Holycross Catholic Primary School, Sutton Coldfield
I have been teaching for 15 years and I have never been so engaged with a program before because you can really see the impact it is having on our children. Lexia is just the gift that keeps on giving.
The way the program is designed is very child friendly and appeals to children, they love to be on the iPad and PC. What’s most engaging for them is the levels and the different areas around the world. When I’ve watched the children, they talk about where they are, for example, ‘A Day in Paris’ and are also eager to get to the levels their friends are on, this form of motivation works well for children. The children especially love the mini animations when they have completed a unit/level, it keeps them engaged and provides an immediate reward. Another selling point is that the program is individualised to the children’s needs, it places them exactly where they need to be. We’ve recently placed three early years children on Lexia and they love the program and are so engaged. It starts at the perfect level for them and they are able to progress.
From a teacher’s point of view, it’s just fantastic, the program pinpoints the areas the students need more work on. The skill builders are brilliant and we often send them home and for our children to complete them with their parents, reinforcing the skills they have learned and are making those links to other areas of the curriculum.
We have a Year 4 student with autism who would not engage with writing at all and really struggled over lockdown. When he came back to school, we placed him on Lexia and the program put him on reception level, he started off with rhyming words but was really struggling. I worked with him, as did his class teacher as they were doing poetry and working on rhyming in class. When he completed the level in Lexia, he wrote an incredible poem in class. Mum asked if she could take the poem home as her son was so excited and so proud of his work. We could really see the impact of Lexia and I genuinely believe that if it wasn’t for Lexia and pinpointing exactly where he was and what he needed support with, he would not have been able to do what he has done.
Another boy who was on a dyslexia pathway was placed on Lexia as an intervention (the only intervention). He was on Lexia for a year, 3 times a week and more. He worked all through lockdown and was so engaged with the program. At his post dyslexic assessment, the assessor stated that he has made that much progress with his spelling and reading (he started off just below the 2nd percentile and was now placed on above the 7the percentile) that his assessment results show no dyslexia diagnosis. Showing that Lexia has really worked. When asked what’s helped with your learning he said “doing Lexia every day”.
I can’t say enough good things about Lexia. It’s really working for us here.
Other teachers have just started to use the reports. For me, I use them to see where the students are, what activities they are doing and their progression. I also use them to look at the activities they are working on in order to link it to their classwork. Ensuring success in both areas and not as separate things.
I often use them with parents, to show them what the children are doing, level of accuracy and time on tasks. I use the new Core5 resources for reading interventions and extra resources for writing stimuli.
