Shebbear College Learning Support Department
the scheme was featured in the local press recently.
See:
Shebbear College Newspaper Article
We do not underestimate
the difficulty of organising such a scheme - especially in a
large state school. Wholehearted
support from the whole school is vital to success.
However, the benefits of a successful scheme are so
overwhelming that it is well worth the effort. Recently
described by Ofsted as an 'Outstanding School' (June
2006), Sharnbrook Upper School in
Bedfordshire has an exemplary buddy scheme.
Instigated by Head, Peter Barnard, and carefully monitored
by Pamela Sutliff, the scheme is achieving astonishing
results and is to be expanded school-wide from September
2006. (See
Reading Age chart)
Struggling readers from
Years-9/10/11 are assigned two Year-12 mentors each.
Lessons are daily and - having 2 mentors – a particular
student is assured the availability of a mentor for every
session. To minimise disruption to the school timetable,
wherever possible, the TBT sessions take place during ‘tutor
time’.
Some comments from younger learners:
(Year-9) “Happy I done
it! Enjoyed it! You’re not sitting in tutor time doing
nothing. My reading’s better now and I read more”
(Year-10) “It was worth
it. They (the tutors) stuck with me and wouldn’t
give up. They kept encouraging”
(Year 11) “I didn’t
read much but I do now. My parents are amazed!”
School-Parent Partnerships
The importance of daily
intervention with struggling readers cannot be
overestimated. Due to the reinforcement and over-learning
built into the TBT scheme, daily sessions
provide by far the best results. The process of dragging a
particular sound / skill back into their consciousness after
a gap of – at least – 24 hours helps to reinforce the
‘pathway’ between sight and sound. In schools, for various
reasons, it can be difficult to provide more than 2 or 3
sessions for a particular student in a week. Therefore, if
a school can enlist the help of parents to act as coaches
when help is not available at school, there is an excellent
chance of maintaining daily intervention and thus optimising
progress.
TBT is written in such a
way that any literate person can act as coach. Therefore
most parents should be well able to take on this role.
However it is important that the school monitors progress
carefully to ensure that the course is being followed as
intended. The system of ticks and dots used in TBT is so
simple that monitoring is actually quite easy. We therefore
recommend that schools look at books on (say) a weekly basis
to ensure that all is going well.
One school with an
excellent parent-school partnership in operation is St
George’s School, in Edgbaston (Birmingham). Organised by
SENCO, Pia Abbott, the school enlists the help of parents
who were also assigned ‘teacher mentors’. Each teacher
takes on 3 to 5 families and monitors progress carefully.
Tea parties, theatre trips etc have been organised to give
cohesion to the scheme. Unswerving support from the
Principal down has resulted in marvellously effective
school-wide literacy training.
The scheme only started
in February 2006 but is already yielding impressive
results. (Data available in September 2006...)
Some early comments from those involved:
(Parents) “For
the first time I feel I am doing something positive to help
my child but I could not have done it on my own”
“I’ve enjoyed the ‘get togethers’ with other
parents and pupils. It’s stopped me feeling so isolated
with the problem of a dyslexic child”
(Pupils)
“It’s been hard work and sometimes I haven’t wanted to do it
after school but I’m pleased with the progress I’ve made.”
“I know I am more confident when I read in
class. I don’t mind being asked quite so much.”
(Teachers) “What
a difference in her reading. She’s become almost fluent in
only five months.”
"Wow - I wish I'd found this years ago."
Support Assistants Acting as Mentors
Toe by Toe
schemes in the majority of schools in the U.K. are run by
teaching assistants (TAs). Most teachers, of course, do not
have the time to give 20 minutes of individual attention to
one child so most schools use TAs in the role of TBT
tutor. It is important that the TA carefully follows the
instructions as laid down in the manual but - as long as
they do so - no formal training is required.
The teacher / senco may
prefer to monitor progress carefully the first time a TA
takes a child through the scheme though the TA will very
quickly see what is required. Experience helps, of course,
but TAs soon begin to enjoy the process as they see the
child’s confidence and ability begin to blossom.
One school which runs a
particularly well organised (and highly successful) scheme
along these lines is Lindley Junior School in Huddersfield.
Organised by Ruth Shimell, SENCO at Lindley, the T.A.s work
with the children for 20-minute sessions on a daily basis.
There is also some support from parents at weekends but the
pupils usually have five 20 minute sessions / week on weekdays. The TBT
intervention at Lindley began in earnest in 2003 and
impressive results are now expected for every child who goes
on the scheme. In November 2007 the school reported
that a total of 53 students had now finished TBT. The
average time taken to finish was 17.5 months and the
average improvement 37.2 months (as measured by
Schonnell). Truly remarkable results for struggling
readers. As Ruth Shimell points out: "It is a
long time since we have had any children who have left us
not being able to decode at an appropriate level..."
Please see the Excel File with data and chart at:
Lindley Reading Age Chart
Extracts from Lindley Junior School pupils' letters
to Keda:
"I am writing to you to thank you for
Toe-by-Toe. it's helped me to pronounce words better,
and to also learn meanings... I will always remember what
Toe-by-Toe has done for me."
"It has helped me to read my horse
books at school and at home"
"I can read longer words an have
learned to break down the big word... My favourite part was
the syllable divisions and my least favourite were the
nonsense words"
These schemes are not restricted to the
U.K., of course. For example, Linwood College in
Christchurch, New Zealand runs an excellent Toe by Toe
scheme:
Toe-by-Toe Remedial Reading:
"This applied phonics remedial reading
programme has raised individual students' reading ages by an
average of over 2 years in less than 9 months.
Individual tuition with a support staff worker each day is a
key to its success"
From the Linwood website
at:
www.linwoodcollege.school.nz
Linwood College has
also produced a highly professional and thorough report on
their groundbreaking use of Toe by Toe.
A summary of the tremendous impact TBT has had
at Linwood can be seen at:
Linwood Report Summary March 2008
All Hands on Deck
'Since ANY literate person can act as a coach
using Toe by Toe, some schools involve
literally all the staff as literacy coaches. One such
school is in Oxted in Surrey. Jill Sharp, Key Stage 4
Speech and Language Therapy Team Leader and Joint Literacy
Co-ordinator, writes:
“Moor House School, a non-maintained
residential special school, is nationally recognized as a
school which initiated, and continues to lead, the
specialist educational field for children with specific
speech and language impairment.
Many of
our pupils have associated literacy difficulties and we are
constantly researching suitable resources to help in their
learning.
Toe by Toe was first introduced
into school 6 years ago and trialled on just one pupil.
Since then the numbers have grown and grown and we currently
have around 50 pupils on the programme. We also have a small
number of pupils using Stareway to Spelling
and Stride Ahead.
In order to ensure that each pupil receives
the individual time required we have introduced a system
whereby 20 minute slots dedicated solely to literacy are
allocated to classes first thing in the morning at the start
of morning school. During this time the school operates an
‘all hands on deck’ approach whereby staff from all
departments be it administration/office staff, domestic
staff, senior management and of course the bank of classroom
practitioners including teachers, speech and language
therapists and special teaching assistants all provide the
individual support needed within the targeted classrooms.
We have been delighted by the enthusiasm of
both staff and pupils and the obvious improvement in ability
and confidence demonstrated by all pupils involved.”
Another innovative
literacy scheme is in operation at Toothill School in
Bingham near Nottingham. They have been running a
highly successful Toe by Toe scheme for more
than a decade. Teachers, parents, teaching assistants
and fellow students all act as Toe by Toe
mentors. The scheme was instigated by Deputy Head,
Wendy Nelson, but is now run by Senior Teaching Assistant,
Sue Bird.
The
scheme has now been expanded to use both Stride Ahead
and Stareway to Spelling with excellent
results. Keda Cowling visited the school to see the
scheme in action in January 2008 and was highly impressed.
Please click on the following link to see a newspaper
article about the visit.
Keda Visit 30/01/2008
