Bartley Green Community School , Birmingham

The initial aim was to enable access to Global ILS and so raise achievement levels in a number of curriculum areas - English, Mathematics, French and Information Technology, and for a range of pupils through the Speech and Language Resource Unit. The latter would also include individuals from the mainstream with specific deficits in their literacy, and pupils at KS4 needing reinforcement of specific areas of learning.

Year 7 and Year 8 pupils

Pupils were tested using Schonell and Neale tests at the start and end of the school year. An analysis of results from the both Years showed significant levels of gain in all areas of the English programmes for a majority of pupils;

• in reading gains ranged up to 28 months.
• in spelling up to 12 months' gain.
• in reading accuracy up to 22 months' gain.
• in comprehension up to 33 months' gain.

• in reading gains were seen up to 21 months.
• in spelling up to 16 months.

All had worked with Global ILS for two half-hour sessions per week for a maximum of eight school months, with an actual time maximum of twenty-seven hours' exposure (54 x half hour sessions).

A number of positive variables have been identified over the extended period of use by pupils from the Speech and Language Resource Unit.

• Motivation levels are extremely high, and appear to be enhanced as pupils perceive that they are approaching achievement "thresholds" such as the completion of the final and highest level of any programme element.
• Access to Individual Profiles are a high tariff positive which almost all pupils recognise, and wish to self-record on individual chart records. This has been linked into the School's own rewards system, so that, just as Global ILS English is embedded on a curricular level, it is also embedded on a personal and socio-academic level as well, reinforced by individual praise and attention by teacher and fellow pupils alike.
• Completed profiles, endorsed by the Headteacher, are displayed on a wallboard alongside the computer stations as a lasting reminder of personal achievement.

The experience of using Global ILS English over the past three years indicates that the system is a potent motivating force for learning, more especially when it is combined with an English curriculum process, not separated out from it either geographically or academically. Our experience is also that a majority of pupils gain from accessing the system.
That gain can come in two ways, neither exclusive to the other.

• Firstly, the structural and compartmentalised presentation of English lexis and grammar which the Global ILS layout gives pupils.
• Secondly, on a more generalised level, through Global ILS English creating a "language working" climate where competition and failure have no legitimate place in learning English.

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