School Spotlight – Upton-by-Chester High School

How did you first come across the Lexia program and what led to the school’s final decision to purchase?

Over the last couple of years, we have been looking at completely restructuring our English intervention and offering it to as many learners as possible. We wanted to see how a focus on how the English department could support other core subjects such as maths where low literacy may be restricting access to other areas of the curriculum. This led to the creation of several different roles in school such as a Literacy Intervention Manager, and me and my colleague Mel who deliver the Literacy interventions. We were looking at how to maximise the involvement of learners and of course, being a school, value for money was very important as well. So that is where Lexia came in.

I fit our idea of independent, student-led progress and addressing very specific areas for learning. Especially in English, not everyone has the same difficulties, it’s a wide variety of things. We were really impressed with the variety that was available to us with Lexia, and for the price as well, we couldn’t believe it. We thought the value for money and what the learners were going to get from it was incomparable from anything else.

What do you feel makes Lexia stand apart from other reading skills software products on the market?

For me, it’s tailor made. It’s student-driven, independent and it’s allowing them to focus on their gaps in their English knowledge. It’s brilliant because, the parts that they are already secure in, they fly through and make lots of progress. They are always really happy to tell me, ‘Sir, Look! I’ve completed 8 units today!’. When they get to the parts they are finding more difficult, they then come out of it feeling that they have a bit more understanding and are making steps in the right direction towards understanding concepts or key ideas that they weren’t as confident with before. It has been so wonderful to see that kind of progression being made.

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.

Lexia makes up the middle stage of the school’s intervention program which is students that need some support but may not necessarily be the lowest ability in school. We conduct a STAR reader test at the beginning of September, January and April half terms which gives us an indication of reading age. Anyone who has a reading age of 9 or above, but is still below expected level, goes on Lexia. We currently use the program with Year 7 and 8 and we are looking into expanding this into Year 9 next year. We also use an NGRT to double check our identified students and meet with the Head of Literacy Intervention to come to a consensus on our final Lexia cohort.

Our students complete 2 hours of Lexia per week per class. We currently have 5 Year 7 classes and 4 Year 8 classes so that works out to 18 hours of Lexia per week that I lead. So, each students get 2 hours of focused Lexia time per week with me in school so we can crack on and see what they need. Any remaining time of their usage targets are normally set as homework.

This is all backed by our rewards system in school which is a real strength. Our student love to earn rewards are very eager for it, especially in Year 7.

Describe the impact that Lexia has had on your pupils. Have you noticed a positive change in their motivation to succeed in literacy? 

I mainly look at the data as I am not a classroom teacher. When we have completed our assessments, we have seen improvement time on time. This term and as we were testing them towards the end of the year, we are seeing increases of around 2 years on their reading ages which is incredible. This is the benefit of Lexia if we make it consistent and embed it. Rome wasn’t built in a day and we can’t expect these children to catch up completely in a matter of 4 months. It’s been a steady progress due to the hard work that they have put in and the engagement with the program that they have had, which has enabled them to make these jumps and go up two years in a year. It is so pleasing to see that!

Can you give an example of a Lexia success that sticks out to you?

There is one lad, in particular, who I am so proud of! He comes in and he works so hard. He is so passionate about working with the Lexia software. When he came in this year, he was just over that 9 years reading age, so he just fell into the range for Lexia. In his most recent reading test, he has come out above chronological reading age, something like 13.5 years! When I saw that, I was so thrilled for him and he was thrilled as well. He came to us with quite low confidence, which is true for a lot of learners coming to us. It is not necessarily their understanding, it’s their confidence in the application of it. I think that practice in a low-pressure environment can bring on huge changes. That’s what we saw with this learner in particular. He’s absolutely smashed it! His work, according to his English teacher, has improved at every review stage. We are absolutely thrilled with that.

How have you used rewards to motivate and celebrate success on the Lexia program?

We have a competition and first place gets a £10 Amazon Voucher, 2^nd Place gets a tub of chocolates and 3^rd gets a big chocolate bar. They also have the chance to earn stickers throughout their Lexia time. Every time they compete all their minutes on Word Study, Grammar or Comprehension they get a sticker. They also get another sticker if they complete all 3, so they are able to earn up to 4 stickers for usage. In addition to this, the person that completes the most units progress gets an additional 2 stickers. So, they all have the opportunity to earn up to 6 stickers a week. We have found this has led to some healthy competition and given them an incentive to complete that extra half-hour at home. This has been very useful for us in continuing to monitor that progress.

We definitely want to reward learners for engaging with Lexia because I think there are times that learners can maybe see it as a negative thing and they may not understand why they need the extra support with reading. For us, it is all about changing that perspective and making intervention a place that they want to come, a place where they can progress and a place where they are celebrated. I think that the rewards system that we have come up with for Lexia has really helped us achieve this, especially as we have been developing and tweaking it towards the second half of the year. This has led to an increase of engagement with Lexia and we have had engagement at home as well which is also down to the parents’ involvement. Their encouragement of their children to us ethe program at home has been a massive boost.

How useful have you found the myLexia reports in terms of demonstrating progression and informing planning?

The myLexia platform has really been a useful tool in me being able to see progression both in terms of minutes and units gained. With our rewards chart it forces me every week to look at every single learner and see the progress they’ve made. We can identify from that how they’re progressing their needs going forward. It can also prompt us to have those conversations about their effort and make them aware that we are monitoring them, and we are looking for that progression. It’s been such a useful tool for that. From there, with the extra resources that Lexia provides, the Lexia Lessons to support and the Skill Builders that we give them at the end. They have been so good in allowing us to double check progress and really make certain that they’re on the right track.

With assessments like the STAR Reader test, especially with the test conditions, lots of learners struggle in that environment and you may not see an accurate reflection of their progress. myLexia allows me to get into the nitty gritty without the need for formal testing. I can go to my line manager and show them all the work they have completed on Lexia. It has allowed us a further insight and given us more data to look at and try and get as clear a picture as possible as to where every learner in intervention is.

What main piece of advice would you give to a school that was just getting started with Lexia?

Keep on with it! Give it time. If it is a new intervention strategy to you, there is so much to delve into and so many tools that you may not be aware of yet, so I would say to take the time to get your head around it. Likewise with the learners, giving them the time to interact with the software and progress is important. With time, learners can begin to identify the situations and topics that they struggle with and allow them to address them with consistent practice and build those skills up.

What feedback have you had from your Lexia pupils?

They have really enjoyed the rewards system and the encouragement they get through Lexia. They like the manageability of it and they feel like they have a choice on what to work on. That is really important for a lot of our learners. They love being able to choose and say, ‘I’m not feeling Grammar today, I’ll move over to Comprehension’, they love that because they are not forced down one route, they can take it at their own pace. The flexibility of it and their ability to break it down into bitesize chunks is so much better. They don’t feel overwhelmed, they are not being hit with 30 or 40 pieces of information and being told to memorise them all. It’s easily digestible which makes it easier for them to retain and they love that.

Do you have any additional comments on why you feel Lexia has been successful in your school?

I think that Lexia has fit so wonderfully with what our vision of how we want our interventions to look like. Lexia has helped us achieve those goals quicker than we would have imagined. It’s been so positive in terms of student engagement and how much they’re enjoying it. It’s been so good for us to see it incorporated in the way it has and that wouldn’t be possible without LexiaUK, with the check-ins that you do. The support from our SLT has also helped in terms of allowing us to remove learners from lessons twice a week to come and work on Lexia as well as the support from the classroom teachers. I think it’s a testament to the Lexia software that staff have bought in this year and as a school we have all collectively bought into making it work and it wouldn’t be possible without that. So, I cannot thank the school and LexiaUK, with their support, enough.