A paired reading programme has a positive impact on primary school pupils’ skills, an independent evaluation shows.
Primary pupils who used the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) paired reading programme made an average of two months’ additional progress in reading compared with pupils who were not part of the trial.
The evaluation also found evidence that the programme had a small positive impact on pupils’ motivation, with both teachers and pupils reporting that it resulted in a greater enjoyment of reading.
The Peer Assisted Learning Strategies UK (PALS-UK) programme aims to improve reading skills by developing pupils’ oral fluency, comprehension and motivation to read.
In the trial, led by Manchester Metropolitan University, 4,800 Year 5 pupils, across 114 schools, worked in pairs to complete structured reading activities.
In half of the schools, teachers delivered the PALS-UK programme, while the other half continued with their usual practice.
The analysis found that pupils in primary schools using the PALS-UK programme made, on average, two months’ additional progress in reading compared with pupils who did not. These results have an EEF security rating of moderate to high, meaning there is a good level of confidence in the result.
FSM pupils made less progress than their peers
While most teachers involved in the programme followed it exactly, a small number of teachers reported making minor adaptations or considered adapting the programme.
In some cases, this was owing to concerns about the accessibility of PALS-UK for certain groups, such as children with lower attainment.
Children eligible for free school meals made an average of one month’s additional progress compared with their peers in schools not running the programme.
But the researchers said that this finding is “less secure” than the finding overall and “should not be interpreted as evidence that the programme is less effective for disadvantaged pupils”.
There were also mixed results in terms of the impact of the programme on oral reading fluency, with children making additional progress on one measure of fluency - the oral reading fluency rate - but not on another, broader measure.
PALS-UK may not fully prepare pupils for KS2 national curriculum tests, researchers added.
This is because it is “not designed to address all aspects of reading development or all aspects of the reading curriculum”, so schools taking part need to ensure that other “important areas of learning” are being addressed outside of PALS-UK sessions.
The EEF is exploring funding a larger trial of the programme, which is being delivered by academics from Nottingham Trent University and the University of Birmingham.
The findings come after an EEF report published last week revealed that the proportion of primary school children classed as low attainers in reading has doubled.
The report also found that the disadvantage gap in reading and maths had not narrowed among Year 5 pupils since before the pandemic.
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