School Action Intervention in Literacy – the Cardiff SAIL Project

School Action Intervention in Literacy (SAIL) was created to support children’s reading in a new way. Children enjoy 45 minutes of intensive reading each day over 20 weeks, following a rigorous programme that will help them cope with the work going on in their normal class. They are selected for the SAIL programme on the basis of lower than average test results in the first term and because they can work well in a group.

The programme involves guided reading, letter/phonic work, word level work, sentence level work and shared/supported reading. There are structured weekly learning objectives for each child, and weekly planning is done by the teacher with the teaching assistant, who completes daily observation sheets on each child’s performance. For the children, there’s a new book each day. The children enjoy being part of this group, they have fun and they are learning fast. Julie, a Learning Support Assistant at Stacey Primary school in Cardiff, gains satisfaction from seeing the children flourish: ‘they become happier children, it lifts their self-esteem with their peers which is so important’ She can see their confidence growing as their reading progresses.

The results are impressive. Mandy Paish is Headteacher at Stacey. It’s a school with a very mixed intake and a very mobile population – 26 pupils are asylum-seekers, 58% are ethnic minority pupils, and 33% have special educational needs, so the school tries to provide lots of additional literacy support. The Head is pleased with the SAIL initiative so far: ‘English is a priority for this school – and all the pupils from our first year of SAIL achieved Level 2 in English’. She also notes that the SAIL programme has not only trained and developed teacher’s skills, but has given them skills to pass on to other staff in inset sessions. ‘It’s a very child-centred programme. We can ensure that the learning is at the appropriate level of language acquisition for the children involved and continuous assessment ensures that each pupil makes the best progress possible.’ Mandy also feels that SAIL has an impact at organisational level, as future year groups operate more effectively, as more pupils are able to join in at the right level for their age.

Christina Walsh is the SAIL Coordinator for Cardiff LEA, and she has seen the programme grow and develop from the outset. Over 50 schools are now involved and there are nine Teachers and 58 Teaching Assistants operating SAIL Groups. Christina was instrumental in developing the SAIL model, following a request in 2001 to develop a small-group programme based on Reading Recovery. With the assistance of a Strategic Intervention Grant from the Basic Skills Agency, the first three year pilot was conducted in ten of Cardiff’s lowest attaining schools. SAIL is now in its fifth year. All participating schools have a trained SAIL teaching assistant who delivers the programme over 20 weeks in the spring and summer terms, normally to one group of four children – though some schools have asked for a second assistant to be SAIL-trained.

For Christina, the key benefits are the pupils’ progress in literacy, concentration, behaviour and self-esteem. Across Cardiff schools last year, 65% of the lowest achieving children achieved Level 2 and around 80% of SAIL pupils make accelerated progress.