Bear Necessities pilots:
First round results for Spring, 2007
The results of our initial pilots in Suffolk and Gloucestershire are almost complete, and the results are extremely encouraging. In February and March, the participating schools selected Reception pupils who were unable to read at all. For 14 weeks, each child received 10 minutes individual instruction from a teaching assistant or parent volunteer, using either Dancing Bears or Bear Necessities. So far, we have data on 86 pupils from 14 schools, and all but 7 pupils are now reading normally—and even these have made good progress in basic phonological skills.
=At post-test the average reading age was 9 months ahead.
At post-test, the average calendar age was 5 years 4 months. Excluding the 7 non-readers, the average reading age was 5 years 9 months—5 months ahead. We expect that almost all of these pupils will continue to make normal progress in reading in Year 1, without the need for individual help; next June we will be testing the children again to confirm this.
=These results were acheived at very low cost.
What is remarkable about these results is that they were achieved with very little disruption, and at very low cost. The Teaching Assistants and parents who worked with the children had a single 90-minute training session, with no further input. And results might well have been even better if Bear Necessities had been available at the beginning.
=No buy-in cost—no lesson planning.
All of our materials are compatible with any good whole-class phonics programme. There are no 'buy-in' costs—teachers like our books because they are simple, logical and straightforward. They have been carefully designed to provide optimal over-learning in a variety of formats.
Among the comments:
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"Dancing Bears excellent—children keen & interested. Loved flashcards—they reallyworked. Also cursor very helpful." –Ann Edwards Primary School, Glos
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"Results have been surprisingly good!" –Powell's C of E Primary School, Glos
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"A very good programme—easily picked up by other staff and/or parents—same sequence of phonics as class teaching...also like handwriting link." –Avening Primary, Glos
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"...we felt it was a successful intervention because it was easy to deliver & required very little organisation. Could also be administered by Governors and volunteers." –St John's C of E, Glos
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"We will be adopting Dancing Bears as our standard intervention." —Bramford C of E, Suffolk
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"Bear Necessities is simply fabulous—we now have six members of staff using your books." —Barnardiston Hall, Suffolk
