1. The location (neighbouring schools) facilitates the implementation and the organizational work of the programme.
2. The primary school provided the necessary support and resources (classrooms, teachers, teaching assistants) for the reading programme.
3. The programme provided ample learning opportunities for both the tutors and young readers. The tutors had ownership of the programme as they had to design the questions for the primary students.
4. The reading programme also tapped into the strengths of the students who are eager to learn, responsible and well behaved and whose English proficiency is high.
5. Early planning
   Start planning the programme earlier (e.g. at the end of the previous academic year) so that there is enough time for the programme coordinators to liaise with all relevant stakeholders. Making arrangements regarding logistics like coordinating the schedules of two sets of students and organizing resources (manpower, books, classrooms…) can be time-consuming and a lot of effort is needed.
6. Providing support for tutors even if they have high English proficiency

   • The tutors sent their questions to the coordinator of the reading programme [Language Support Officer (LSO)] for feedback prior to the reading sessions. The coordinator guided the tutors to include questions of different types and levels.
   • Training sessions must be provided for reading tutors (reading skills, questioning techniques, demonstrating reading strategies, group management strategies etc.)
   • The tutors could approach the coordinator for advice and support through e-mail.
   • Onsite teacher support must also be provided.
   • The English teachers of the tutors read the tutors’ journals, kept track of what their students were doing and provided help if necessary.
7. It was a big challenge for S2 & 3 students to teach a group of P.5 students. They had to set questions for P5 students, encourage the P5 students to speak English, pay attention to them and understand the objectives and content of the different reading sessions. The group size cannot be too big (preferably not more than 4 young readers).
8. Integrating the informal curriculum with the formal curriculum
   The English teachers of the reading tutors and of the young readers should provide ongoing supervision and support to ensure that the children involved in the programme can see the connection between that they are learning in the classroom and the reading sessions.
   As this was the first attempt at organising this kind of activity, the programme was somewhat disconnected from the school-based curricula. The programme appeared to be a stand-alone activity in the schools’ English curricula. To maximize students’ learning, English teachers should reinforce the skills learnt in the programme by connecting and extending the enhancement programme to the formal curriculum.

The programme has been revised based on the implications drawn after Phase 1.
Step 1 Curriculum mapping
To decide which reading and speaking skills to be covered in the cross key-stage programme, KS2 & KS3 reading skills, vocabulary building skills & speaking skills were mapped and common skills were identified. To allow the tutors to gain more, the design of the programme also aimed at developing the tutors’ language skills in KS3.

Step 2 Selecting the reading materials
To increase the level of challenge of the programme, the following novels were chosen as the reading materials:

1. Socks, Beverly Cleary, Scholastic
2. Ramona and her father, Beverly Cleary, Scholastic
   

Step 3 The design of the programme

Reading sessions

Findings & Analysis Impact

1. Student benefits

The findings presented in the table above that young readers gained in both language and generic skills. Although great emphasis was put on reading when designing the programme, only 69.4% tutors reported that they have made improvement in reading skills. However, they thought they had gained a lot in generic skills like thinking skills, collaboration skills and leadership skills. Their self esteem was also boosted. They were more confident in using English and most of them agreed that their speaking skills have had improved after participating in the programme.

2. Reading strategies
Tutors were reminded to introduce the following reading strategies:

• using phonics to pronounce unknown words
• using picture clues to guess the meaning of the unknown words.
• using context to guess the meaning of the unknown words
• using text-to-self questions to relate the reading to their own life
• using text-to-world questions to relate the reading to the society/ world
• using WH- questions to understand the text
• using diagrams to analyse the text (e.g. comparisons, problems and solutions, cause and effect, characters map…)

Most of them agreed that these strategies were useful. However, only around half of them used strategies like diagrams to analyse the text and using text-to-world questions to relate the reading to the society/ world. About 70% of them used WH-questions to understand the text and used text-to-self questions to relate the reading to their own life. The most unpopular reading skills were actually the ones which the teachers targeted at.

The findings of the primary group were similar. Less than half of the young readers would use diagrams to analyse the text and related the reading to the society when they read. They reported that the tutors did not introduce or emphasise these two skills during the reading sessions.

It was quite surprising that although students have known WH words since they were in KS1 and WH- questions are asked all the time, only around 70% of tutors and the tutees realized that it was an effective strategy and used this strategy when they read.

The findings implied that training for tutors was important. The belief and practices of the tutors affected what the tutees could learn from the programme.

3. Interface between KS2 & KS3

Forty eight ex-young readers (Cohort 1) have promoted to S1 in SKH Lam Woo Secondary School. 45.9% of them found the secondary curriculum quite difficult. 93.7% of them enjoyed using English as medium of instruction in the secondary school although about half of them found learning subjects with English as medium of instruction to learn other subjects quite challenging.

Learning experience in S1

Ex-young readers’ comments on buddy program
Ex-young readers thought that the English Enhancement Programme has helped them

They also reported that the following components of the cross key-stage tutoring programme helped them cope with their secondary school life (79.2%):

75% of ex-young readers claimed that the reading skills they learnt in the programme helped them learn other subjects, and 70.8% ex-young readers claimed that they have applied these reading skills when studying other subjects.

Impact___________________________________________________________________________
Student level
Both the tutors and tutees benefitted from the cross key-stage programme. Both groups reported that the programme boosted their confidence in using English, thinking skills and collaboration skills. The young readers gained more in terms of language skills. They thought the programme enhanced their reading speaking & listening skills. The tutors found the programme useful in enhancing their speaking skills rather than reading skills. Development in self-esteem and leadership skills was the most significant improvement.

Besides these, the programme provided a chance for primary students to get a glimpse of secondary school life. Primary students asked secondary students about their school life and sometimes the secondary students told them about this and their studies during their discussions.

Teacher level

• Both the primary and the secondary teachers realised that there was a gap in terms of the level of difficulty between the choices of readers for KS2 & KS3 students
• The programme provided a platform for both KS2 and KS3 teachers to learn about each others’ practices and expectations. They were able to take these new insights back to their schools.

Curriculum level

• Sustainability of reading skills through integrating the informal curriculum with the formal curriculum

  • Explicit teaching of certain reading skills and good practices developed through the English Enhancement Programme were infused into P.4-P.6 formal curriculum. This did not only benefit the students joining the programme but all KS2 students.
• The choice of readers for KS2 students

  • The primary school was more confident in choosing more challenging readers for KS2 students.

• The post reading activity could be discussion, group writing (e.g. rewrite the ending) or drama (the students could write a script and perform).
  For the third stage of the project, the schools went back to use the easier book -- Policeman’s file (Jill Eggleton, Longman).