Stefan Pearson, Teacher and Challenge Coordinator at Bradford’s Copthorne Primary School, shares five key takeaways from this year’s English for the More Able conference…

 Last month I attended the English for the More Able conference in York, run by NACE in partnership with Rising Stars. The conference explored a range of approaches to support, engage and challenge more able learners in primary English, with an opening keynote from author Anne Fine, interactive workshops, and opportunities to share ideas with fellow primary teachers, coordinators and school leaders.

Like most delegates, I left the event with a pile of notes and a head buzzing with ideas – some of which I’ve already begun to test out in my own classroom. Here are five of my main takeaways from the day – offering fresh perspectives to keep primary English relevant and engaging for learners of all abilities.

1. Oracy skills can – and should – be taught in schools.

Among the keynote speakers for the day was Neil Mercer, Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge and Director of Oracy Cambridge. Professor Mercer’s talk reinforced my belief that oracy skills are an essential foundation in learning and life, which can – and should – be taught in schools.

To communicate successfully, young people need to develop language and skills to reason and reflect, express ideas clearly and confidently, listen carefully, and talk and work well in a group. Most children’s home experiences will not provide opportunities for them to develop all the oracy skills they need, making it even more important that oracy is taught in schools.

The aim, Professor Mercer believes, should be to engage children in “exploratory talk” – characterised by active listening, asking questions, sharing relevant information, challenging ideas and giving reasons for doing so, and building on what has already been discussed. In exploratory talk, all participants are encouraged to contribute, ideas and opinions are treated with respect, and the group works within an atmosphere of trust and with a shared purpose, seeking agreement and joint decisions.

2. We need to talk about listening…

3. … and provide effective Talking Points.

Dr Lyn Dawes, also a member of Oracy Cambridge, shared her work on Talking Points – thought-provoking statements that encourage children to talk about a topic, promoting discussion, comparison, analysis, reasoning and negotiation. Through participation in Talking Points discussions, learners explore a curriculum topic in depth, generating shared understanding and establishing areas for further investigation. Most importantly, they develop skills for effective group discussion, practising sharing their opinions and giving reasons, listening and responding to others, and collaborating to ensure everyone has a chance to contribute.

Talking Points can be used across any curriculum area and can be created by both teachers and learners – a fantastic resource to support effective learning and develop oracy skills, which can then form the basis of written work.

4. Grammar really can be fun!

NACE associate Christine Chen ran a workshop on grammar games, sharing lots of practical ideas. One of these involved writing a six-word sentence and numbering the words 1-6. Learners are then asked to roll a dice, identify the word class of the corresponding word, and replace the word so the meaning of the sentence alters.

I’ve already tried this with my class and the children really enjoyed it. This kind of game also builds in differentiation, providing scope for challenge while reinforcing learners’ understanding of the different parts of language.

Another idea from this session which I’ve also tried out is the challenge of writing descriptively without using adjectives – meaning other word types must be carefully selected to convey mood, pace, emotion and so on. This prompted my more able writers to rethink their approach to description, and they really relished the challenge.

5. Engaging parents can be as simple as this.

My fifth and final key takeaway from the conference is in fact a resource developed by my own school. During her plenary talk, headteacher Christabel Shepherd mentioned our reading mats for parents. These proved in-demand amongst conference delegates, with many schools recognising the importance of engaging parents in developing children’s reading and comprehension skills.

We give the reading mats to parents and carers as laminated resources to use at home. They provide explanations and examples of different question types – for example, questions to retrieve information, to comment on language choices, or to relate texts to wider contexts. The sheets include question frames, which can be adapted for any book.

At Copthorne, where 98% of our learners are EAL and many families speak little English at home, we’ve found these reading mats very effective in supporting parents. In addition to encouraging shared reading at home, the mats enable parents to make effective use of questioning to develop their children’s understanding.

How does your school support more able learners in primary English? Contact us to share your approach.

The Twits by Roald Dahl

A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J. K. Rowling

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate Di Camillo

Oranges in No Man’s Land by Elizabeth Laird

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

The Unforgotten Coat by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Lesley Hill, headteacher of NACE member Lavender Primary School in North London, explains how the school’s approach to marking and feedback has evolved alongside the development of a strong learning mindset culture.

Our marking and feedback policy cannot stand alone. It only works because we have embedded the learning culture on which it depends.

About five years ago, we were proudly using assessment for learning (AfL) strategies, such as no hands up, colourful cups, and thumbs up, thumbs down and thumbs somewhere in between. None of this was particularly useful for those learners who were unable to be honest about where they were in their understanding. This became apparent to me during a Year 2 literacy lesson. I shook my lolly-stick pot and was ready to pick a child to answer my question, when a higher achiever visibly shuddered. That said it all.

We turned to the work of Carol Dweck and immediately introduced growth mindset, understanding that higher-achieving children can often be those with the most fixed mindsets, causing barriers to learning.

Developing skills for effective learning

We knew that embedding a growth mindset culture was essential, but we also realised very quickly that the skills of being a good learner had to be taught too. A school full of determined children chanting (albeit sweetly) “We can do it!” doesn’t necessarily mean better outcomes. We introduced themes around Guy Claxton’s work, Learning to Learn, and our children learnt to be resourceful and reflective, as well as resilient.

We also understood that if children were truly going to understand where they were as learners, we needed to examine our success criteria. Hours had been spent trying to put English success criteria into a hierarchical order with a must, a should and a could. Whilst our lower-achieving children stayed safely with the “musts”, some of the higher-achievers completed the “should” and “coulds” and missed some basic “musts” altogether. We ditched MSC for toolkits, after attending a Pie Corbett course.

Giving children ownership of their learning

The same training also prompted us to establish cooperative reviews, which offer a focused and structured peer assessment strategy. We have trained our children to give effective feedback and to have useful discussions around their learning. This is key. Our current marking policy includes lots of peer assessment and reflection, which begins to give ownership to the child. We firmly believe that ownership of learning impacts positively on children’s motivation to challenge themselves.

This ownership was previously promoted by allowing learners to choose their own level of maths tasks, where they would be encouraged to make decisions about the levels of challenge they could manage. We have since bought a Singapore Maths scheme; the reflective approach and decisions around which strategy to use to solve a problem fit perfectly with challenge and ownership.

Learners also have ownership over the marking of maths. The answers are on the tables and learners check after solving a few problems. If they have some wrong, they will unpick the steps they have gone through to understand where they have made an error or have a misconception. This deeper-level thinking can enable them to change their approach to get a solution. Should they not be able to see where they have gone wrong, the teacher will step in to guide or re-teach through a face-to-face conference.

Moving on from written marking

Conferences have taken the place of written marking. It was apparent to us for some time that reams of written marking or rows of ticks and dots, carried out away from the learning context and delivered back the next day, was, at best, hard for children to relate to and, at worst, a meaningless waste of time. With teacher workload high on the agenda, our decision to stop written marking altogether, for every subject, was not difficult to make. Our children already owned their learning, they knew how to self- and peer-assess effectively, and they were reflective, resilient and skilled learners. It was an easy step to hand over the pen.

Our marking and feedback procedure is simple. Children mark their own work according to the success criteria and they write a reflection on their learning – commenting on their understanding, successes and difficulties. They are also challenged to consider how they have approached the work and what they might do differently. Teachers look at the books every day and identify where there is a need to support or extend children’s learning. They plan in targeted 1:1 or group conferences for the following day, or hold spontaneous conferences, to address misconceptions, clarify points and extend thinking. During conference discussions, children are encouraged to consider where they have met their targets and to choose new ones, and to talk about the reflections they have made.

Children’s reflections are a window to their understanding, not just of concepts, but of themselves as learners. They provide teachers with far greater insight than a piece of work on its own and thus teachers can cater far more effectively for each child’s needs. Our approach to marking is not a stand-alone. It is an extension to the learning culture we have worked to create: a culture of learners who can recognise and be honest about where they are, who know where they need to go, and who are not afraid to share the responsibility for getting there.

Lesley Hill is headteacher of Lavender Primary School, a popular two-form entry school in North London, part of the Ivy Learning Trust and a member of NACE. She has taught across the primary age range and has also worked in adult basic education and on teacher training programmes. Her current role includes the design and delivery of leadership training at middle and senior leader level, and she also provides workshops on a range of subjects, such as growth mindset and marking. Her forthcoming book, Once Upon a Green Pen, explores approaches to create the right school culture.

Read more: log in to our members’ area to access the NACE Essentials guide to learning mindset, and the accompanying webinar.

NACE is proud to partner with the NRICH project at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Mathematical Sciences, which offers free online resources to enrich the mathematics curriculum, provide challenging and meaningful activities, and develop mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills. In this blog post, the project’s director, Ems Lord, explains why and how NRICH is developing resources designed to get GCSE students seriously interested in Further Mathematics…

Entries for the Further Mathematics A-level have tripled in recent years, from around 5,000 students in 2005 to a staggering 15,000 by 2015 (source: JCQ). But one of the greatest recent success stories in mathematics is under threat.


Figure 1: Entries for Further Mathematics up to 2016 (source: JCQ)

The transformation of Further Mathematics has all the ingredients of a great news story, yet the latest figures are alarming. Anecdotal evidence from both schools and colleges indicate a staggering 50% drop in the number of students opting to study Further Mathematics this year.

Recent changes in national policy promoting the study of three A-levels have hit Further Mathematics – often regarded as a fourth option – harder than most subjects. The NRICH team at the University of Cambridge has joined up with colleagues at the University of Oxford to address concerns regarding the current decline in Further Mathematics entries. The realisation that many GCSE students do not appreciate the opportunities offered by Further Mathematics led to our new set of free resources for schools, which we’ve called Adventures with Complex Numbers.

Why focus on complex numbers?

What resources are available?

So, they’re interested… What next?

London’s renowned Saatchi Gallery is known for championing the work of previously unheard-of artists, offering a springboard to fame. Living up to this reputation, in March this year the gallery will feature work by some of the UK’s youngest and least-publicised artists – displaying creations from a cross-disciplinary project completed by Year 4 learners at NACE member and Challenge Award-accredited Pencoed Primary School.
 
Titled “Creating our Welsh identity”, the project started with a focus on learners identified as at risk of underachieving, including the more able – but its success led to elements being rolled out across the entire year group, and the school.
 
Class teacher Chloe Maddocks, who coordinated the project, explains more…

The context:

Promoting creativity and creative thinking is part of our school vision, and we recognise these as key life skills. However, this was an area we felt we could develop further.
 
We developed the “Creating our Welsh identity” project with the aim of raising academic attainment, improving learners’ self-esteem and confidence, and developing their creative skills – combined with a focus on numeracy and links to the year group topic. We also wanted to explore learner and staff perceptions of what it means to be creative, and to develop this thinking and awareness of broader creativity.
 
Having scoped out the project, we successfully applied through the Arts Council of Wales for a grant of £10,000, to be split between Year 1 (2016-17) and Year 2 (2017-18).

The project:

Running for the duration of the spring term, the project was linked to the Year 4 theme, The Stuarts. Initially, we selected 18 learners, targeting those at risk of underachieving. Due to the project’s success, we subsequently adopted some of the broader approaches across the rest of the year group and throughout the school.
 
At the start, learners did some research around the history of the Union Jack. Exploring symmetry, measuring and shapes, they then created their own version of the flag using fabric and donated materials, incorporating aspects of their own identity. Members of the community volunteered to teach learners to use a sewing machine, so they could stitch on their initials. The group also created personal identity drawings, based on research into the history of their family, incorporating words and symbols that represented them inside an outline of their body.
 
Numeracy was embedded from the start, right through to the end. We incorporated this in planning so all 60 learners within the year group were also taking part in the numeracy tasks. We looked at which National Literacy and Numeracy Framework (LNF) strands we could include, as well as planning our maths, language and topic lessons around the project. Focusing on real-life problems and tasks that reinforced specific numeracy strands – pricing activities, comparing costs from different supermarkets, profits and budgeting – allowed learners to relate to the importance of numeracy in everyday life.
 
More able and talented (MAT) learners were selected to act as leaders of certain parts of the project and were given the task of planning and coordinating the celebration event. All activities were differentiated to provide appropriate levels of challenge, and weekly evaluations allowed staff to tailor sessions to meet learners’ needs.

Learner engagement:

During the project we worked alongside Haf Weighton, a textile artist from Penarth. Haf brought some lovely ideas and had a wonderful working relationship with both the adults and children involved. She was selected by the learners themselves through an interview process, inspiring them with her style of art and her passion and love for her work.
 
Throughout, the learners were a key influence in determining the project’s direction, and were particularly active in devising the final outcome – the afternoon tea party. I had weekly conversations with them, in which they were able to evaluate their own work and the work of Haf, as well as discussing ways for the project to develop.

Celebration and exhibition:

To celebrate their work, learners hosted an afternoon tea party for parents and carers, sharing the project outcomes and showing off what they had learned throughout the topic. Around this event, learners had the opportunity to:

• Work alongside a candle maker
• Work alongside members of the community to create cushions and print
• Research what types of foods would have been served at a Stuart tea party
• Research the history of afternoon tea
• Take a trip into Pencoed village to purchase food
• Work out pricing, budget and profit
• Be filmed and interviewed by Heno, S4C

On the day of the party, parents and carers had the opportunity to sit in on either a literacy or numeracy lesson, tailored to the theme of the Stuarts.
 
Through Haf’s connections, we’ve also been able to reach a much wider audience. The artwork created was displayed in our very own exhibition in the HeARTh Gallery at the Llandough Hospital. Haf also shared details of the project at the Knit and Stitch Show in London, and – after the success of the project was shared online through our school website and Twitter – the prestigious Saatchi Gallery was very interested to work alongside Haf and to share the learners’ work.

Impact:

The impact for learners was far greater than we initially anticipated. All made progress with their weekly Big Maths scores and overall numeracy skills. They were also able to see the benefits of numeracy in everyday tasks, benefitting from the cross-curricular approach.
 
As well as developing a multitude of literacy, numeracy and creative skills, there was also an improvement in learners’ general confidence, wellbeing and self-esteem. For MAT learners, independent thinking and problem solving improved, and all learners felt a strong sense of pride and achievement in their work. Opportunities to see their work displayed, and to share their learning with parents and carers, provided inspiration to broaden their horizons and aspirations for the future.
 
There’s also been a wider impact, as we’ve shared the excellent practice across the school. In addition, the project has raised awareness about the importance of creativity among learners, staff and parents, showcasing how much can be achieved.

Next steps:

We are now in our second year of this project, and intend to continue running projects in this way. We’ve also been involved in school-to-school collaboration and shared our experiences in networking events across the Central South Consortium to promote this project to other schools. And of course we’re also planning to take the learners to the Saatchi Gallery in March, so they can experience the exhibition first-hand!
 
Chloe Maddocks has been a full-time teacher at Pencoed Primary School for four years, teaching Years 3 and 4. As coordinator of the “Creating our Welsh identity” project, she’s enjoyed opportunities to develop her leadership and project management skills, learner engagement, and share expertise with peers at other schools. She’s passionate about showing how creative skills can be incorporated into cross-curricular learning.
 
Pencoed Primary School has been a NACE member since 2014 and achieved the NACE Challenge Award in July 2015. With approximately 600 learners enrolled, the school is dedicated to developing networks of good practice and continually reviewing and improving its provision for all learners within an ethos of challenge for all.
 
Do you have an inspiring project to share with the NACE community? Contact us to share a case study.