Case Study
Patchway Community School
Patchway’s Story of Rapid Progress on a Pacy Intervention
One of the key reasons schools reach out for literacy interventions is to provide the pupils arriving in year 7 with additional support in building their confidence in reading.
This was the case for Patchway Community School.
Our latest case study sees us talk to its Literacy Intervention Teacher, Claire James, about the impact Lexonik has had.
Claire, we would love to know more about your school:
Patchway Community School is part of The Olympus Academy Trust and we’re located in Bristol.
We’re a hardworking and inclusive school, proud of our role in the community, and we state our mission as: ‘To be the school of first choice in our community and strive for excellence in everything we do’. Our staff are passionate and strongly committed to helping our students achieve their potential.
What can you tell us about your reason for exploring reading interventions. Was there an evident need in a particular age group?
Approximately 40% of our students were arriving into Year 7 with reading ages below age related expectation.
This meant that we needed some form of intervention to help us develop a different strategy across the school when it came to literacy.
How did you come to learn about Lexonik?
Some members of the Olympus Trust Central Team visited Swindon Academy two years ago and observed a Lexonik Advance session.
They were really impressed with what they saw and the feedback from the students was overwhelmingly positive.
What sort of things were the students saying?
The students commented on how much they enjoyed the sessions and that they were more confident in their reading after being through the programme.
This was something which really stood out to us, and felt important for what we wanted at our school.
Winterbourne Academy then introduced Lexonik Advance and shared the successes of the programme with our other three secondary schools.
How did you go about exploring what Lexonik could offer?
Sarah Evans (Director of Training and Partnerships and Trust Secondary Literacy and English lead) contacted Lexonik and met with Sarah Ledger and Phil Luke to discuss our options.
What made you decide that Lexonik was right for you?
Our reading age data across our secondary schools in September 2024 suggested that there were a number of students needing phonics intervention.
We then asked our literacy leaders in our secondary schools to observe Lexonik Advance in action at Winterbourne to review its impact and the student responses to it.
As a result, we decided to purchase Advance for three of our secondary schools (including PCS) and Lexonik Leap (also for PCS).
How did implementation take place? Was it difficult or more time consuming than you had anticipated?
I was trained in both courses and set up sessions to be delivered simultaneously across the school.
The initial focus was on on KS3 students and some KS4 students in need of a boost in literacy.
Staff were made aware of Lexonik and its purpose and intervention timetable set up to deliver the course, which has meant the whole school support the concept of literacy interventions.
What else have you implemented to recognise success and progress?
I arranged for all students to receive their Lexonik certificates at an awards ceremony at school (this happens each full term so Lexonik is included among all subject awards).
On successfully completing the course, students receive a treat or award in school.
I’ve also included an element of competition within the Advance course.
Each group log their weekly ‘syllables at speed scores’ and the weekly winners receive a prize.
On top of this, I track attendance to Leap with students using stickers/stamps to lock their attendance each lesson on the ‘Leap’ board in the classroom.
Leap students and Advance students have their names up on a ‘graduation’ list after successful completion of their course, and this is proudly displayed in class.
What were the first impressions of the school community when Lexonik was introduced?
Parents were supportive and happy for their child(ren) to have support in literacy.
Staff were also very supportive and understood the importance of literacy and how interventions can improve so much of school life.
Students themselves were initially curious about the interventions and then became more engaged and keen to learn.
I have been teaching Lexonik since March so students across the school tend to know that’s what I am doing and the next students that come along have more of an awareness of Lexonik.
What do your students say they particularly like?
They like that the interventions are pacey, and say that the times goes really quickly.
They like the variety of activities.
They have commented across both courses that it’s really helping them to break down hard words, read quicker, and read more.
Presumably you’ve seen good progress?
I have seen a huge improvement and growth in students’ confidence with reading and having a go at all tasks in the course they are on.
They get competitive with ‘syllables at speed’ in Advance and in Leap, and they love having activities timed.
They celebrate success often.
Can we break down that progress into data, both for Leap and for Advance?
Leap - from initial diagnostic testing, students have improved their individual diagnostic scores with an increase from 20% to 60% from their initial scores.
Average improvement on diagnostic test across KS3 students completing Leap is 31%. Most students achieved 100% in their final diagnostic assessment.
Advance – a clear increase in students' reading age and decoding skills. The gain in months is very individual – anything from 13 months gain to 46 months gain and everywhere in between.
Every student has improved their decoding skills significantly - and they are reading words they did not read correctly or did not attempt to read on the initial WRAT 5 test.
Was cost a barrier / concern to you?
Budgets are tight in all of our schools but these intervention programmes representa high level of need in our schools so the Trust funded the first licences for Leap/Advance.
How many staff did you train?
One.
How have you found the ongoing support of Lexonik?
The team were immediately there when needed and someone always responds.
All staff have been helpful, enthusiastic and supportive.
Where does your use of Lexonik go from here?
The Trust is now looking to purchase Lexonik Leap for our Primary Schools so that we can support Upper KS2 students before they go to secondary school.
What would you say to any school leader considering Lexonik?
Lexonik is effective, fast-paced and accessible to all.
Results improve for all students and students’ confidence in literacy grows too.
The courses are enjoyable to teach and students really enjoy the fast-paced fun aspects of learning Lexonik.
Here’s a few feedback quotes from students who attend Patchway and have been through the Lexonik programmes:
"When hard words come up in lessons, I can break them down in to sounds chunks."
"I now know sound chunks I never knew before."
"I enjoy doing the syllables at speed and the cut up activity."
"I have learnt about suffixes and prefixes and what they mean individually."
"I enjoy lessons, they are fun!"
"The (Advance) course has helped a lot with my reading and writing - when I am writing I can write words in sound chunks rather than just guessing how to write them."
"When I am reading books at a higher level of reading than I normally read, I know how to read the words and figure out the meaning of the word by breaking it down."
"The (Advance) course has been really fun and has helped me with tricky words."
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