Using the Speech Bubbles program to improve pupil attainment in schools

ISRCTN	ISRCTN14448319
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN14448319
Protocol serial number	N/A
Sponsor	Education Endowment Foundation
Funders	Education Endowment Foundation, Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce

Submission date: 17/07/2018
Registration date: 24/07/2018
Last edited: 13/09/2021

Recruitment status: No longer recruiting
Overall study status: Completed
Condition category: Other

Prospectively registered

Protocol

Statistical analysis plan

Results

Individual participant data

Plain English summary of protocol

Background and study aims
The Speech Bubbles intervention is a programme that aims to improve children’s reading, communication and social skills by providing them with weekly creative drama sessions. An independent review of the Speech Bubbles approach indicated that it had promise to develop pupils’ self-efficacy and communication skills. This trial provides an opportunity to build on this evidence and look at the impact of Speech Bubbles on improving pupil attainment.

Who can participate?
Children with weak communication skills in Year 1 or 2 will be preferentially selected for the programme.

What does the study involve?
Children referred to the programme by their teachers will be randomly allocated to either receive the Speech Bubbles intervention for a duration of the 2018/19 academic year or to continue with business as usual. The Speech Bubbles intervention is a weekly drama session, where children will be able to act as the author, performer or audience. Parents and carers will also be asked to take part in the activity towards the end of the programme. Teaching assistants attend an initial training day and a second day with their drama practitioner halfway through the project. After each session, the teaching assistant and drama practitioner reflect on the session and co-plan the activities for the next week.
Children will be asked to complete tests to assess their reading, communication and social skills after taking part in this study.

What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
The possible benefit to participants of taking part is that drama programmes such as this have been show to improve language-related academic attainment, and Speech Bubbles itself has been shown to improve speech, language and communication development. There are no known risks to participants taking part in this study.

Where is the study run from?
The study is run by the London Bubble Theatre Company (London) and the evaluation is lead by the Behavioural Insights team in collaboration with UCL Institute of Education (London).
The schools participating in the study are based in London and Manchester.

When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
May 2017 to December 2019

Who is funding the study?
Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) (UK)
The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) (UK)

Who is the main contact?
Kimberly Bohling (Research Advisor - The Behavioural Insights Team)
kimberly.bohling@bi.team

Contact information

Ms Kimberly Bohling
Public

4 Matthew Parker St
Westminster
London
SW1H 9NP
United Kingdom

Study information

Primary study design	Interventional
Study design	Interventional two-arm randomised controlled trial
Secondary study design	Randomised controlled trial
Study type	Participant information sheet
Scientific title	Independent evaluation of drama intervention supporting children's communication skills, confidence and wellbeing.
Study objectives	Speech Bubbles intervention improves reading attainment and oral communication skills in children ages 5 to 8 years old with below expected communication and social skills.
Ethics approval(s)	University College London Institute of Education Research Ethics Committee, 20/03/2018, Z6364106/2017/11/56
Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied	Academic attainment
Intervention	Approximately 1040 pupils will be recruited across 26 schools, and randomised into two groups - the intervention group or the control group. Children in each school are stratified by year level and within each block, a random number will be generated for each child. The children with the highest X numbers in the Year 1 block and the highest Y numbers in the Year 2 block will be assigned to treatment. X and Y will sum to 20 and reflect the share of children referred by year level. For instance, if 16 children are referred from Year 1, and 24 from Year 2, X would take a value of 8 and Y a value of 12. Participants in the intervention group will receive the Speech Bubbles intervention, which aims to improve children’s reading, communication and social skills by providing them with weekly creative drama sessions. It is targeted at pupils with below-expected communication and social skills. uring the sessions trained practitioners encourage children to tell, act out and reflect on their own stories by creating a safe and playful environment, promoting children’s communication, confidence and wellbeing. This is based on the Helicopter Stories pedagogical approach. The intervention comprises 24 weekly drama sessions over the course of three terms. Weekly 45-minute creative drama sessions will be delivered at schools by a Teacher Assistant (TA), selected by the school, and a trained freelance drama practitioner, recruited by London Bubble and trained in the Speech Bubbles approach, to two mixed groups of 10 pupils from Year 1 and Year 2. Each session follows a clear and repeated routine centred around the telling and re-enacting of stories that are told by the children. The sessions include activities that support expressive language, receptive language and turn taking. Participants in the control group will not have any intervention provided.
Intervention type	Behavioural
Primary outcome measure(s)	The following will be assessed at the end of the intervention period - the end of the 2019 school year: 1. Reading ability (phonics, literal comprehension and reading for meaning) assessed using the Progress in Reading Assessment (PIRA) 2. Oral narrative skills (information content, sentence length, grammatical usage and independence), assessed using the Renfrew Bus Story test To account for baseline variation in attainment, the child's Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) will be used.
Key secondary outcome measure(s)	The following will be assessed at the end of the intervention period - the end of the 2019 school year: 1. Social skills, assessed using the Social Skills scale of the Social Skills Improvement System (SSiS). This is assessed across the following subscales: 1.1. Communication 1.2. Cooperation 1.3. Assertion 1.4. Responsibility 1.5. Responsibility 1.6. Empathy 1.7. Engagement 1.8. Self-control 2. Self-perception of ability to generate and use ideas in their school work, assessed using an adapted version of the ideation sub-measure of the writing self-efficacy measure, with significant simplification to make it age-group appropriate To account for baseline variation in attainment, the child's Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) will be used.
Completion date	31/12/2019

Eligibility

Participant type(s)	All
Age group	Child
Sex	All
Target sample size at registration	1040
Total final enrolment	1006
Key inclusion criteria	Schools: 1. Located in the North West, South London and East London (for programme delivery purposes) 2. At least a two-form entry school (to reach the required sample size across a smaller number of schools) 3. Have discussed participation with Speech Bubbles and signed an MoU detailing the conditions of participation (opt-out process, pupil data provision, endline assessment, participation in IPE activities etc) 4. Able to refer 40 children into the study Schools with an average or above average share (14.1%) of Free School Meal (FSM) children will receive priority in recruitment. Pupils: 1. Years 1 and 2 in the year of the intervention delivery (2018/19) 2. Referred into the programme on the basis of Speech Bubbles referral guidance 3. Not been opted-out of the study by their parents.
Key exclusion criteria	N/A
Date of first enrolment	01/12/2017
Date of final enrolment	08/06/2018

Locations

Countries of recruitment

United Kingdom
England

Study participating centres

London Bubble Theatre Company

5 Elephant Ln
London
SE16 4JD
London
SE16 4JD
United Kingdom

Behavioural Insights Team

4 Matthew Parker St
Westminster
London SW1H 9NP
London
SW1H 9NP
United Kingdom

UCL Institute of Education

20 Bedford Way
Bloomsbury
London WC1H 0AL
London
WC1H 0AL
United Kingdom

Results and Publications

Individual participant data (IPD) Intention to share	No
IPD sharing plan summary	Not expected to be made available
IPD sharing plan	Participant level data is sensitive, as it contains personal and academic information that could be used to identify trial participants. As such, this data will not be made publicly available. However, participant level data will be transferred and stored with the Education Endowment Foundation (the project funder) and (in an anonymised form) the UK Data Archive.

Study outputs

Output type	Details	Date created	Date added	Peer reviewed?	Patient-facing?
Funder report results		01/09/2021	13/09/2021	No	No
Participant information sheet	Participant information sheet	11/11/2025	11/11/2025	No	Yes
Study website	Study website	11/11/2025	11/11/2025	No	Yes

Editorial Notes

13/09/2021: Funder report added.
13/01/2021: Total final enrolment added.
12/01/2021: The intention to publish date was changed from 31/12/2020 to 01/09/2021.
23/10/2018: The intention to publish date was updated from 31/05/2020 to 31/12/2020.