Case Study
British School Muscat
British School Muscat are a high performing school, who have been awarded International School of the Year. Despite existing success and achievements, they sought to work in partnership with Lexonik in 2018, to raise attainment even further.
What was the focus when implementing the programme?
- Y6 to Y7 transition for students below their chronological reading age
- Y11 pre exam preparation and sixth form transition
How was the programme implemented?
Initial thoughts were to use Lexonik Advance for cohorts of students in years 7, 8 and 9 on a rolling programme.
The first cohort was from Y7, with a standardised score below 90. The subsequent two cohorts were from Y8 and Y9 students, again with a standardised score below 90 based on NGRT data.
After closer scrutiny of both progress data and the school improvement plan we decided to run a KS4 programme instead.
Consequently, the whole of Y11 has been targeted instead of Y7, the aim will then be to prioritise selected 6th Form students.
What were the results?
The average gain in reading ages in the initial cohort was 19 months, with the second cohort seeing an average reading age gain of 22 months.
What were the Successes?
Teachers have commented on the impact Lexonik methodologies have had on individual students within mainstream lessons, with a particular improvement in student confidence with spellings. Students following the Lexonik Advance programme, who had previously hidden and shied away from sharing spellings, were now more confident in sharing and discussing them.
The competitive and challenge based nature of Lexonik was a real success in terms of not only engaging and motivating students, but also allowing students to discuss their sessions in between times, making sure the programme was something they were proud of and keen to attend.
What were the lessons learnt?
We found that learner apathy amongst some of the high achievers was reverted once students saw the competitive element of the programme. Therefore in the future, for similar students, we will stress the competitive element from session 1 to capitalise on this!
What are the next steps for the Lexonik/ British School Muscat partnership?
The performance of the first Y11 cohort indicated that Level 4 was an appropriate resource level for our higher achievers. We believe that students will make greater gains in reading age and standardized scores if we utilise this Level with higher achievers.
All Year 11 students have been taught the Lexonik programme and reading methodology. Our attention now turns to sixth form students who we feel will benefit from this programme; we will have the flexibility of using Levels 3 and 4 plus more advanced materials.
Our next target area will be Years 8 and 10, plus new students and target groups who we may feel would benefit from Lexonik boosters.
What did the staff think of the programme?
Kai Vacher, Principal of British School Muscat, had this to say about the programme:
“The Lexonik team are a joy to work with. With a resolute commitment to supporting children with their literacy learning at the heart of their mission, you could not wish to work with a more professional, dynamic and enthusiastic team. Following the relatively short training programme with Lexonik founder Katy Parkinson, colleagues at BSM have been trained, supported and energised to make a substantial difference to children’s literacy development. Why would you consider any other literacy intervention programme?”
What did the students think of the programme?
Student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive:
- “I couldn’t read any of these words in the test before we started but I can now.”
- “This will help with my expressions in English and science”
- When discussing BILATERAL – lateral meaning sides – one student commented “ahhh, quadrilateral – I get it now – four sides!”
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