Every Child Counts is a range of successful interventions developed by academics in Edge Hill University, providing professional development, training and resources for school leaders, teachers and teaching assistants to help them to help children who find it hard to read, write and do mathematics.
And now, even more children are set to benefit with two more interventions added to the scheme’s already impressive roster.
Talk 4 Number is being rolled out to schools from this month with the aim of helping children talk confidently about maths. Aimed mainly at pupils in Year 3 and Year 4 (seven to nine-year-olds), the intervention allows children in small groups to use and understand mathematical language and talk fluently about these methods.
In trials, children gained an average ‘number age’ of nine and a half months after less than two and a half months of Talk 4 Number sessions.
training will also start this month for the 60 Oxfordshire primary schools involved in the Every Child Writes programme run by Edge Hill University, for Oxfordshire County Council.
The small-group intervention is aimed at equipping pupils in developing transcription and composition skills. It is targeted mainly at pupils in Year 3 and Year 4 who have already had some success with writing but may have spelling or handwriting difficulties that could create a barrier to writing, or struggle to communicate these effectively in writing.
The initiative in Oxfordshire is part of the Every Child Writes initiative, a two-year scheme which is part of the Every Child Counts family. 1stClass@Writing follows on from the Oxfordshire County Council Reading Campaign, delivered by Edge Hill University in partnership with the National Literacy Trust.
The campaign was launched to help primary schools in Oxfordshire to raise standards of attainment in reading in Key Stage 1. It successfully exceeded its targets, leading to some children raising their reading age by 13 months after only four months on the scheme.
Nick Dowrick, the Every Child Counts Director at Edge Hill University, said: “Being able to read, write and do mathematics properly can transform children’s lives and futures. We’d like to thank all the teachers and teaching assistants who have worked so hard to use our interventions to make a difference for 100,000 children.
“Our Every Child Counts team at Edge Hill University is continuing to develop and test more interventions so that we can help schools to help the next 100,000 children across the country to develop the skills to set them up for success.”
Every Child Counts is run by Edge Hill University on a not-for profit basis and was set up with support from the Department for Education. The scheme no longer receives government funding and is now funded directly by the schools and local authorities it works with.
The scheme has rolled out to Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands and has recently been implemented in Dubai. To find out more, visit https://everychildcounts.edgehill.ac.uk/
