Evidence shows Fluency For All boosts reading skills, especially among disadvantaged pupils
Pupil Premium pupils' reading age scores improved by +8.5 points, compared with +0.9 in the control group
Reading fluency is more than just a skill – it is the gateway to accessing the curriculum, building confidence, and thriving in school. Yet too many pupils, especially from disadvantaged backgrounds, enter secondary school still decoding words rather than understanding them.
The SHINE-funded Fluency For All (FFA) project, developed by Louise Quinn and the North East Learning Trust, is an evidence-based peer-tutoring programme designed to build reading confidence and fluency. Children read aloud for 20 minutes, twice a week, supported by trained tutors – older students who receive tailored instruction to guide their peers.
Participants read from bespoke anthologies of non-fiction texts, created specifically for the programme by Louise and her colleagues.
The initiative focuses on pupils who struggle with reading or lack confidence, including many from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Impact Highlights
The programme has been rigorously tested at 9 schools this year. The results are striking.
Reading age
- Overall gains: Pupils using FFA improved their Standard Age Scores (SAS)* by +6.31 points, compared to just +1.1 points for a control group of similar children who did not access the programme.
- Disadvantaged learners: Pupil Premium pupils’ reading scores improved by +8.5 points, compared with +0.9 in the control group. Of all the pupils in the study, those from disadvantaged backgrounds made the most progress
- Gender differences: Girls made the most progress, with +7.6 SAS points.
Reading fluency – WCPM
- Words Correct Per Minute (WCPM) increased by +14.8 for FFA pupils, versus +11.9 for the control group. Notably, many of the pupils were ‘speed readers’ who needed to slow down their reading to an appropriate rate.
Reading expression, automaticity, rhythm, and smoothness (EARS scores, marked out of 16)
- FFA pupils more than doubled the gains of their peers (+3.3 marks on average vs. 1.6).
- SEND pupils nearly tripled gains made by the control group (+2.9 marks on average vs. +1.0).
In her end-of-year report into the effectiveness of FFA, Louise states: “The intervention group consistently outperformed the control group” when it came to reading improvements, adding, “This occurred across all subgroups, with the greatest improvements seen in girls (+7.6 SAS) and Pupil Premium pupils (+8.5 SAS).”
The improvements for pupils using FFA were described as “highly statistically significant – not due to chance and therefore likely to be as an outcome of the FFA intervention”.
The programme’s impact on disadvantaged pupils is particularly encouraging.
Initial assessments showed that Pupil Premium pupils had less access to books at home and engaged in less reading overall. Yet with targeted practice through the FFA programme, these same pupils made the largest strides.
Louise explained: “The data for Pupil Premium pupils who received the reading intervention shows a statistically significant and meaningful improvement… Out of all pupil subgroups, the FFA intervention appears to have the strongest evidence of promise for Pupil Premium pupils.”
Meanwhile, she also noted how SEND pupils are strongly benefiting from FFA: “These results highlight the intervention’s potential to support learners with additional needs, enhancing both their reading comprehension and fluency,” she said.
Key to the success of FFA is the quality of the peer tutoring. As Louise noted: “The programme’s mantra is that ‘the tutor is the intervention’. The better the tutor, the more likely the tutee is to make progress.”
That belief drove a year of focused tutor training. Pupils weren’t just handed scripts, they were given handbooks, video examples, and regular coaching. Tutors reported feeling “confident and well-prepared”. 98% of tutors rated the new anthologies and session structure positively, and pupils expressed confidence in navigating sessions independently.
By week six, 70% of tutees were reading aloud for the full 18 minutes each session, compared to only 20% at the start.
And pupils who once whispered through paragraphs began to add expression and rhythm. This was reflected in the EARS scores (measuring expression, automaticity, rhythm, smoothness), where intervention pupils more than doubled the gains of their peers.
Both boys and girls benefitted from the FFA intervention, but girls made greater improvements overall.
Interviews revealed that girls tended to value reading improvement more, enjoyed a wider range of texts, and were motivated to please their tutors. Boys, by contrast, often preferred sport-related texts, were harder to engage, and sometimes made less use of the reading time, which may explain their more variable outcomes.
Tutors who were “stronger and more assertive” helped keep the boys on track. The FFA team is now considering how to pair pupils and mentors more strategically to maximise progress for boys specifically.
In the third year of the project, with SHINE’s support, FFA will be introduced into a further 10 schools, taking the total to 25 overall, allowing many more children to benefit.
* Before and after the programme, pupils in both the intervention and control groups across 9 schools took the New Group Reading Test (NGRT) digital reading assessment. This test measures overall reading ability, with a focus on comprehension, and gives each pupil a standardised score showing how they compare with others nationally.