Numeracy and Literacy Project

Aim Intervention Enrichment Results Numeracy Researcher Norton Breakfast Club









The Number of Pupils with Numeracy and Literacy Problems
to be Halved by Year 2000

The LCET Numeracy & Literacy Project aims to reduce, by half, the number of pupils who leave Letchworth Secondary Schools with numeracy and literacy problems by the year 2000.

Three special needs teachers, Mrs Liz Bass from Fearnhill School, Mrs Maria Breslin from the Highfield School and Mrs Janet Lee, from Norton School are leading the project. For a year, Sue and Rosemary researched methods of measuing literacy, talked to national experts, attended courses and found out about similar initiatives. As a result of their researches the state schools agreed to use the same method of testing, namely the NFER Comprehension Test, in late October.

Starting in September 1996 the programme operated at two levels.
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Intervention
Pupils in Year 7 who have been shown to have special reading difficulties are
  • withdrawn from part of some lessons each day in order to follow a specially tailored programme to fit their needs.
  • extra staff were employed to enable this to happen.

The main intervention schemes in operation are

  • The Corrective Reading Scheme - MacMillan
  • Toe by Toe - an effective intervention scheme developed by a former primary school teacher in yorkshire

The intervention scheme continues into year 8.
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Enrichment
School librarians are encouraged to have available books both fiction and non-fiction suitable for the target group.
  • The possibility of having support teachers in the libraries to help students is also being proposed.
  • Book Trails - local shops sponsor a book and display the anagram of the title in their window. Year 6 students go round the town and decode the anagrams. These books are awarded as prizes to the successful pupils.
  • Working parties in the schools are developing strategies to help pupils with their literacy problems.
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Results So Far
After just two terms we were delighted with the first results. All pupils were tested in July 1996 with the nationally accepted NFER comprenension test. The average gain was fifteen months. These pupils continued to have extra help for another year and they sustained and built on the improvements.

The intervention programme continues and subsequent results are equally encouraging.

These pupils will continue to have extra help for another year by which time they should have easily caught up.
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Numeracy
A group of mathematicians is now working towards a similar intervention programme for numeracy.

The test they have chosen is the NFER "Profile of Mathematical Skills" arrived at after considerable research. Although quite old it is :-

  • easy to administer
  • has a useful diagnostic element
  • can be repeated
  • not expensive
    		•
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    Primary School
    Rosemary Williamson, a former senior member of staff at The Highfield School, has been appointed by Research Machines to do research for them into Numeracy and Literacy in Primary Schools. Her time will be divided between familiarising herself with the detail of recent government proposals and research and seeing how these can benefit Letchworth Primary Schools.

    Over the last three years Research Machines have contributed over £60,000 to the Numeracy and Literacy project. This latest development confirms the personal commitment of Mike Fischer, RM's Non-Executive President and Project Director of LCET, to improving numeracy and literacy standards. So watch this space.

    In addition a group of primary school teachers have set up a self support group for mathematics.
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