Frequently Asked Questions: Teachers and Teaching Assistants

Please contact the RILL team with the details of the local authority (phone number and email address) and the type of computer or tablet you are working on when you were blocked.  This will give us an idea of the issue and help us work with you to resolve any issues.  You may wish to try using the RILL program at home to confirm that the school Wi-Fi is blocking access to a feature of the program.  

For the most impact we recommend scheduling 2 lessons per week minimum.   

Lessons are designed to allow easy modification and individualisation by the teaching staff. Thus, if a certain activity is not suitable for the student you can simplify or increase the complexity as needed.  

For example, you can use multi-syllable rhyming words for pupils that are more advanced. If a pupil is not ready for the whole alphabet sequence, you can focus on short, targeted sections of the alphabet instead. For spelling practice, you can start with CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant words like "cat" or "dog") until they are ready for longer and more complex words. The lessons are designed to allow you to personalise the course for each pupil as required and allow them to respond using the accessible technology tools in the way that is most appropriate to meet their needs. Changing the lessons will not take up a great deal of your time and modified lessons can be used again for pupils with similar ability levels.

If the pupil does not feel confident enough to read the story themselves you can take turns to read, co-read, or allow pupils to focus on comprehension while you read the story.

We do not recommend that student work through all the lessons alone. Oral language is key in literacy development and we would encourage you to discuss the vocabulary, story, and use oral language with the pupil as much as possible. 

We do not set limits on the number of pupils in small groups, however, we would recommend around a maximum of 4 pupils per group. Some pupils may work better in a one-to-one situation depending on their social and communication needs.  We recommend that you consider how pupils will work together to allow everyone in the group to speak and practice using their vocabulary during the RILL course.  This may be more important than grouping pupils by their literacy ability level.

We use OneNote as it allows us to incorporate many different activities in the lessons beyond that of which such platforms as google classroom offer. These include easy modification based on individual needs, audio recording, and writing and drawing tools.  The tools in Microsoft are supportive of EAL, the Welsh language, and have greater accessibility options than in Google, so are more inclusive.  It is also highly interactive and allows you and the pupil to work on the same page on different machines.  All pupils with an Office 365 account have access to OneNote and it can be downloaded for free on tablets, phones, PCs, and works in web browsers such as Edge and Chrome.   

The course materials are on Microsoft OneNote which allows the pupils to use accessibility tools such as voice recording, dictation, and screen readers in English and Welsh.  Google Classroom can be used to send links to OneNote Class Notebooks to give pupils access to the course, or the lessons can be taught remotely using Google Meet.