Interventions in primary school are needed to boost knowledge and fill the gaps; they can certainly make our lives as teachers a lot easier. But, at times, they can be so frustrating! We’ve all been there; you spend hours searching for an intervention that will do. Or, when you think you’ve found a great reading intervention, you see that Year 3 and Year 6 are doing the same text. Argh!

We have cracked it and found how to make interventions in primary school hassle-free. A big claim, we know. Read on to learn how we've tackled school intervention solutions.

Staff challenges with interventions in primary schools

Teacher workload and school interventions.

Teacher workload is at an all-time high. It is beyond challenging to find time to research, plan and deliver reading comprehension, spelling, maths, grammar, and punctuation interventions regularly. Never mind monitoring their success.

Let’s face it: no teacher or assessment lead has time to research separate school interventions for each core subject across the school. So, what is the solution? Whole-school intervention programmes save teachers hours upon hours of workload. When choosing a key stage intervention programme, ensure it is underpinned by evidence-based research and follows the National Curriculum for each year group. An intervention programme should align with your school’s priorities, budget and assessment processes.

New initiatives and school interventions.

Interventions in primary school can swap and change as quickly as the British weather. One term, you’re trying a particular method, only for it to be changed the next term. Teachers can become disheartened and disengaged with the new initiatives introduced, wondering when this approach will be changed, yet again. Your school must be aware of the why behind the intervention choice.

Some staff may prefer good old-fashioned pen and paper for interventions. Edging away from technology and online-based interventions in schools. Motivating staff to be as excited as you are for a new intervention programme across the school can be a tough sell.

Stick with one intervention programme for one key stage, with the same structure, resource layout and online assessments to use. Giving staff confidence to use one intervention programme in school across all core subjects for KS2, regardless of year-group subject knowledge.

Intervention resources for primary schools: the good, the bad and the ugly

Intervention resources for primary schools should be simple to use, engaging and designed to reduce cognitive load for learners. But we know that isn’t always the case. An exciting activity with minimal outcomes can engage the children, but is it likely to close the attainment gap? Probably not. Equally, activities underpinned by National Curriculum objectives but uninspiring can cause the same achievement issues. Choose an intervention programme that balances engaging content and purposeful activities for children to engage with. Children who are engaged with their intervention learning material retain more information.

Let’s talk about the repetition of resources for interventions in school. As an assessment lead, year group lead or subject leader, you may likely have to observe or analyse the planned interventions. It may be common to see a surface-level reading intervention in Year 3 and the same worksheet for Year 6 intervention groups. Intervention programmes for schools should be pitched to the correct age group. How can you be sure an intervention is aimed at the correct objectives and pitch otherwise?

Strike a balance between engaging resources and meeting year-group National Curriculum objectives. Shine is the complete school intervention programme for KS2, with prepared intervention resources to engage and reduce children's cognitive load. You can access a free trial and book a demo with your local consultant.

Interventions that work well for schools are those that understand the teacher workload. The hidden workload associated with intervention planning, preparation and assessment is often forgotten. Ensure your teaching and support staff enjoy delivering the intervention sessions by having the resources prepared, question prompts pre-written and outcome objectives identified.

Everyday challenges for school interventions

School days whizz past in a blur. One moment, you’re taking the register; the next, you’re scooping up discarded jumpers and desperately trying to find their owners. There are no designated intervention time slots; time must be carved out (or creatively found).

Pre-prepared intervention programmes are driven by assessments and ready to allow off-the-cuff interventions.

During the winter festive time, children may be pulled away for carol concerts, production practice, or visits to the local nursing home. Finding time for the interventions to be delivered consistently during the festive season can be an additional challenge. Helping teaching assistants continue intervention programmes outside their usual year group can mean the ‘show will go on’… for the intervention learning. Helping teaching assistants boost their confidence with intervention material will ensure high-quality delivery from all available members of staff.

Tech space and availability are an everyday challenge when successfully running school interventions. Your school may use online intervention programmes or software for fluency in Maths or spelling. They can have excellent results and improve children’s rapid recall or recognition. However, tech availability can sometimes cause challenges, such as booking your slot out to find the iPads weren’t charged overnight or have been taken on a school trip.

Ensuring impactful interventions in your primary school

The whole purpose of interventions in school is to boost knowledge in a particular area, whether academic or social interventions in schools. Value for money when choosing an intervention process is essential. You want to know if the juice is worth the squeeze with intervention program cost.

Tracking interventions' impact on pupil progress is an important way to measure pupil progress. An intervention programme that is diagnostically driven by assessment results will provide easy reports to pinpoint the areas of need and group children in like-groups for interventions. Individual worksheets then allow you to measure individual progress from group activities. Begin with a baseline assessment to identify which areas should be targeted and monitor progress in this area with intervention outcomes and termly assessments results. 

Positive progress in the targeted core subjects of Maths, English and GPS should not be the price of foundation subject enjoyment. Interventions often become the thief of foundation subject time, limiting the broad and balanced curriculum all children deserve. Effective timetabling to keep the foundation subjects safe is important.

Finding a good English intervention

Finding a good English intervention encompassing Reading and GPS can take time and effort. Sure, there’s lots of options out there. But how do you know if it will work for your school? The aim is to avoid reoccurring school interventions.

Here are some top tips when looking for a good English intervention for your primary school:

• Check it is underpinned by assessment.
• Ensure it covers the National Curriculum English objectives.
• Look for evidence it is age-related content.
• Monitor the types of reading texts used; does it vary between fiction, non-fiction and poetry?
• Do the GPS activities link with reading material and find connections through the subject rather than being stand-alone?

Finding a good Maths intervention

When choosing a Maths school intervention to target all areas of the curriculum topics as well as fluency, problem-solving and reasoning, there are a few consideration points you should take into account when finding a good Maths intervention programme:

• Does an evidence-based strategy underpin the intervention sessions?
• Do the children stay within their year group curriculum rather than attempt to accelerate without mastery of concepts?
• Do assessments drive the sessions?
• Can the progress be measurable?
• Do the sessions support teaching and support staff with delivery?
• Are pupil misconceptions and prompt questions included?
• Are the resources pre-prepared and ready to go?
• Are there programmes for all of Key Stage 2?

Finally, to remove the hassle from intervention impact monitoring, children should be able to recognise their own improvements. After enjoying completing the intervention sessions, children should celebrate their own achievements, boosting their self-esteem and confidence for learning.

Demonstrating an intervention's impact shouldn’t eat into a teacher’s precious directed time; it should be easily identifiable and measured using data to support it.

Having an intervention programme that can have assessments undertaken online (or tabletop) but doesn’t rely on tech use can mean the sessions are less likely to be interrupted due to everyday challenges like tech availability.

The hidden costs behind interventions can challenge assessment leads trying to implement new schemes across the key stage. What may seem a good deal can then end once hidden costs come into play to access assessment features. Find core subject interventions that have free assessment toolkits included in the price of assessments for transparency and avoid any hidden costs.

Shine Interventions

So, what are Shine Interventions?

With several price options available, your school can access pre-prepared resources, the free MARK online assessment toolkit, National Curriculum tailored activities and staff guidance information for Maths, English and GPS for ages 5-11.

Contact your local consultant for a free trial of Shine Interventions or to book a demo.