Our Star School for January is…
Meersbrook Bank Primary School, Sheffield!
We spoke to Claire Brammer, Teaching Assistant at Meersbrook Bank School. She told us how they have utilised Lexia Core5 and the myLexia reports to boost reading skills and motivation in pupils of all abilities.
Watch and read the full interview below.
How did you first come across the Lexia program and what led to the school’s final decision to purchase?
Lexia was introduced to us by our SENCO at the time. It came into school as just a few licenses at first and that’s how I adopted it, by testing it with some of the children that I supported at the time. The children really got into it. They made great progress, and before long, we rolled it out across the school. We quickly worked out that it wasn’t just for SEN children, by actually, our gifted and talented children could be pushed by using Lexia because it worked at their level. It didn’t matter if they are above their year level because it worked with them. It then quickly became a thing that we used across the school with a focus on our older children.
What do you feel makes Lexia stand apart from other reading skills software products on the market?
I think it’s the fact that it assesses the child and works at their speed. If they are succeeding, it will move them through the levels faster and when they reach their ceiling or a sticking point, it then really focuses on that skill until they have got it and allows them to move on. One thing I really like about Lexia is that it isn’t just a multiple guess. Some online programs tend to work on a ‘trial and error’ model which allows them to guess, but Lexia doesn’t let them do that. It will take them back when they are struggling and give them more practice based on that skill, rather than just giving them the same questions over and over.
I also like that it provides you with the one-to-one interventions if you need them. So, it will flag up that a child is really stuck and at that point you can print off a one-to-one intervention lesson. They can be delivered by anybody because they are so self-explanatory, you do not have to be au fait with Lexia to deliver it. You can print it off and hand it to any adult in school and ask them to spend 5 minutes on a skill with a child. It just help support them within that skill set that they are struggling with. It’s not just a computer-based intervention.
The children also really like that it marks them instantly, so it gives them that instant feedback. They haven’t got to wait until the teacher marks their work and gives it back the next day which for a lot of our children is too long and they can lose interest. With Lexia, its an instant reward or correction for them and I think that seems to work really well.
It’s also the way that we can track it really easily. It isn’t something that we have to then assess and analyse. It does it all for you and you can print out all your reports just be clicking the right button!
How is Lexia used in your school? Please provide details of your daily routine and how you ensure that you reach recommended usage as well as which pupils use the program in school.
We’ve used Lexia in many different ways over the years and we have used Lexia for quite a few years now! The current model we are running, which at the moment we feel works well, is that the children will have access to the computer suite for the first 20 minutes of the day. The children come straight into the Lexia Lesson so they have got 20 minutes of Lexia in the morning. We can facilitate all of our Key Stage 2 children in this way, whether it’s Year 3’s or Year 6’s, there is always an adult on hand in that room to support those children, usually myself. Once they know how to use Lexia, we give them the opportunity to have at least 3x 20 minutes slots within the school week.
We also, particularly with our younger children, build it into our guided reading carousel within the classroom. So at least once a week they will have a Lesson session in Guided Reading as well.
When a child is added to Lexia, the information is sent home to parents for them to be able to access it from home. We have having quite a good uptake this year. We’re not a school that sends home homework beyond reading and spellings. So, for our Lexia children, they can access Lexia from home as a homework. A lot of the parents like it especially since you can get it in different devices like iPads.
When they come in first thing in the morning, they settle down and get on because they enjoy it and they want to get their next certificate and show they have completed a task.
I will then keep an eye on where they are using myLexia and if there is anything that needs to be delivered individually, I will either pull them aside during that morning slot, or it will be passed to the class teacher to deliver during the day.
Describe the impact that Lexia has had on your pupils. Have you noticed a positive change in their motivation to succeed in literacy?
They absolutely love Lexia and will ask me every day if they can do more tomorrow! You can see them in class, doing a piece of writing and suddenly they will say ‘I know how to spell this, it was on Lexia yesterday!”
We have some Year 3 children who are quite new to Lexia this year, but since leaving the phonics programme, were struggling with phonics and reading. Now, I’m watching them fly through the Lexia levels. Lexia seems to be the way that they prefer to access phonics teaching.
Children who have found phonics and reading difficult, they can be a bit down and they don’t want to read, but they want to come in and do Lexia and earn their next certificate. They are coming to me on a Monday morning to let me know they earned a certificate over the weekend.
Also, the parents are messaging saying that their child is wanting to read at home now, and wanting to do Lexia at home now so they can read them the sentences and passages to show them what they can do.
We are only at the end of their first half term with Lexia, but it’s really nice to see their attitude towards phonics, reading and spelling is very different to what it was at the end of Year 2. They are much more positive about what they can do.
We even have Year 6’s asking if they can continue Lexia in Secondary school!
Can you give an example of a Lexia success that sticks out to you?
At the beginning of last year we had a new child starting who joined us from Korea so English was a second language for him. We popped him on to Lexia because it gave him that daily input of the English language that the teachers was not always able to give him one to one. By the end of the year, he completely caught up with the rest of his class and he is flying high now!
We used Lexia with him, not because he was a low ability child, but just to give him that exposure to the English language, the spellings, the written word, and everything he needed to be able to access the classroom learning.
How have you used rewards to motivate and celebrate success on the Lexia program?
The Lexia Certificates are very popular. They really like having their Lexia certificates.
For the children that have progressed slower through the levels because they have reached their ceiling so they are not getting certificates quite so often, we use Class Dojo in school. We can use those smaller rewards when they have completed a section or activity, or if their attendance in the Lexia sessions in really good and they have managed to complete plenty of minutes. They will earn points for those types of things.
Like a lot of schools, we do special mentions and stars of the week at the end of the school week, so we make sure to include the Lexia children into things like that as well. Often, I will include a child who has reached their target for the week or have completed all their minutes as my star of the week. Things like this can really motivate the children and they will start coming to me the following week telling me they have 50 minutes so far this week and it’s only Wednesday! They want to be recognised for their work too.
How useful have you found the myLexia reports in terms of demonstrating progression and informing planning?
The reports are totally invaluable. They’re absolutely brilliant!
We use them to inform our parents at meeting and parents’ evenings. If we have parents’ meeting coming up, I will always make sure that I’ve printed off the most up-to-date reports for teachers to talk through in their meeting.
For SEN pupils who have EHCPs, it’s always printed off and fed into their paperwork there.
I like to be able to log on and see which children have been accessing and for how many minutes. The fact that dates when they have completed it, it makes it easy to see when they are accessing from home too.
Last year, for the first time, we printed the parent reports and sent them home. The parents absolutely loved having those and I think it encouraged some of our parents to get their children to access it from home. We noticed a big uptick of use over the summer which was really good.
If we get a message from a parent asking what they can be working on with their child, its great to be able to log on to myLexia as see they need to work on prefixes and suffixes, for example. So, it really helps with them.
I like how much is available with myLexia. I am a bit of a button-clicker so every time I open it up I will find something else that’s really useful. At first, some teachers saw it as a bit of an extra job within a teacher’s week but, it can be really time-saving. Now, teachers are accessing it during their planning sessions to access the additional resources, reports and Lesson Plans. Lots of the resources and activities can be used with a group of children or whole class so it doesn’t just have to benefit the Lexia children. myLexia has become integral to feeding into teachers’ classroom planning. It’s helped get more of the teachers on board with Lexia. Instead of the students disappearing off to their Lexia sessions and coming back, teachers are understanding what is happening in those sessions and take part in it more.
What main piece of advice would you give to a school that was just getting started with Lexia?
I think the main thing is fitting it into the school day. Giving it that time and fitting it well into the school day is important. Lexia is not very adult labour intensive so it’s about not being afraid to use it with larger groups. Now that the children are trained up and know how to use it, I can have 40 children come to me in the IT suite at the same time. It doesn’t matter whether they are in Year 3 or Year 6, for those 30 minutes, all 40 are engaged, they’re all progressing and they’re all learning at their level. Giving that time to training the children to use it and giving them that input means that in the long run, you can reach so many more pupils.
What feedback have you had from your Lexia pupils?
The children absolutely love it. They are always asking me if they are doing Lexia today. We don’t close our register until 9am and a lot of our students didn’t show up to school until 9am. Now that they know they’re doing Lexia on certain days, they are the first children at the gate because they want to get in quickly to get their full 20 minutes on the program. It has really improved their motivation, they are really eager to come in and get logged on so they can get started.
They love that it is so visual and the cartoon style, as well as the little animations they get when they finish a task. They also love that they can learn some facts about the animals on their level screen, They want to get to the next level so they can learn some new facts and take them back to class to share with their teachers! They don’t see it is as work, they want to come and ‘play’ Lexia.
They also like that its catered to their level. They know it’s not going to give them something too difficult and, if it does get too difficult, then it’s going to guide them through at their pace and give them the information they need.
Is there anything else you would like to add regarding why you think Lexia has been a success in your school?
I’ve worked in this school for over 20 years, and I have done Lexia for quite a few of those years. But every year, when we come back, it looks slightly different, and it has been updated. It doesn’t use the same content and images that were used 10 years ago, it keeps changing with the children’s interests. Every year, I am excited to see what has been updated and how it keeps growing.
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