A district project by Northland Freemasons raised a total of $170,000 to fund Lexia software into schools throughout the north.

The software is given to Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) to assist children with learning and behavioural problems. Early indications are that this software is having a direct benefit for a child’s reading and learning ability, providing renewed and positive attitudes to their reading and improved general behavioural patterns in the classroom. These results are being heralded as “hugely significant” by resource teachers working in Northland schools as well as the parents of the many children.

The software is now available in over 100 schools (both primary and secondary) through the 43 RTLB’s in Northland. Small rural schools to larger Intermediate schools in larger towns and all the Secondary schools in the north now have access to the Lexia software through their RTLB’s involving an estimated 5,000 children.

The monies raised by the Freemasons came from District fund raising efforts which included a grand raffle, a Bowls Tournament and two charity concerts one in Kerikeri the other in Whangarei. Local Lodges and individual members contributed $18,000 making it a real “team effort” and grants from three Masonic Trusts added a further $70,000 to the overall total. The three Masonic Trusts were the Grand Lodge Fund of Benevolence, the Roskill Foundation and the Potter Trust.

When the funding of an application from an RTLB is approved, the software is sent direct to the teacher and it is formally presented to the RTLB by members of the local Lodge. The RTLB is expected to provide a report for the Lodge which monitors the successes of the Lexia software in the classroom. In this way Freemasons can gauge the overall success of their District project.

Clearly the problems reported by RTLB teachers early in 2008 were greater than first thought. Approximately 20 percent of all primary children have a below-age reading ability which can rise to around 30 percent in lower socio-economic areas. If these problems are not actioned early the children can end up at High school where they begin to struggle in the class room quickly falling behind other students. They can often develop serious behavioural problems. In the worst cases children can be expelled from school and can become a real social problem for society.

Local research in Northland shows that 10% of all children will be dyslexic and of these 75% will be boys. The challenge is for the schools to identify these problems early and quickly offering help for those children.

James Laurie of Maunu in Whangarei is one such boy. At the age of 6 James was diagnosed as being dyslexic but had an IQ of a 12 year old. His parents Daryn and Donna struggled to get the right help for James. They enrolled him in SPELD where he received help once each week. This did little for James’s condition. They also tried him on the American Dores programme but this too made no improvement. His parents were desperate by this stage and they struggled to find a teacher who could provide the right help.

Even approaches to the Ministry of Education failed James and his parents.

In 2008 Maunu school where James attended, received Lexia software and a teacher’s aide Miss Wells took James under her wing and within months and as a direct result, he was starting to show some improvement. After the initial 3 months James was able to read a book without help. His parents by now were having two meetings per term with his teacher to monitor James’ progress. James is a very bright student showing a great deal of talent in writing poetry and drawing in 3D. Hi parents are delighted at the positive impact Lexia continues to have on James’ life.

These problems are not unique to Northland schools. In Fact Mr Guy Pope-Mayell Chair of Trustees, Dyslexia Foundation recently stated “that one in 10 New Zealanders have Dyslexia including 70,000 school children and the Government through the Education system, is providing no financial help”.

Other schools have identified similar learning problems and have experienced positive results from the use of Lexia software. Resource teachers in the north of the South Island contacted the Northland Freemasons seeking guidance on how they had organised the programme in the north. Local Lodges in the South Islands keen to duplicate the efforts of their northern counterparts, also made contact seeking advice on the project.

The 43 Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour in the northern region have been unanimous in the enthusiasm for the Lexia software. The children on the programme enjoy it a great deal - they certainly do not have any motivational problems in getting them engaged in their work and impressive improvements are being achieved. Generally children get to use the software at least three times per week in sessions lasting for about 20-25 minutes and show very good reading growth. As the software is very graded it caters to individuals and their phonemic awareness needs. Also it offers a challenge to each child to complete each section correctly before moving onto the next section.

At many schools like Onerahi school in Whangarei there is a special needs coordinator for the school whose job it is to determine the children in need of Lexia support. These children are then taken over by a teacher aide who is responsible for the software programmes with direct assistance from the visiting RTLB. The progress of a child is carefully monitored and one of the features is that it summarises where a child is at when a session is complete. This is proving to be a wonderful help for the teacher who can then plan future teaching sessions for an individual child.

One of the other real benefits of Lexia is that teachers and teacher aides need little extra training after being introduced to the programme. They do not have to stand over a child and can have several children in a session (dependant on access to computers). This represents an efficient use of scarce school resources.

Some of the early benefits recorded by the RTLB’s in Northland are:

• A higher and more positive engagement in the Learning process – children really keen to read more.
• Progress starting quickly with reading skills
• Word attack skills increasing
• Many positive behaviour changes in the classroom and at home.
• A real improvement in their confidence, their independence and their ability to solve a problem and then move on. Offers real challenges to the student.
• A general improvement in their comprehension for most students.

A 9 year old girl near Taipa in the north had a serious genetic disorder which prevented the learning of reading, has recently been trialling Lexia. After several months she had made considerable progress to a point where she can now read books of a 7 year old and is improving her spelling each day.

Another RTLB reports that a student aged 8 who was a very slow learner particularly with reading was introduced into a Lexia class. After 9 weeks (3 sessions of 20 minutes per week) gains were being achieved on average +2.5 years in reading age. These gains affected other aspects of her school work – spelling and comprehension. Improvements are continuing in all areas of her education.

Further testing in Northland was carried out to gauge the effectiveness of the Lexia programme. The average age of one group of students was 10 years. Over a period of 7 months ( operating in sessions 3 times per week ) students showed a significant (20per cent) improvement in reading, 5 per cent improvement in spelling and 30 per cent improvement in sight word reading.

Within the RTLB group of resource teachers are a handful of teachers who target maori children as a specialty group. Many of these children start school not being able to speak or read English and immediately gain tremendous benefit from the Lexia programme. RTLB Chrissy Ward, Whangarei’s Maori resource teacher says the programme is having amazing results on children who have attended Maori Language Immersion schools and have trouble reading and writing in English.

In other schools in the north where English lessons are planned for children speaking other languages, very positive results have been achieved by the software which quickly increases their English vocabulary and their general use of English.

RTLB’s acknowledge that students in Northland with the largest deficits in reading, spelling, sight word reading and comprehension have the most to gain with Lexia.

In Tasmania in Australia the Department of Education in 2006 became a bulk purchaser of Lexia software and was able to reduce the cost of licences to Tasmanian schools from $400 to $200. Seven schools in NSW in Australia which have between 5 and 10% aboriginal children have been testing the Lexia programmes. Literacy and numeracy rates for these indigenous students were of a major concern with 75% of all indigenous students falling below the 50% benchmark for literacy testing and 78% falling below 50% on numeracy testing.

The Government through the Department of Education in NSW appointed Aboriginal Education Officers to assist aboriginal children on the Lexia programme to help overcome these problems.

In New Zealand children from a lower socio-economic environment like their counterparts in Australia, have the opportunity to make the greatest gains from Lexia software.

Parents are quick to identify the improvements gained by their children using the software. Often they become involved as a teachers aide at the local school. This “hands on” approach allows the parents to understand how their child is progressing at school and fosters a positive view of their child’s educational achievements. Even grand mothers have become involved as teacher’s aide in some schools (eg Onerahi school in Whangarei).

Feedback from parents of affected Northland children has been monitored.

“Greater confidence in her reading. More independent and tries hard to overcome any problem areas. Enjoys reading now. It is great to see the improvement”

“I have seen dramatic changes in my son’s reading and he is willing to read daily. A year ago I felt he had no focus and was even a little troublesome at home. I now have a great young man on my hands and I have no doubt his reading and positive attitude go hand in hand thanks to Lexia and the Freemasons”

“The most satisfying aspect has been my son’s new attitude to reading and the improved belief in his own ability. I hope one day he will join the Masons”

An RTLB teacher from Taipa who has had considerable experience with Lexia was recently transferred to a ‘special needs’ school in West Auckland. Realising how the children in her new school could benefit from Lexia, she applied to the Freemasons Divisional Benevolence Officer in Auckland, Mr Ray Laurence. It is likely that Ray may be able to assist with funding for the software for this ‘special needs’ school.

There has been tremendous publicity gained throughout Northland by this Project. It has brought communities together and new members have emerged for local Lodges. It also has the potential to go nation wide the organisers believe.

The Project is tackling a huge problem within our class rooms which if not addressed can spill out into society.

Freemasons in Northland can be proud of their efforts to improve the education

needs of our next generation of Kiwis.

Ron McCracken 09 433 0474 ronbev@slingshot.co.nz

Peter Packard 09 436 2494 peter.packard@xtra.co.nz