Reading Ladders works with small groups of children and young people who have literacy difficulties. Pupils receive weekly lessons during the school day.

What makes Reading Ladders lessons unique?
We only employ specialist dyslexia tutors with a dyslexia qualification. This is because most of the pupils we teach have dyslexic traits. We use structured phonic books which focus on a particular set of sounds, to close the gaps in the pupil’s phonic knowledge. Alongside this, we teach the skills for reading through fun games and activities. For example, pupils may be asked to take turns reading a word and then take a block from a Jenga tower. We introduce pupils to engaging books such as graphic novels, so they can take enjoyment in reading.

We focus heavily on empowering the pupils to take ownership of their learning, through teaching reading strategies such as looking for hidden words within words or splitting the words into syllables. Encouraging pupils to discuss the strategies they use and how they would use them in the classroom, ensures the skills are not just practised in isolation.

Tutors first assess pupils using standardised and baseline assessments, to ensure that pupil’s abilities are closely matched. These results are used to design an effective programme, unique for every group. Lessons are fun and interactive!

Reading Ladders is unique because:

• We teach the skills for reading through fun games and tasks. Pupils don’t even realise they are learning!
• We work with pupils who have made little or no progress through school-based interventions and we turn them into independent and confident readers.
• We help pupils improve their mental well-being and self-esteem, by ensuring they become independent readers.