Literacy Spotlight – Lift Greenwood, Birmingham

June 22, 2026

This time the Literacy Spotlight falls on Lift Greenwood Academy, Birmingham. Library Manager Laura Rickards tells us of her school’s literacy issues, and how Lexia addressed them and got her students GCSE-ready.

Can you tell us a about your school environment and some of the literacy challenges you face?

Laura: Here at Lift Greenwood Academy, we’re based in an inner-city housing estate in Birmingham. We have a high percentage of disadvantaged students which currently sits at 66%; we also have a large SEND cohort that is around 26%. This includes ECHP’s and all together is a rather large cohort.

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

Laura: We’ve actually had Lexia for a number of years, but this last year we’ve decided to take a different approach as to how we implement the program. Now it seems a lot more positive, and we’re running it from Year 7 all the way to Year 10. It’s working exceptionally well with different groups too.

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

Laura: I really enjoy teaching with Lexia, and the students enjoy following along. The programme guides the students from module to module, and as a teacher you can jump in to help wherever you need to. You can also pull any student data very easily, which is good as it shows you a snapshot of their progress, as well as any area where an individual child needs to work on.

Which cohorts do you use Lexia with and how do you identify pupils to put on the program?

Laura: At our school any Lexia intervention begins with an NGRT test. This identifies individual students that require extra support to fill any literacy gaps. We run the intervention as timetabled lessons between Years 7 and 10, either with myself or my colleague, Miss Jeffs.

What is your approach to timetabling and how do you ensure that you reach your recommended usage?

Laura: At Lift Greenwood we have fully timetabled sessions of Lexia. If any students don’t hit their targets, then Lexia becomes homework, which actually goes down quite well! This also happens in the case of where students only have one session per week, they get those minutes sent home and then they are rewarded when these are done.

Putting the time in for Lexia is so important as the school has put huge emphasis on literacy over the new few years. We have the backing of everyone as Lift Schools as well as the headteacher and the SLT. Leadership are very happy with us to go forward and use as much time as we need to make sure our students are getting the best out of their education.

Home use is very important to our implementation of Lexia. We’ve had very few problems with sending the programme home, with odd bumps in the road at the beginning, but the students do exceptionally well with it. If they have any issues they’re very confident in coming to us and saying “This isn’t working” or “Could you give me some guidance?”

Describe the impact that Lexia has had on your pupils

Laura: Overall, it’s been very positive with a lot of our students making good progress. I’ve seen myself that it really makes a difference to the student’s confidence too, especially in instances where we’ve had students who started off with an exceptionally low reading ability. We then see that through Lexia and support from our staff, they’re beaming with confidence. They go from not wanting to read aloud, not understanding comprehension and problems with their grammar to fully self-confident.

Can you give an example of a Lexia success that stick out to you?

Laura: There’s one student that always sticks around, and he went from a ST-3 to an ST-7. From this they finished Lexia, surpassed all out expectations and it was absolutely amazing to see!

They’ve been able to take all of this into their lessons. They can read their exam questions with ease where they were once struggling. This is ultimately what this is all about; preparing students for their exams. Unfortunately, some students will struggle to read their exam papers and not understand the questions, so Lexia prepares them by reinforcing their comprehension. Its really aided them with that.

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

Laura: We have a few ways we reward engaged students. The Lexia Reward Cards are printed and stamped with progress, and once this is complete they can go and get a book from the new book vending machine we recently purchased. This sits in the middle of the canteen so everyone can see it. A full reward card gets you a lovely new book!

We also have a treat box in the library that has pretty pens, fidget toys and chocolate. These always go down exceptionally well with our students.

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

Laura: So useful! Everything is available at the click of a button. You can ascertain whether a student is struggling with comprehension, grammar or whether they just require more general support. You can break this down into small manageable chunks and it gives both the teacher and student greater understanding.

What main piece of advice would you give to a school that was just getting started with Lexia?

Laura: I would say pay attention to organisation and timetabling. It’s wonderful to get established right from the beginning how much time you have for Lexia, and a clear time frame of when you can implement the programme throughout the week. We also found that a strong reward system was really beneficial to our students, so I’d recommend that for any other school thinking of picking up Lexia.

What feedback have you had from your Lexia pupils?

Laura: Our students have found it so easy to use. That’s massive, as some students I think would have found things like this daunting. But once you’ve shown them how easy it is, and what to do in each part, then they’ve been using it with ease.

I can also see that they enjoy it. The rewards, the competitive element that they can have with their friends. That massively helps with them gaining the amount of units that they do.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Laura: I’m really impressed by the way as a school we’ve implemented this over the year. It just seems to be running much smoother this academic year, which is fantastic. Now the flow is a lot better, and with the renewed support of our leadership team, its been fantastic what we’ve been able to do this time around.