From his executive summary: Average progress was 3½ times the standard rate, and certainly significant both educationally and in terms of life chances for most of the young people who participated. From his observations of teaching sessions: Overall, I was very impressed by the clear evidence that the students were learning quite rapidly, and by the skills and professionalism of the tutors.Too often there is a noticeable gap between how a scheme’s deviser intends it to be implemented and trains teachers to deliver it, on the one hand, and the enacting of it in practice on the other – but there was barely any difference between the intentions Tricia Millar stated at the South Woodford training and what I observed in Bow and Handsworth. – Greg Brooks, Emeritus professor of education, University of Sheffield, an honorary life member and past president of the UK Literacy

Many of us have been surprised by the progress our older students have made with TRT. Either our experience with ineffective programs meant that our students progressed little if at all (so we didn’t believe in the possibility of success), or, with programs designed for the early years, we were taught we had to move slowly until skills and knowledge were solid (and we believed intervention needed to move slowly and for years). That Reading Thing turns our thinking upside down – which I think is its greatest strength. It acknowledges that our students have learning inside them. It acknowledges that they are at a completely different developmental point to younger students. It acknowledges that students who have ‘failed’ no longer trust and need this reinstated quickly for learning to occur. And it accelerates what our older struggling students need most – success with what…

When I referred M to TRT in September, he lacked confidence in his abilities, was not keen on reading and had a fairly low level of literacy. Since then, he has made great progress both in the skills he has gained and in his attitude. He is engaging more, asking questions, bringing in papers from the mosque which interest him, reading complex texts, has taken a book home to read, comprehending what he is reading, responding to texts, has become more focused with greater stamina, is more punctual. He has reached Level 30.

I completed my training online and began working with a student. If I am being totally honest, I was not sure how successful would be with this particular student as they had suffered a brain injury when younger and had much difficulty retaining learning. Well, 6 weeks on and although progressing slowly, the student is progressing and becoming far more confident in their own ability! They are able to recall previous learning from session to session and although reticent to say the sounds aloud at the beginning, they will now say them confidently. I am so impressed I would like for more staff at my school to have TRT training. How would I go about this please?

I am an Educational Psychologist and…I think the programme is excellent. I love the way it blends good solid literacy skills with advice for how to mediate pupils’ emotional responses to their past reading difficulties.

Best organised scheme overall that we know. – Mark Woodruff, JJ Charitable Trust

I’d been struggling for some time to find appropriate materials to use with a learner in her forties who has always struggled with reading and spelling.  There’s lots of phonics stuff out there but most of it is far too childish to use with adults. The TRT scheme is fantastic and just what I needed. We have only been doing this for 4 weeks but already my learner’s confidence has increased enormously and I am amazed at the progress she is making.  There’s a real sense of achievement at the end of each lesson. I was recently observed by my SpLD tutor and received a glowing report for the approach I was taking, particularly the fact that I was encouraging the learner to say all the sounds out loud all the time.

The beautiful part of That Reading Thing is it’s very directive, it’s very quick. It has 30 very discrete lessons so students see themselves moving faster. It’s also multi-modal, it’s about sight, the reading, the writing and the hearing. It engages all the senses, and you see people really moving faster with it, which is what we’ve been after. – Sue Marasco, the Director of Education at the May Dugan Center in Cleveland, Ohio

I didn’t think That Reading Thing would go this well. I was a bit nervous. I didn’t think I’d be able to get to read this fast. – Tony aged 20

Last year I used That Reading Thing with P7 and S1 (years 6 & 7) students, plus my lovely S4 (year 10) boy, with whom I’ve been working since he began his secondary school journey with the reading skills of a five-year old. I must say that it was a game changer and I managed to make progress with all of them. It was quite significant for some; 2 years in terms of reading age was the record! It turned out that girl had excellent visual memory and good sight vocabulary, but no decoding skills to tackle unfamiliar words. TRT was all she needed to move forward.  I enjoyed working with the resources and kids seemed to enjoy the sessions a lot!

Overheard explaining to the SENCO what’s different about TRT: I’ll tell you what’s different! They’re not making me memorize lists of baby words. I can spell (writes on board) condition, I can spell conditioner, I can spell conditioned, I can spell conditioning.

Thank you, Tricia, for such fantastic support almost a year after I purchased TRT. I don’t have many 12+ pupils so to find the support still available is marvellous. I think TRT is the best value for money resource I have bought.

Have made a start with TRT and the student (reading age of 7:0) really enjoyed it – it took me a while to find my rhythm but hopefully it’ll be easier 2nd lesson! My original dyslexia training was over 3 years ago and I’m quite rusty so it’s lovely to have a structure for me to follow as it’s a massive time saver. The learner was amazed she could spell and read admit and fantastic in the first 40 minutes.

I had a really great thing happen today with a learner and am desperate to share it with you! I put him on The That Reading Thing almost immediately after I got back from the training and have been trying to visit him as often as possible. He has really tried hard during the sessions and we have had some laughs along the way! He is currently on level 22 and the lessons leading up to this have given me mixed feelings…is it working…it’s not working…ooo it is working. At the end of today’s session the learner read a whole chapter independently; he was a completely different person. He was relaxed and confident; he even explained something to me about a sentence in it. That was a real boost for him! I cannot thank you enough I have never felt such a sense of achievement like I felt today in that…

The training is brilliant, the teaching approach is very refined, teaching the conceptual understanding, skills and code, but not labouring. I’m off to see my Year 6 student who slides under the desk this afternoon. Will be taking in my second full TRT lesson. Now I go in excited, instead of entering the school with trepidation. 

Ok – so he took nearly an hour to write maybe 200 words, but they were well thought out, sequenced, original and definitely are developing some complexity. I love seeing the hard work he put into getting through Levels 1-30 of TRT now being applied, and that beautiful brain of his then applying what he knows without knowing he’s applying it! Thank you, Tricia for writing this amazing programme! It has changed our lives.

By the end of the programme he was working at age level for reading, writing and also for maths, because he could access test papers. He did incredibly well. The impact of That Reading Thing wasn’t isolated to reading and writing. It helped develop his learning overall.  A. Kozyra – Deputy Headteacher, Meadow Primary about TRT with Year 6 (top of primary) students

I had my first meeting with a Year 10 young woman in a school last week. When doing the assessment, she got to the fourth word (‘temp’) in Level 1 and got stuck. By the end of the session, she was able to spell out the word ‘dentist’ and read the word ‘fantastic’ without any prompting from me. The most amazingly rewarding part of this was the look on her face when she realised what progress she had made in such a short amount of time. Words can’t describe it. My interpretation – TRT Rocks!!!

June 8th:I have been working with José who is 24 years old. I think he has been through several literacy programs, each with its own instructional method. Has it been your experience that with continued instruction and practice, he will use the TRT methods and “lose” the ones he’s learned before? August 30th: José is at Level 27, and it is such a delight to see him reading a whole page of text! It’s such an improvement from only being able to read one word from the first page of the assessment! I am so grateful for TRT; it is empowering my students!

I’m using TRT to help my son. Thanks for putting this material together; it’s making a big difference.

3 & 4 October, at That Reading Thing Training. I really want this to work but I don’t see how it’s going to in my school. 31 January Just a quick update: the kids that I have had on That Reading Thing have moved up between 4 & 6 Benchmark reading levels. How fantastic is that. 4 April Just thought I’d let you know of my next success story: another student on TRT has moved up 7 Benchmark levels. He’s been stuck on level 8 for two years and is now on level 15. I can’t believe the progress – it’s amazing.