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Eston Park School
Eston Park School in Middlesbrough is a non-selective, co-educational community school for 11 to 16-year olds. Headteacher, Jim Rogers, has been highly supportive in getting the Toe By Toe scheme up and running and provides the school with "extremely effective leadership" (OFSTED report, February 2002). These days the school is heavily over-subscribed and the active support of the Chair of Governors, Mr N Martin, has also been essential to the scheme's success.
Maximising access to the curriculumAlmost a quarter of the pupils at Eston Park have Special Educational Needs (SEN) - well above the national average - and the Learning Support Department has adopted a proactive approach to the school's literacy problems in which Toe By Toe plays a key part along with The Better Reading Partnership and other relevant programs. Recently some Brain Gym exercises have been trialled. The school has set up a 'Learning Support Centre' where SEN students - identified by CAT's test results along with other factors - are withdrawn from classes for short, intensive literacy sessions. Other teaching staff are highly supportive of these initiatives as they recognise that the best way to maximise 'access to the curriculum' is to ensure that all students have the necessary literacy skills in place. The Centre's walls are covered with posters of famously successful dyslexics and it offers students a comfortable, non-threatening learning environment.
Toe By Toe reading schemeSue Harrison from the Redcar and Cleveland LEA Learning Support Team introduced Toe By Toe to Eston Park in 1999 and the school SENCO, Chris Ford, has also been instrumental in setting up the programme. Chris regularly negotiated with Jim Rogers for more and more precious hours of support assistant time and helped to find ways to overcome budgetary restraints. These days, Chris can stay in the background and allow support staff to run things. Since its inception, the scheme has gone from strength to strength with a total of 36 students having 'graduated' and proudly received their Certificates of Achievement personally signed by Keda.
Keda visited the school in late April 2003 to meet staff and students. She was most impressed by the friendly, caring atmosphere of the school and the dedication of the staff to the students in their care. Learning Support Assistant, Bryn Clarkson who now organises the scheme, has become a great fan of Toe By Toe and constantly sings its praises. In January 2003, Bryn wrote to Keda as follows:
"About 15 minutes ago our 31st student completed Toe By Toe reading it to the Deputy Head teacher, his father and 2 members of our department. It was, as usual, a very special moment…"
Volunteers
The main problem with the use of Toe By Toe in schools is that its one-to-one approach requires a large investment in terms of teacher / classroom assistants' time. In Eston Park's Learning Support Centre however, literacy sessions are run by members of the Learning Support Department with the help of volunteers from the community at large. The volunteers soon come to appreciate that one of the most rewarding pastimes imaginable is to help these young people to attain the precious gift of literacy and - consequently - to witness the dramatic improvement in their confidence and self-esteem. It has long been recognised by devotees of Toe By Toe that the scheme's benefits are
twofold - it teaches students to read but it also teaches 'coaches' how to teach reading…
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