Although the materials are provided via an online platform, the lessons themselves are delivered face to face by a member of school staff. Each lesson lasts around 45–60 minutes and is structured around four main components:
1. Words and a story of the day
2. Sound games
3. Spelling games
4. Narrative (story writing)
The activities are specifically designed to develop literacy skills critical for reading and writing success including:
- Letter-sound knowledge
- Phonological awareness
- Language-specific and age-appropriate spelling patterns
- Vocabulary
- Oral language
- Your child will take part in a programme that has been shown to be effective in improving language and literacy skills.
- They will complete fun, educational stories and activities.
- They will develop literacy skills and confidence.
- Help pupils with literacy difficulties to 'catch-up'.
To begin with, the school will select up to 16 children to take part in the programme. If your child is selected, they will be assigned to one of two groups:
- The experimental group, which receives the RILL programme first
- The wait listed control group (WLC), which receives the intervention later
The experimental group will receive the RILL programme first and will be assessed before and immediately after the programme is delivered.
Whilst the experimental group receives the programme, the WLC group will continue with the usual curriculum and complete two assessments before the programme begins. This group will receive the programme once the experimental group has finished.
Creating a WLC group is imperative as it provides us with an untreated comparison group. By comparing the progress of both groups, we can evaluate the impact of RILL compared to the standard curriculum alone. This helps us better understand how RILL contributes to the development of children’s reading and literacy skills.
Once the experimental group has completed the programme, the waiting list group will have the opportunity to take part. If your child is assigned to this group, we ask the school to ensure that these pupils benefit fully from the RILL resources once the trial has ended.
We will use standardised literacy assessments to assess your child's current literacy skills. These assessments will be administered online under the supervision of a designated RILL teacher.
At the end of the programme, the research team will provide a short report on school-level progress, outlining the areas and skills that have improved the most. This report will not include individual data about your child. It will be based on the overall progress of the group. Please note that these assessments will not be used as diagnostic tools to identify literacy difficulties.
During the project, we may also ask for some background information. However, this will not be required for your child to take part.
Confidentiality: Your child’s participation in the study will be treated as strictly confidential. Their data will be combined with data from other participants. The results of the study will be published in academic seminars, research talks or published papers in scientific journals. However, all personal information will be removed so that individuals cannot be identified in any of these publications.
Privacy, data access and GDPR: Your child’s data will be stored digitally and assigned a code to ensure anonymity. The study data will be kept on a password-protected computer network.
Only researchers directly involved in analysing the data will have access to the password. It is possible that the anonymised dataset may be stored in a secure public database, allowing other scientists to verify or explore the findings. No personal information will be shared. Access to your child’s personal data will be restricted to researchers working on the RILL Team. Occasionally, authorised staff at Bangor University may request access for auditing purposes.
Withdrawing from the study: If your child decides they do not wish to take part in the programme (even if you, as their parent/legal guardian, have given consent), they are free to opt out. If you choose to withdraw your child from the study, you may request that all of their data be deleted. This can be done up until the point when the dataset has been fully anonymised and analysed (when it is no longer possible to identify individual participants).
Who is running and paying for the study? A team of researchers led by Prof. Manon Jones at Bangor University is running the study, which is funded by the Welsh Government.
Who has reviewed the study? The study has been given a favorable opinion by a Bangor University Approved Research Ethics Committee (Project ID: ).
Email: RILLproject@bangor.ac.uk
Address: The School of Psychology and Sport Science, Brigantia Building, Penrallt Road, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2AS
Any complaints concerning this research should be addressed to Bangor University’s Senior Research Governance & Policy Officer, Governance Services, Bangor
Email: seniorresearchgovofficer@bangor.ac.uk