Hi,
Im after some urgent support to provide an Executive Summary / Overview of why RLI is important to be used in a SEN secondary school as I have a meeting tomorrow with the Head of English to discuss why this isn’t being implemented.
I have previously sent Sue Buckley a WhatsApp to ask for support but I to date haven’t heard back.
My son started secondary school in September 2025 & I moved him to a SEN school (he’d previously attended mainstream nursery, Infants & Junior schools). I use RLI with him at home & it is my understanding that his SEN secondary school has previously done the RLI training & purchased the manuals but they are refusing to implement it in school as they seem to think their Phonics programme (Little Wandle) is more than sufficient & does exactly the same job.
I’ve explained to them that a phonics programme is not the same as the RLI & there is an absolute case for both to run within their school. It is not a case of either or its a case of both.
Is there some research / documentation I can use to back up & support my case at my meeting tomorrow? Typically his school has only given me the date for tomorrows meeting so I know it is very short notice.
Many thanks in advance.
*UPDATE*
My son’s school have just rung me to cancel our meeting tomorrow & they will rearrange for after half term (it’s half term for us here next week) so there isn’t the same degree of urgency for a response back as there was.
Many thanks.
Thank-you for your question Sarah. In order to give you the best advice on how to further develop your son’s reading, I need to know his current progress with reading, writing and spoken language to answer your question. If you are using graded books on RLI scheme - what level books is he reading? RLI is designed to get children reading from beginner stage to about a word reading age of 7-8 years and it was designed and evaluated for delivery in mainstream primary school classrooms where the child usually has a TA who can deliver the intervention one-to-one.
To make some general points, it is important that secondary age pupils do get the right teaching to continue to develop their literacy skills, both reading and writing. Motivation is important - and the books and materials used must be relevant for the student’s interests. School need to consider what the young person is going to use their literacy abilities for. What do they want to read? - and equally important, What do they want to write? They should also know that many children with Down syndrome have good sight word learning abilities but find using phonics to decode difficult. The Little Wandles approach needs to be adapted to take account of this and may not be suitable at all at this age - but this does depend on the individual child.
It is a challenge to find books that are meaningful and fun at this age - and have language that is not too advanced for our children. We encourage teachers to make books with students based on curriculum topics and on personal interests at home and at school. these can develop both reading and language skills.
If you are willing to share more information on your son’s progress here, it will help other members of this group - if not then please send to me via e mail.
