Planning reading interventions: a case study from Shevington High School

This case study shares the experiences of a secondary school planning and implementing reading interventions for pupils in Years 7 and 8.

Lindsay Johnson, Director of Learning at Shevington High School, used our Annual Literacy Research and Policy Guide to inform the school’s approach to literacy development.

Despite limited resources and time, their new intervention strategy made a significant difference to pupil’s reading ages, with remarkable results from a pilot programme after just six months.

This case study shows how:

• Focusing on key pupils can prevent those with weaker skills from being ‘lost’
• Choosing the right intervention strategy can be done within a limited budget
• An inspirational Teaching Assistant and Year 9 pupil mentors helped motivate pupils
• Different literacy assessment techniques should be used to see the difference in decoding and comprehension skill
• The impressive Shevington High School programme is increasing in scale to broaden its impact