The Rapid English Story

The Rapid English system was developed by two teachers called Norman and Margaret Hore. It was originally conceived for use in EFL teaching for business and industry abroad, where middle and senior management needed to learn to communicate simply, clearly and efficiently. The system worked very well and much more quickly than the clients had ever experienced before. While abroad,the authors kept reading and hearing about the problems with literacy in the UK and were surprised that nobody seemed to be making use of the same research that they were using as the basis for Rapid English which had been shown to be so effective, and quick.

Upon their return to the UK, Norman taught in a secondary school in Cornwall and two schools in Reading where he tested the ideas. In all three cases the results his classes achieved at Year 9 SATs were between 80 and 100% better than the equivalent classes of the same band, both middle and bottom sets.

Norman then had the opportunity to test the system with Reading Youth Offending Team. Many of their young people had severe literacy problems and a good number were functionally illiterate. The young people quickly began to show a new ability and interest in studying. Soon, the system was taken up more and more Youth Offending Services across England and Wales. In recent years, we have started working with PRUs, Inclusion Units, main-stream schools, charities and other provisions dealing with vulnerable learners.