Getting readers back on track

By Hannah Goff
BBC News education reporter

30,000 children start secondary school each year unable to read

When Johnny � not his real name � was six, he could not say the sounds of the alphabet or read a page of a book.

His Reading Recovery teacher Maggie Morgan says he could do little more than recognise his name in writing.

�He was quite bright, but he must have missed out somewhere along the way,� she said.

Mrs Morgan took him for half an hour a day for around 20 weeks, as part of the Reading Recovery programme backed by the government.

It involves intensive one-to-one support in a calm environment, and lessons are tailored to the pupil's needs.

Now approaching his national tests at the end of primary school, Johnny is expected to achieve a whole level higher than that expected of his age.

For those children who do it, school isn't a nightmare environment any more

Mrs Morgan

The key to the success of Reading Recovery is the intensive time spent with each pupil, says Mrs Morgan.

�You just find out what the pupils can do and take it from there. It doesn't focus on one thing like phonics � it focuses on everything.�

�The other thing is that - because they are so young � they don't get offended. They enjoy the attention. They say, �can I be on your team today?'�

Mrs Morgan has been taking Reading Recovery classes for struggling readers at Oliver Goldsmith Primary in Kingsbury, Brent, for 11 years.

She is convinced that it is the answer to tackling poor literacy among the very young.

�If every child who needed it got it, we would really deal with a huge amount of the special needs that appear later on.�

'The answer'

She says there are three great advantages to the scheme.

�Firstly, when children are on it, they really take off and fly.

�Secondly, if they have got a really significant problem it's picked up earlier and they can get further help.

�And thirdly, for those children who do it, school isn't a nightmare environment any more.

�They can read and write, and they can access the curriculum and understand what is going on.�

There is no telling what Johnny, and the others on the scheme, would have achieved without it.

But Mrs Morgan adds: �It would have been a lot harder for them.�

�There's no doubt about it; Reading Recovery is definitely the answer.�