Education Endowment Foundation:Switch-on Reading (2022/23 subsidised programme)

Switch-on Reading (2022/23 subsidised programme)

Nottinghamshire County Council
Project info

Independent Evaluator

N/A

An intensive one-to-one, 10-week literacy intervention aimed at pupils in Year 7 and Year 8 who are working well below age-related expectations in reading.

This project was recruiting, but is now full.

Switch-on Reading is an intensive individualised, daily, ten-week reading intervention delivered by Nottinghamshire County Council and available to all schools in England, including special schools. The programme is administered one-to-one by TAs, librarians or teachers to those struggling most with reading – young people who are still struggling to decode words. The aim of Switch-on Reading is for children and young people to be able to participate more fully in the classroom by becoming more confident and active, independent readers.

Schools identify two TAs, teachers or librarians to deliver the programme, plus an Intervention Lead (ideally a middle leader). They each deliver 20-minute Switch-on Reading sessions one‑to‑one to at least two pupils daily. Schools receive two book packs as well as training and resources to support the delivery of the programme. All training is fully remote. (Schools wishing to have more trained staff could identify up to four staff to deliver the programme, as well as the Intervention Lead, but only two book packs are subsidised). 

This programme is for pupils in Year 7 and Year 8 who are working well below age-related expectations in reading. The books provided are appropriate for this age group. Switch-on Reading may also be appropriate for older pupils in special school settings.

A previous EEF independent RCT evaluation found that pupils in Year 7 who received the intervention made around 3 months’ additional progress in reading outcomes, compared to other pupils. In a second effectiveness’ trial pupils receiving the Switch-on Reading programme in Year 3 made no additional progress in reading compared to similarly struggling children in business as usual’ control schools. Drawing on learning from these evaluations Switch-on Reading will maintain the focus on pupils in Year 7 and 8, with a delivery model closer to that in the original trial which showed promising findings for children in that age group.

As part of the Department for Education’s Accelerator Fund, the EEF is supporting programmes that have positively impacted pupil outcomes in previous EEF trials to reach more pupils, by subsidising the cost of the programme for schools. We will support these programmes to be accessible at a larger scale throughout England, with schools in Education Investment Areas being prioritised for access.

EEF is subsidising this programme at 75% of the programme cost. Schools are asked to contribute 25% of the cost, which is £800.

Switch on Reading has already been rigorously evaluated in a previous EEF trial which produced positive findings for this age group, so this project is focused on scaling up the programme to support more schools and pupils.

However as part of the EEF’s overall Accelerator Fund work, an evaluation team will be commissioned by the DfE to independently evaluate the extent to which the overall aims of the package of work has been met, and whether each part of the work (for example, subsidised programme delivery) has delivered its goals. This evaluation will be focusing on processes rather than impact.