Success for one-to-one reading programme

Struggling readers who get support through the Reading Recovery programme do much better than children on other catch-up programmes, say researchers.

Under the programme, children at the end of their first year at primary school who are struggling to learn to read get a daily one-to-one tutoring session with a specially trained teacher for up to 20 weeks.

According to a study in 42 London schools, children in Reading Recovery programmes had caught up with their classmates within a year, whereas other children who started off at the same reading level were 15 months behind.

In the year after the intervention, the Reading Recovery children continued to make better progress. By the end of the second year – a year after the intervention - they were equal or ahead of their classmates in their reading ability, and still a year ahead of struggling readers who had not been in the Reading Recovery programme in Year One.

Find out more at the Reading Recovery web site