Why every time people mention Reading Recovery do they feel they have to say in the same breath that it is “expensive”? Reading Recovery is cheap. It costs, on average, Pounds 1,000 to sort out a child’s literacy problems through Reading Recovery. That’s about the cost of a home computer, and less than many families pay for a holiday. For that amount to make the difference between success and failure in literacy learning strikes me as pretty good value for money.
Reading Recovery does not target just any children, it is designed specifically for the very lowest achieving, the ones who are set to cost their schools and local education authorities many tens of thousands of pounds in long-term support, special needs teaching, report writing, referral to education psychologists, statementing procedures and even, in this litigious age, legal proceedings. And, sadly after all those expensive alternatives, children who have failed in early literacy learning are still failing children.
JULIA DOUETIL Reading Recovery trainer Church Lane Pirbright Surrey
