School trial 1

Context: A one form entry Primary school with a high proportion of EAL learners.

The trial group: Y2 pupils who were working towards the expected standard in the Y1 phonics check. All pupils were of Roma Gypsy heritage and spoke Czech, Polish, Slovak and Bulgarian as first languages.

Starting points: The trial group had Y1 phonics check scores of between 2 and 23, with a mean score of 11.

Trial organisation: Phonics for Life teaching was through an intervention group which ran for half an hour on 4 days per week for 14 weeks. The group was taught by specialist teachers of EAL and GRT education.

In the remainder of the class, a similar number of other pupils who were also working towards the expected standard in the Y1 phonics check, were taught phonics using the scheme used by the school. The group was comprised of 50% EAL learners, 25% English first language learners and 25% pupils whose language and ethnic background had not been obtained by the school at that point. These pupils scored between D (0) and 31, with a mean score of 10.7 on the Y1 phonics check.

Results: In the Y2 phonics recheck, the trial group pupils scored between 17 and 37, with a mean score of 30. Their scores increased by between 11 and 30 points, with a mean increase of 19 points. The other pupils in the class taking the Y2 phonics recheck scored between 3 and 36, with a mean score of 21.1. Their scores increased by between 2 and 28 points, with a mean increase of 9.1 points.

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