Diploma in Reading Recovery

Reading Recovery Centre at MIE

Reading Recovery is an early intervention for children who have made very little progress in reading and writing during their first year at school.  It involves a daily one-to-one lesson with a highly trained teacher for a period of between twelve and twenty weeks.  At the end of this time, most of these ‘hardest to teach’ children have caught up with their classmates and can read and write at a level within the average band for their age.

Marino Institute of Education, in collaboration with the Department of Education and Science and the Institute of Education (University College London) launched the second implementation of Reading Recovery (RR) in the Republic of Ireland in September 2002.

Course Requirements:

To become a registered RR professional, teachers pursue a one-year, part-time postgraduate course  in literacy learning and literacy development. They are also required to work on a one-to-one basis with a minimum of four children as part of  their training.

Qualification(s)/Registration:

At the end of their training year, they receive a certificate from the Institute of Education (University College London) and become registered members of the European Network of Reading Recovery. 

Continuing Professional Development:

On-going professional development is provided for qualified RR teachers for as long as their school is implementing the programme.

Effectiveness of the Programme

The success of Reading Recovery is largely due to the quality and intensity of the initial and on-going professional development for qualified and experienced teachers selected annually for this postgraduate certificate course which is  delivered at MIE.

Success is judged by the achievement of pupils who participate in the programme.  The children are aged between five years nine months and six years six months and each teacher submits data to the Reading Recovery Evaluation Database (RRED) at the Institute of Education, University College London. The success rate in Marino is close to 90% with accumulating, follow-up research evidence showing that gains achieved during the series of lessons are subsequently maintained.

Programmes in the Republic of Ireland last about eighteen weeks or thirty-eight hours, on average.  This seems a small price to pay for helping such children to access the curriculum and for sparing them and society at large the negative spin-off effects of early literacy failure.

‘Success in the early grades does not guarantee success throughout the school and beyond, but failure in the early grades does guarantee failure in later schooling’
(Askew & Frasier, 1997)

Application Process

The application process for Reading Recovery is handled by PDST. Application forms for a place in Reading Recovery Initial Professional Development Programme are available on the PDST Website during the spring term. Only principals may apply for a place for their school on this programme.  

For further information about the programme, please contact Mary Heaslip: [email protected]