At Longcroft School in Beverley, Lexia has been supporting literacy intervention since 2017. In this month’s interview, teaching assistants Lesley Walker and Pam Fleming detail how implementing Lexia® PowerUp Literacy® has unlocked academic potential from KS3 to KS4, and how the adaptive learning model supports EAL students.
Watch and read the full interview below.
How did you first come across the Lexia Program?
Pam: Lexia was first introduced to our secondary school in 2017 by our SENCO at the time, through our partner trust. It was set up by Lesley and another TA.
Lesley: We started by using it during tutor time in the mornings and afternoons. By 2018, we’d created a nurture group who used it much more.
Pam: I think that’s where we began to see real progress as they were accessing daily. Those students had regular access to the programme, unlike some others who only used it in short tutor slots. Over time, we realised how powerful it was and now we use it regularly – it’s brilliant!
What do you feel makes Lexia stand apart from other reading skills software products on the market?
Pam: For us, it’s easily accessible and promotes independent learning. When the students sit the initial placement test, they start at their own level, and from there they can clearly see their progress from where they started. It’s just amazing!
It’s also something that works well across year groups. We use it from Year 7 through to Year 10, and students enjoy the competitive side of it too.
Lesley: They like getting streaks! You’ll often hear pupils comparing how many streaks they’ve got, which really motivates them. We often hear a commentary from the pupils about who has the biggest streak!
Students with English as an Additional Language (EAL) do great with it too. We have seen lots of progress from them. This really shines in their English lessons, especially since some students start with very little English.
Pam: They are taking control and setting their own work, and they find it fun. I think it’s also the fact that it is on the computer, and it is independent. We are a school that promotes independent learning, and Lexia is student-driven but we are still there to step in when needed.
How is Lexia used in school?
Pam: We use it during registration time. Each year group has one registration slot in the morning, and they also have one full hour lesson of Lexia a week. We identify the pupils through our STAR testing, who are usually the bottom 20% of readers.
Once they’ve been on the programme for a while, we look at their progress. It’s built into the classrooms and overseen by a member of the senior leadership team, who keeps an eye on all the data. We’ll take some students off and put others on depending on how they’re progressing.
Because we’re now getting the minutes in and they’re using it regularly, we can really see how much progress they’re making compared with when we first started using Lexia.
Lesley: We also use it to support English lessons as well. When they’ve got an English literacy lesson, the pupils who are on Lexia come out to us to do their session, while the others stay in the classroom and work with the teacher.
What impact has Lexia had on your pupils?
Lesley: According to the data we’ve have received recently, some of the students have gone up by two year groups with their reading ability, so it is having an impact. We’ve looked at the STAR results across the year and made comparisons, and we’ve even used some GL data at the end of the year. Using different types of data to analyse, we can see they are making good progress.
Pam: Some of the teachers have also said they’ve seen an impact in the classroom in their writing, spelling and grammar, an even just in retrieving information from texts. They can see a difference themselves.
Lesley: I think they’re picking up a lot of decoding skills as well from using the programme, and that helps going forward. If they start on it in Year 7 and are still using it in Year 10, then by the time they get to Year 11 they should be able to decode all the texts they’ll face in their GCSEs.
Can you give an example of a Lexia success that sticks out to you?
Lesley: I would say some of our nurture group pupils have really stood out. If you look back at their archived data, you’ll see big green ticks showing they’d completed everything in areas like comprehension. They went on to sit their GCSEs and did well, which was brilliant to see. They definitely shone for me!
Pam: I would echo Lesley as I can think of a few pupils in the nurture group that achieved in the same way. Currently we have an EAL student who joined without speaking a word of English. We started her on Core5, because the graphics were a bit more supportive for her, but we’ve just now moved her onto PowerUp. She’s flying now! We can see a huge difference in her progress.
How have you used rewards to motivate and celebrate success on the Lexia program?
Lesley: I tend to print the certificates off every week, and we’ve given them out in assemblies before. We also hand them out in lessons when students come in. They’ll say, “Oh, we’ve got certificates today,” and they’re really happy to receive them. Even the Year 10s have been given them, and you still see a smile on their faces, which is quite surprising given they’re in the higher year groups.
Pam: We also share progress with parents. At parents’ evenings we’ll show them how their child is doing and celebrate with them as well, and information will go home to parents. We encourage parents to be positive with the pupils and celebrate how well they’re doing.
Pam: We also share progress with parents. At parents’ evenings we’ll show them how their child is doing and celebrate with them as well, and information will go home to parents. We encourage parents to be positive with the pupils and celebrate how well they’re doing.
How useful have you found the myLexia reports in terms of demonstrating progression and informing planning?
Pam: We print the data , and we analyse it alongside all the other testing we do in school. And to be fair, Lexia does come out a little bit better. Comparing the STAR testing from when they started to what we’re doing now with Lexia, you can see the difference.
Lesley: Our senior leadership team also get the data. We give them the printouts and one of them even did a presentation to the wider leadership team about how good Lexia is – so it’s being promoted at that level as well.
Pam: When it generates the Lesson Plan, its me and Lesley who deliver them. The reports show us the areas where students are struggling the most and we will let teachers know, then they can also implement that support in the classroom as well.
We use the lessons and paper-based resources quite a lot too. If we don’t have a computer room available, we can print the lessons and Skill Builders off for the session, so no learning gets missed.
What main piece of advice would you give to a school that was just getting started with Lexia?
Pam: The main thing is to make sure pupils are getting their minutes. It’s important that they are getting their full time on the programme because that’s when you see the biggest impact.
Lesley: In the early days, it can be hard because pupils don’t always want to leave their English lesson or their friends. It takes perseverance. But once you get into the routine and they start receiving certificates, they see the rewards and that makes all the difference.
What feedback have you had from your Lexia pupils?
Pam: We did a survey recently and the feedback was very positive. Pupils said they enjoyed coming to the Lexia sessions and that they like how they could clearly see their progress and see that visual of their success. The like that it is computer-based as well. Overall, we have had some really positive feedback from both students and their parents.
Parents have also given strong feedback, sometimes even phoning us to ask about Lexia and how it works.
Lesley: Parents have also encouraged their children to use it over the summer holidays and we have been able to give them access to the program at home.
Finally, if you could describe Lexia in 3 words, what 3 words would you use?
Interactive, motivating and rewarding.