Two things about this pleased me - firstly that it had been a major accident that had caused the breakage and secondly that she reported that her son was ‘desperate’ because it had broken. “He is lost without it,” she went on to say, “and I had to get a new one as soon as possible.”

Now, I’m definitely not happy that her son is distressed, but I am delighted that The CoolerRuler is making such an obvious difference to his schooling. As a gesture of goodwill, I sent the lad an extra 20cm version of The CoolerRuler - this is a rather Heath Robinson affair, cut down from the full size version, but it has the advantage of fitting inside a pencil case, so I hope it will prove useful to him.

And the moral of the story is … that having two CoolerRulers is an advantage. One for home and one for school is ideal - and if by any chance one of them does break, then distress can be avoided.

The research will be similar to last year’s successful project with The Petersfield School. I will test respondents using the WRAT (Wide Range Achievement Tests) reading test and then introduce them to The CoolerRuler and encourage its use as much as possible. Over the following six weeks, I will visit to check that it is being used correctly and to work with offenders on identifying parts of words to be read. At the end of six weeks, I will re-test with the WRAT.

At The Petersfield School, the results showed over 61% achieved an average of 15.75 months’ gain in reading age in only six weeks. It will be very interesting to see whether these results will be replicated amongst the older cohort within Winchester Prison.

Now all I have to do is to get my security clearance to be able to work as a volunteer within the prison - or rob a bank and get in that way!

This could account for why I did so badly in my A levels all those years ago!

The children were interviewed individually and their reading tested using a single word reading test from the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT 3 - tan form). Each was then given The CoolerRuler to keep and encouraged to use it as much as possible both in school and for homework.

Over the next six weeks, I saw each child for about fifteen minutes a week, to check that The CoolerRuler was being used correctly and to ask them for their opinions on its effectiveness. At the end of the trial, they were re-tested with the WRAT 3 - but this time using the alternative, blue form.

The outcome was very pleasing. Of the fifteen participants, two were excluded from the results - one because of personal problems at home and the other because she was physically sick on the day of the retest. From the remaining thirteen, eight made significant gains in reading age, ranging from an increase of six months to three years and eleven months. This represents an average gain of 15.75 months for over 61% of the cohort.

However, the most pleasing aspect of the project was the confidence that The CoolerRuler gave to those using it. The Head of the special needs unit found this especially noteworthy and when I asked the children to score The CoolerRuler out of ten for effectiveness, I was gratified to find that the average score was over eight out of ten. Comments included:

“It’s really helped me with reading; the sliders help me to break up the words.”

“I’ve used it two or three lessons a day. It helps by breaking down longer words I used to get stuck on. It’s great.”

“I’ve never been able to read long words like ‘dangerous’ before. It takes forever to read a book, but with The CoolerRuler, putting it over the line makes it go faster.”

“The CoolerRuler help you read better. If you get stuck on a word, you can bump the sliders up and it’s really easy - and it’s also a ruler, so it’s part of your equipment.”

“I used it a lot in my tests … and it’s a good ruler too. I use it in all my lessons where I have to read. It makes reading less tiring.”

“It makes words you’d miss, or get wrong, stand out so you can get them right.”

“It helps because the sliders split words you can’t read in half. I’d recommend it.”

My thanks to all the kids who helped with this project. These comments make everything worthwhile - and I shall continue to promote The CoolerRuler so that other poor readers may enjoy its benefits.

This month we’ve arranged to give away a free CoolerRuler with Headteacher Update Extra, so about a hundred and fifty lucky Head Teachers are about to discover the benefits that The CoolerRuler can bring to their pupils. In addition, the next big order is in with the manufacturers and we’re on a mission to let the world know that easy reading is achievable for all.

We carried out a small-scale piece of research last year and this year we are embarking on something on a larger scale involving more participants over a longer period of time. The results of the first project were very encouraging, so we have high hopes for the new research.

If you are reading this and happen to be one of the people who already own a CoolerRuler, we’d love to hear from you. Drop us an email and let us know how you’re getting on.

Set-up was stressful - when they threw us out of the building at 7.15pm last Thursday, the stand was only half completed so it meant an early start on Friday morning with the show opening at 9am. However we managed to be ready on time and it was worth all the hassle with The CoolerRuler being well received by all who saw it.

I have a simple trick to lure visitors to my stand - chairs! If you’ve ever been to an exhibition, you’ll know how like a mirage the sight of a chair can be. I need to be able to demonstrate the (many) benefits of The CoolerRuler so a table and chairs makes sense, but I reckon I attract a fair degree of interest from people who really only want to sit down. The exciting thing is that, when they see The CoolerRuler in action, most of them buy one anyway.

There is no doubt about it, every child should have one. It can help all new readers, whether they have a problem with reading or not and I’ve realised just how passionate I am about getting this essential tool out to poor readers. If I won the lottery tonight (which reminds me, I must buy a ticket!) I’d still be manufacturing The CoolerRuler, but I’d be giving them away.

We have added the original ten Bruce Boosters (teaching tips garnered from many years working as Special Needs teacher) and I will write more when inspiration strikes. In the meantime, watch this space!

Take some A4 scrap paper which has only been used on one side. Tear it in half, in half again and in half again. Now you have 8 little pieces of scruffy paper. Not scary at all. Think what you'd like to write about - can't think of anything? Look around you; if you can see a tree, you might like to write about a tree that comes to life. If you can see a table, you might think of someone hiding under the table to shelter from a bomb in a war. Draw a tree/table on your first piece of paper.

Imagine a character in your story and give them a name - any name; you can always change it later. Write that name on one of the pieces of paper - now keep asking yourself questions about the character. Name, age, boy/girl, brothers/sisters, where they live. Write or draw the answers on the same sheet.

Every time you think of something you might add to this story, get it down on another piece of paper, a new piece for every new event/character. You can throw away anything you change your mind about later, so put down everything that you think of for now. Tear up more paper if you need more scraps.

When you have as many ideas as you can think of, spread out all the scraps and put them in order, so that the story makes sense. Now get some A4 paper and glue the pieces (in order) on to as many sheets as you need.

Hey presto - you've written a story. All you have to do is to copy it out.

I've said before that teachers are human, and they are. After a long, hard day at school they return home, but work isn't over for them. Many of them have to cook, clean, do washing and look after their kids before they even get to that pile of homework that they have to mark.

They reach for the first book - yours - and it's REALLY scruffy and difficult to read. Even if you've put in a lot of effort, your poor, tired teacher is going to find it hard to give you a good grade. So give your teacher a break and improve your writing. Take something that you have written (about five or six lines) and a ruler and pencil:

• Rule a line along each of the upright letters you have written (l,t,h,d etc.) and extend the line beyond the top and bottom of the letter. To make your writing look good, all these lines should be parallel. It doesn't matter whether they lean forward or are upright (try not to let them slope backwards) but they should all go in the same direction.
• Place the ruler along the top of letters like e,c,m,v etc. All these letters should come to the same level. Note that capital 'P' stands on the line, but the round bit of little 'p' sits on the line and the legs hang down.
• If you have to cross something out, don't scribble - do it with a single horizontal line. The mistake is clearly crossed out when you read the line, but it doesn't stick out when you first look at the page.

To learn a multiplication table, write out each part on a different piece of paper - quite big and each one in a different colour (6x8=48, 4x8=32, 9x8=72).

Spread them round the room - on chairs, on the floor under tables, on the window sills and spend a few minutes talking about which one is where and what colour it is. Ask your friend to walk to 6x8 and tell you what colour it is and what the answer is. Get your friend to do the same with you.

When you both feel fairly confident, turn them over; try to remember which one was where, what colour it was and what the answer was. Always walk over to where you think the right answer is, give the answer and the colour and then turn it over to check. The act of moving about the room while you learn is important in this task. After a while, you can extend it further by asking "How many 8's in 48 and what colour is it?" and walking over to it.

The advantage of learning it like this is that you can have the skills to use the table as a tool to solve maths problems rather than just learning a number poem.

And it's fun!

Now hold it up, above eye level, either to the left or the right; don't move your head to look at it, just move your eyes. For most people, it's better to have it up on the left, so try it that side to start with.

Look at the shape, which letters go up, which hang down, which are round and which are thin. Notice the colours you have used - how many letters of each colour, then take a snapshot of it with the camera in your head. (We all have a mental camera taking pictures of what we see all the time.)

Now find a spot high up on the wall, to the left if that is where you held it to look at it. Imagine that you have your snapshot up on the wall - see it there. Now, look carefully and think about the LAST letter. What colour was it? How many were there of that colour? Did they go up, hang down? Were they round or thin? Move from the last letters towards the front of the word, always looking at the spot high up on the wall. You will almost certainly find that you can 'see' the word, so you can even call out the letters backwards, so it's really easy doing it forwards.

The solution is to trick your brain into revising when it doesn't know it's revising. Place post-it notes of spellings/history dates/difficult multiplications (such as 8x8=64) all over the house (on the fridge door, by the bathroom mirror, on the wardrobe door, front door... everywhere), so that you can't help coming across them during the day. Use lots of colour and pictures wherever possible.

Every time you catch sight of one of these Post-It Tricksters, your brain will snap back to the revision session and reinforce the information.

Some kids feel that they don't want to do this, because they think they won't get a break from studying, but it doesn't work like that - you'll hardly be aware that you are reading these notes. It's just about as painless as revision can be.

Quick, go and buy some post-it notes and coloured pens.

Even if you do check your work, just reading it through is unlikely to highlight spelling mistakes - the brain tends to see what it's expecting and it's easy to miss errors.

The solution? Read BACKWARDS! Skim through it forwards to check that it all makes sense and then start again from the end and look at each word in reverse order. Any spelling mistakes should jump out at you and you have a chance to correct them.