Reading Recovery is a literacy intervention programme which is run very successfully in Holy Family Junior School by the specially trained Reading Recovery Team. Reading Recovery is a licensed, school-based, short-term, early literacy intervention. It is designed for children aged around six, who have had the most difficulty in reading and writing after one year at school.
Reading Recovery is directed at the lowest achieving pupils in the mainstream class, without exception. Involving intensive one-to-one lessons for 30 minutes a day with a specially trained Reading Recovery teacher, the literacy lessons are individually designed for each child, based on moment by moment observations and skilled teacher observations.
The goal is for children to become effective, competent and confident readers and writers, able to work within the average band of their class at age-appropriate levels of literacy. A child’s Reading Recovery series of lessons is finished when he/she is judged to be able to cope with reading and writing and work successfully at age appropriate levels. The aim is that, with a fully trained RR teacher, this should be achieved within 16-20 weeks. As soon as the child leaves Reading Recovery, another enters and this rolling intervention continues throughout the year.