Louise Harding has spent over 30 years teaching in Barking and Dagenham and brings a deep-rooted passion for ensuring all children can access the curriculum through reading. Since training as a Reading Recovery Teacher in 2012 and completing her Master’s Degree in Literacy Difficulties in 2017, Louise has developed significant expertise in evidence-based literacy intervention and now works with BDSIP as Literacy Intervention Lead.
In her role, she trains and supports schools across the borough to implement high-impact programmes including Reading Recovery, the Skills Programme (KS1 & 2), Literacy Skills for Secondary (KS3), and Reading for Pleasure across all key stages. Louise is particularly passionate about bridging the gap between research and classroom practice, helping teachers to foster a love of reading in their pupils.
Louise’s research into high-attaining readers and “The Reading Bug – Caught or Taught?” has informed her practical work with schools, and her 2023 Laurel Trust-funded study led to the development of a Reading for Pleasure programme for primary schools in LBBD. Building on this success, she was commissioned to extend this work into secondary settings. The study has now been published and is available in the Laurel Trust publication, Celebrating Research that gets Results: a collection of evidence based research, Volume 4 (2025). Significantly, it was found that over the life of the 20-week programme ‘children increased their phonic knowledge by 79%. They increased their ability to write the graphemes (letters) when they heard the corresponding sound by 112%. They increased their sight vocabulary by 884% and could apply their phonic knowledge to decode unfamiliar words by 130%’.
Louise’s work is driven by her belief that literacy opens doors, not just to learning, but to confidence, connection and long-term opportunity. Her ongoing contribution to BDSIP’s mission reflects a commitment to equity and excellence in education for all.
