Prison Services
A significant proportion of the population who encounter the justice system have, for a variety of reasons, experienced an interrupted education. We aim to address these gaps and help you affect immediate positive change, through our unique intensive literacy training courses.
We offer targeted literacy intervention programmes, designed by adult education experts. The programmes promote vocabulary development, the ability to decode words, reading fluency and improved spelling. Through our programmes we hope to increase literacy in prisons leading to higher employment and lower rates of prisoners reoffending.
Our literacy intervention programmes are distinctly different to others which you may have encountered in a traditional education setting. Guaranteeing rapid impact and sustained progress. Our use of pace and age-appropriate adult literacy resources, ensure learners engage without feeling belittled or patronised.
The specific areas of reading development our programmes teach are:
- Phonics
- Decoding
- Automaticity
- Fluency
- Vocabulary through morphemic analysis
- Comprehension
Benefits to learners include:
- Improved reading ability
- Improved comprehension
- Enhanced employability prospects
- Increased confidence
- Improved access to further learning or training
We offer bespoke materials for prisons. With learners encountering restorative justice language interwoven within the programme alongside language from vocational skills.
Engagement in Lexonik’s reading programmes is driven by non-patronising, adult informed resources. With a focus on challenge, pace, consistency, competition, expert instruction, tangible progress and immediate impact on personal progress.
Read our case study on Walton County Jail to see how effective our programmes are for prison or listen to our podcast about adult education with ex offender David Breakspear.
Literacy intervention programmes for Prison Services
Improve reading ages by an average of 27 months in six short, practical lessons while also developing vocabulary and comprehension.
- We train your team, giving you full autonomy
- Access ongoing support and teaching resources
- Manage your student progress in our intuitive web application
Lexonik Leap is a phonics intervention which effectively resolves phonics gaps for learners who find literacy particularly challenging and those for whom English is not their first language.
- Six-step phonics intervention programme which rapidly progresses phonics, reading, spelling and oracy
- Activities are adaptable, allowing focus to shift depending on whether supporting an EAL learner or a learner who is experiencing difficulties acquiring the basic levels of literacy
- Specifically designed with an older learner in mind to ensure instruction is age appropriate
CFEY Certified
In 2016 Lexonik, then trading as Sound Training, piloted in three reform prisons with delivery taking place over a six-week period. An independent evaluation conducted by the Centre for Education and Youth, who were then called LKMco, assessed the impact of the programme on the following learner outcomes:
- Reading ability
- Confidence
- Self-Efficacy
- Attitudes to reading and education
Almost all learners included in the evaluation increased their reading age considerably over the course of the programme. The average gain in reading age was 18 months, which increased to 23 months when learners with a maximum baseline score were discounted.
Examples of particularly significant progress included 5 learners who increased their reading ages by 39, 60 and 65 months respectively. Many learners increased their reading age to the maximum 18.9 years: at baseline, 21% of learners had a reading age of 18.9 compared to 65% of learners at endpoint.
Learners also reported that they had improved numerous other reading related skills including spelling, vocabulary knowledge and the ability to decode words. Learners felt that these improvements positively impacted on their ability and behaviour in other education programmes.
Click here to read the full impact report.
"The men explained to me the value of the course to them. English was not a first language for a number of them, and one said that he was dyslexic, but all said they had benefited from the form of study"
As seen on BBC Look North
"I have been very impressed with apparent levels of engagement and development as a result. I believe this work can have a real impact in helping to reduce reoffending."
Why Lexonik?
"You could see peoples self esteem grow week on week as well. The psychological benefits of education and social interaction to the learner, in my opinion are outstanding."
Prison Services that are already improving literacy with Lexonik
