Research School Network: EEF Trials: Why teachers should get involved! By Victoria Begley, Deputy Director, London South Research School

It’s the end of summer 1. You are already exhausted from the current academic year yet somehow expected to make brain-space to plan for next year’s cohort. You have seen your new class; there is potential, sure, but a lot of work to be done. Your thoughts bounce between the now and the next. Should you start looking into autumn term trips? When is the deadline for end of year reports? Is it too early to prepare book labels? Where are all the glue sticks?

And then, out of nowhere, the Headteacher asks to see you. Never a good sign. You exchange pleasantries and then, just like that, the bombshell is dropped: I’d like you to lead on participation in an EEF trial next year.


​“What a fantastic opportunity!” you say.


​“When? How? With what time? Why?!” you curse in your head.


In case you couldn’t tell from the vivid reimagining, I’ve been there. And this is exactly how I felt.


In September 2023, my year 5 team represented one of 25 schools taking part in the EEF-funded Fluency Focus pilot study. The programme, aimed at developing reading fluency in year 5 pupils, focused on reading for meaning and for the listener: pace, prosody and performance over a range of text-types, from The Iron Man to the fire of London. It was all very well in theory, but as a time-poor team leader responsible for three classes, a subject, and data & assessment across the school, I wasn’t exactly delighted at the prospect of additional demands on my time. Especially for a reading scheme that I couldn’t guarantee would be effective.


Well, don’t tell anyone but… I was wrong.


From the first training session, which was attended by all three of our year 5 class teachers and our Deputy Head, I was hooked. It was the carved-out time to focus on pedagogy, the joy of reading for pleasure and for performance, and the collaborative nature of the project within and between schools. And – most of all – it was a really, really good reading scheme.


It’s easy to be put off by the requirement for data collection, pre and post assessment, observations and questionnaires but, honestly, the design of these trials is such that the impact on schools is kept to a minimum. Yes, I had to complete a reading speed and fluency assessment with six children, several of whom needed to be pupil premium. But in my experience, it was no hardship. It took me back to reading with reception children as a brand-new teaching assistant. The day that Poppy read a sentence for the first time was the day I decided to become a teacher and here I was, a decade later, doing the same thing. Yes, I had to tick a couple of boxes and ask a couple of questions but so what? We were reading together and it was fun. I put some numbers in a spreadsheet and we got started.


In class, the structured nature of the intervention actually reduced
workload for the teachers in my team. We had the booklet – no need to argue with uncooperative photocopiers – and the plans. A few jazzed-up slides later and we were ready to rock and roll. We taught with consistency and fidelity and the outcomes spoke for themselves. Speedier readers, increased standardised scores and children who read aloud with a little less contempt and a little more characterisation.


One of my favourite memories from that (otherwise quite challenging) academic year was preparing our end-of-programme poster with my year 5 colleagues. At the celebration event, everyone else’s computer-generated contributions paled in comparison to our collaged and colourful beauty… Or at least that’s how I remember it… with a sort of rosy nostalgic glow and undeniable sense of achievement. We were part of something important and, now that this approach to guided reading is rolled out across our school, I’m proud that we – me, Phoung and Jess – did the work to make it happen.


Since then, my career has been subject to a minor course correction and I am now here, Deputy Director of the London South Research School and part of the very project that changed the way I thought about evidence into action.


If I could go back and tell my 2023-self anything, it would be this:


You will be asked to participate in an EEF pilot study. It is very, very important that you say yes.