One particular line of numbers caught my attention. F 13 05:11 06:05 00:06 5 hrs continuing White British truancy It’s the “Data Story” of a thirteen year old white British girl with truancy issues who struggles with reading and agreed to start meeting with a ThatReadingThing tutor.  I’m going to call her Amber. At their first session, her reading age was 5 years and 11 months which is what we would expect of a child at some point in Year … Read More

Here is the same data with a few extra details.  Here are the things I notice: Those with the greatest gains, started with a reading age of 8 or so One of the girls made a 2 year gain in one week.  I would assume that her spelling age is now well behind her reading age. Of the three with the smallest gains, one has English as an additional language and a head injury, one is very new to the … Read More

These numbers come from an inner city volunteer literacy project.   The reading ages were measured using the Burt Reading Assessment which is available free from here. I’ll add more details about the learners as I get them.  It will be interesting to see who has statemented learning needs, who speaks English as an additional language and who has particular behaviour problems. (Or all three.) A huge thank you to all the tutors and young people for their hard work! Sex … Read More