In 2007 a total of 102 teaching assistants from 92 schools attended the 4 day training sessions. Included in this were 9 middle and secondary schools and 1 special school. Cumulatively that brought to 148 the total number of primary schools in that authority that had had a member of staff trained.
In addition to the initial training, the teaching assistants also each received 5 follow-up tutorials during the period in which they delivered Reading Intervention in their school. During this phase of the programme 148 children were given a Reading Intervention programme. Once again, the programme consisted of a mixture of individual and small group work sessions, although some (mainly small) schools chose to deliver the programme to individual children only.
Outcomes
The results of the standardised reading test (administered before and after the programme) indicated that on average children progressed from a reading age of 6 years 5 months to a reading age of 7 years 3 months. This amounted to an average increase in reading age of 10 months over the course of 10 weeks. Statistical analysis confirms that this is a result that was highly unlikely to have occurred by chance or natural maturation.