’s engaged!

What feedback have you had from your Lexia pupils?

Stephanie: We have some students working on Lexia with us now, would you like some live feedback?

Stephanie chooses 3 students in the classroom to give some feedback:

Student 1: “I like Lexia because it helps me learn what nouns and pronouns are and it helps me use grammar in my lessons.”

Student 2: “I think Lexia has helped me with my spelling because before I couldn’t spell some specific words but now I can spell some words that I didn’t know how to spell before.”

Student 3: “Lexia helps me do better in English and spell words better in my lessons. It also helps with my grammar and I understand where commas go a bit better now.”

Stephanie: There you go!

A huge thank you to Stephanie, Emma and their Lexia students for speaking with us and for implementing the PowerUp program so well in their school!

This month our Literacy Spotlight is on the City of Peterborough. We spoke with Karen and Rosie who coordinate and run the Lexia program with their Year 7, 8 and 9 pupils. They share their thoughts on how they have implemented Lexia so well and why they enjoy using it in school.

How did you first come across the Lexia program and what led to the school’s final decision to purchase?

Karen: Literacy in the school has been low due to the demographic of the area that we are in, and we hadn’t really been able to focus on it as much as we wanted to. So, they appointed a new Literacy Lead who is a Senior Assistant Principal and also an English Teacher. She wanted a provision for the students that were just below where they needed to be.

We have looked into other programs, but they were more games-based. PowerUp gives you the reports and the breakdown of where students need help. We trialed it with these students for a while and then fully implemented it with this group at the start of September. It’s going really well so far and the Literacy Lead is really pleased.

What do you feel makes Lexia stand apart from other reading skills software products on the market?

Karen: I think it is engaging. The songs and videos raise the students’ eyebrows at first but when they get into it, they really enjoy it. We hear them repeating the songs and encouraging phrases in the classroom. They also like using the tips tool built into the PowerUp program to get some extra support. Some of the students don’t like asking for help so we are able to point out all the things in the program they can use before they get to the point of asking the teacher questions. They are getting really good at working independently now! If they can’t work through themselves, we notice this when we are checking their progress on myLexia and we can step in if we need to.

Rosie: I think one of the biggest highlights for the students and for us is having that immediate feedback. It’s one of the really great things about this program. Other programs that we were running before really didn’t have the same level of confirmation and praise that goes with PowerUp. Having that immediate ‘well done’ or ‘good job’ as well as the immediate step back and support to look at it a different way has been great to have in the moment. It makes a big difference to our students.

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.

Karen: Lexia has been set up for Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9 students who have a standardised score between 85- 99, this means they are just below their actual reading age.

The students are timetabled to come out of one lesson a week in groups of no more than 12 students, so they have the best chance of focusing for the hour they are with me.

They come into the library and we use the space to spread out the laptops around the room with headphones. We also provide support sheets to students to promote independent learning. I have created definitions sheets and laminated them for the grammar section of the program, this is so the students have a visual aid. I have also printed and laminated the Lexia Powerup Anchor charts for more specific visual support for the students, these also encourage independent development as they are able to refer to the sheets before asking for help.

We have also made laminated log in cards from myLexia to help them get logged in quickly. They are colour-coded according to year group. We have our own Lexia registers so we are up to date with who has been to the Lexia sessions so it is a bit like a military operation!

How have you used rewards to motivate and celebrate success on the Lexia program?

Karen: I set the students targets and they get to win prizes from the “jar of dreams”. The students love the challenge of winning prizes and golden tickets which are part of the school’s reward system. In the jar is a selection of nice stationary and we also have some reading books the students can choose from.

We’ve had some specialised wristbands made with cheesy grammar slogans like ‘punctuation pro’ and ‘literacy legend’. They like those as well. We are trying our best to make it a positive experience to do literacy work.

How useful have you found the myLexia reports in terms of demonstrating progression and informing planning?

Karen: The Lexia reports are very useful when we are seeing where they are struggling but also when we are working with students who have EHCPs. They have reviews each year to establish if they have met their targets so we have been able to print the reports off for the SEN department to help. They can use the reports to show that they are receiving the correct intervention and the progress they are making in those sessions as well as all the areas that they need more support in.

The English department and the teachers communicate with us and ask how pupils are doing with certain skills and we can also provide them with reports that they can use for their lessons as well.

We have regular meetings with the school’s Literacy Lead where we review student progress and address any concerns. We sit and decide whether the student needs additional support within the lesson, one-to-one support or a referral being put into our SEN department for more specialised interventions.

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?

Karen: In September, we had the students complete an NGRT reading test to select the students for the program and towards the end of February they completed a second to track progress. Out of 148 students 96 improved their reading age. This is fantastic, and we are very proud of our students and our Head of Literacy is putting a Lexia graduation pack together for the students who no longer need the support of Lexia.

Since purchasing Lexia, we have seen steady progression from the students accessing the interventions, they arrive to the lessons enthused and asking what their target is for the session.

We have also seen a rise in these same students coming into our library and looking for opportunities to read for leisure, we promote book reviews and reward well written and punctuated reviews.

How have you expanded Lexia into home-use?

Karen: Before the Summer and Christmas holidays, Rosie and I create Lexia packs to go home. It includes a certificate, a skill builder, an activity like a word search or Lexia Bingo, a reading book, bookmark and some stickers to promote literacy even when the students are not in school.

Is there anything else you would like to add? Please provide any personal comments on why you feel Lexia has been successful in your school.

Rosie: For me, I also teach English lessons with small groups especially pupils that have larger gaps in their knowledge. I have found it helpful to look through the Lexia resources for some of the skills that they might have missed in Primary or don’t have a basic grasp of when they are expected in lessons to perform at a higher level. It’s nice to have the Lexia resources in the English department that we can pull from for things like ‘simple sentence construction’ and revisiting the word types. Having those paper resources there help us bolster our own knowledge and help the students that may have missed these elements of the curriculum and bridging those gaps in their English lessons as well. There a so many resources. I don’t think I’ve ever had a moment where I have needed a certain resource and I’ve not been able to find it.

Karen: They are useful. We have laminated a lot of the Anchor Charts for when the students come across something that they are not sure on. Instead of them having the resources on screen, they can have the physical sheet in front of them. Everything is used!

Finally, what feedback have you had from your Lexia pupils?

Rosie: We had a couple of students that, when they were retested, they had reached their expected reading age. We told them that they have graduated the program and that they would not need to attend sessions anymore and they had asked if they could continue coming to the sessions anyway, which was amazing to hear! They wanted to keep going and they wanted to keep improving. It was surprising but lovely!

Karen: It is always good to hear. They do love it. They are interested. Usually, I will take a look at the screen while they are working and see what levels they are all at to ensure that all move on from the foundation zone. The students are always asking for feedback of what strand they should do next so they can improve.