PRESTON schoolchildren, who find learning to read difficult, are to benefit from a new scheme designed by researchers at Oxford Brookes University.

The Catch Up Project is designed as a manageable, effective programme for teachers to help seven and eight-year-olds who are struggling to read.

The project team from the University's school of education is holding a lecture for teachers and education experts at the Swallow Hotel on Saturday (April 17).

The scheme has not only proved popular, but successful too - preliminary research findings showed an average reading age gain of more than seven months in just ten weeks. More than 1,000 primary schools throughout the UK now use the scheme. Project director, Suzi Clipson-Boyles, said: "If these struggling children - nearly a fifth of their age group and predominantly boys - are not helped, they risk falling behind in their other schoolwork as well as in reading and writing.

"We offer an effective approach to help them catch up with the essential skills of literacy."

Children taking part in the Catch Up programme attend two short, structured sessions per week - one with the individual child, the other in a group.

It is designed to support the teacher as well as the child by providing a pack, containing a training video, INSET planning guide, teacher's manual, pupil progress booklets , a booklist of graded reading materials and games and activities.

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