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A Co-operative
Approach to Learning
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Offering an
innovative and unique approach towards the education of children in
the primary phase.
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The programme
is based on extensive research into the way that children learn to
read and write.
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Our curriculum is driven by
co-operative learning, which is embedded throughout the programme
and focuses on individual pupil accountability, common goals and
recognition of group success.
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This emphasis on partner and
group sharing, and the opportunities that children are given to work
with peers, enables them to master basic reading skills, whilst
encouraging them to develop into active, thoughtful learners.
Why use
Co-operative Learning?
Research has shown that using
co-operative learning techniques with children:
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Promotes learning and academic
achievement
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Increases retention
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Enhances satisfaction with
their learning experience
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Helps develop skills in oral
communication
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Develops social skills
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Promotes self-esteem
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Helps to promote positive race
relations
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Practise
Active Listening |
Research in
Co-operative Learning
Co-operative Learning has been
proven to enhance children’s capacity to learn and consolidate new
ideas across the primary curriculum.
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In the vast majority of
research studies co-operative learning has been shown to be more
effective than traditional methods in raising the levels of
motivation and achievement of children as well as resulting in
positive social outcomes.
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Researchers such as Robert
Slavin and David and Roger Johnson have shown that using
co-operative learning strategies has a positive impact on
achievement.
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Children who learn
co-operatively tend to be more highly motivated to learn because of
increased self-esteem. They also have greater on-task behaviour,
score higher on achievement and problem solving tests and tend to
get along better with classmates of different racial, ethnic and
social backgrounds.
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Professor David Hopkins,
Nottingham University, stated in his evaluation of the schools which
implemented the co-operative learning strategies in the pilot in
1998 that, “We found learning behaviour inside schools had improved. Children
were learning how to problem solve and work in groups and were able
to transfer these skills to other curriculum areas.
One result, which has excited researchers, is that boys were making
as much progress as girls, despite conventional research and
national trends, which branded boys slower.”
Complete
Tasks |
Help and
Encourage Others |
The Success for All
Literacy Programme
The programme has
been developed based on Slavin’s research, using co-operative learning
strategies within literacy teaching. Since literacy is the key to all
learning, we have created teaching and learning materials for every
stage of the primary curriculum and provide training and on-going
support to teachers, programme facilitators and head teachers.
At the heart of the programme is
90 minutes of uninterrupted, daily literacy from Year One to Year Six.
Children are grouped across classes and year groups by their reading
comprehension level. This gives each teacher the opportunity to work
intensively with children grouped at the same reading comprehension
level.
The programme emphasises
prevention and early intervention to respond to any child's learning
problems and prevent early reading failure.
Ensuring success
for all children whatever their background
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Explain Your Ideas
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We are completely committed to
improving the quality of children’s learning in geographical areas of
social deprivation, where for whatever reasons, traditional methods of
teaching and learning have failed to raise children’s levels of
achievement. We believe that by relentlessly pursuing excellence for
every child, and implementing radical new strategies, we can make a
difference to this.
The “Fade or flourish: how primary schools can build on children’s
early progress”, report by the Social Market Foundation (July 2006),
concluded that Success for All met all the criteria necessary in
successful teaching approaches to literacy.
In their summary of proposals they stated that;
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“more emphasis
on speaking and listening skills to complement reading and writing
should be developed. This is because a focus on speaking and
listening is a component of the successful SFA programme; it has
been recommended by the Rose Review; and it must also be delivered
via small group and co-operative learning which have the
additional benefits of improving a child’s social and
interpersonal skills.”
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A proven record of
preventing literacy failure
Success for All has a proven
record of preventing literacy failure in schools facing challenging
circumstances. Currently, we are working with approximately 110
different schools across the UK, in collaboration with twelve EAZs/LEAs,
from Scotland, Manchester, Leeds and Hull in the North of England to
London and Somerset in the South. Most of our schools are in areas of
high social deprivation and face all of the challenges and limitations
of aspiration and achievement associated with this. In all schools, the
programme has made an impact on the percentage of children achieving
age-appropriate National Curriculum levels.
Curriculum: Nursery
to Year Six
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Provides teachers with a
complete literacy programme.
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Supports teachers with
training and coaching.
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Uses proven research
strategies and best practices for teaching literacy.
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Engages children with
co-operative learning strategies.
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Accelerates the learning of
all children.
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Improves classroom management
and attendance.
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Emphasises development of oral
languages, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and
comprehension.
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Everyone
Participates
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Schools can
implement all parts of the programme or just those components that best
meet their individual needs.
There are 6 main parts to the
programme, all of which can be adopted as a whole-school approach or
implemented separately depending on the needs of the school.
Foundation
Stage - We have two foundation stage programmes that provide
young children with an experimental and child-central curriculum, which
gives them the necessary foundation for success in KS1. Curiosity Corner
in Nursery and KinderCorner in Reception have an integrated approach and
have been written to meet all of the requirements of the Curriculum
Guidance for the foundation stage. These consist of 36 weekly thematic
units in Curiosity and 16 two-week thematic units in Kinder.
KS1 -
The
SFA Roots Programme in year 1 gives children the building blocks to
become successful readers and writers. Using a systematic, synthetic
phonics programme, which has been endorsed by the Rose Review, children
gain confidence in their ability to apply their knowledge to the reading
process. Schools can implement the SFA FastTrack phonics programme as
a stand alone programme.
"Children should be given
reading material that is well within their reach in the form of
decodable books, that is to say, early reading books specially designed
to incorporate regular text which children can decode using the phonic
skills they have secured."
Independent review of
the teaching of early reading - Jim Rose
KS2
- The SFA Wings Programme exposes children to carefully
selected literature covering all the different genres to develop their
skills as effective readers and writers. The aim of the Wings programme
is that by the end of year 6 children have a love of reading and are
able to question and clarify their understanding of any text.
Year
6 Literacy Skills Consolidation Package - This programme has
been developed over the last three years to consolidate and extend
children's prior learning, enabling them to demonstrate their skills
during national testing. The Year Six Teaching Package consists of ten
units that covers five important text genres and develops children's
ability to articulate their thinking about text through a focus on key
literacy, presentational and functional devices. The package also
includes detailed guidance on teaching five genres of writing (recount,
non-chronological report, persuasion, balanced report and story).
KS3
Reading Project - This is Success for All's latest
development project and has been made possible through a grant from the
Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.
We are at present writing materials that meet the interest levels of
children in KS3 both at the lower level and extension materials in NC
level 6.
Conflict
Resolution / Getting Along Together
The Getting Along Together programme aims to ensure that every child is
equipped to deal with sources of potential conflict, thus defusing it
before it is allowed to escalate.
Working alongside peers, listening and applying problem solving
strategies to obstacles are all skills that deserve to be taught if we
value children’s ability to co-operate and fully engage in the
learning process.
The Success for All Getting Along Together package is a series of
scripted lessons designed to support the co-operative learning process.
What
we offer
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Awareness-raising
sessions for groups of schools / conferences.
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Training in the
use of co-operative learning strategies in the classroom, both in
primary and secondary settings.
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Training in any
of the six component parts with follow up support.
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The curriculum
materials to support the teaching of all parts of the SFA literacy
programme.
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Whole school
implementation of the Success for All programme for those schools
that really want to change their teaching and learning style and
raise standards of literacy.
We found learning
behaviour inside schools had improved. Children were learning how to
problem solve and work in groups and were able to transfer these skills
to other curriculum areas.
One result, which has excited researchers, is that boys were making as
much progress as girls, despite conventional research and national
trends, which branded boys slower.
Professor David
Hopkins, Nottingham University
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