At last term’s NACE member meetup at the National Maritime Museum, attendees had the opportunity to exchange approaches and resources to support working in depth for more able learners. From the plethora of fantastic ideas exchanged on the day, here are seven to try in your school…

1. Going SOLO

NACE associate Heather Clements opened the discussion with an overview of SOLO Taxonomy, and several attendees also shared examples of how their schools are using SOLO. Ideas included showing the SOLO verbs on class walls with colour-coding by taxonomy stage, to develop learners’ language and motivate them to move up a level, and incorporating the taxonomy in marking webs at the start and end of units.

2. TED breakfast club

Shared by Rachel Bellfield at Capital City Academy, this breakfast club provides a filling and stimulating start to the day – with mental fodder provided in the form of subject-related TED talk recordings. Participating learners make notes in a journal, keeping a record of links to their lesson-time learning.

3. Oxplore.org

Recommended by a number of NACE members, this website run by the University of Oxford aims to engage 11-18 year olds in complex ideas and debates that go beyond their school curriculum. Users can take on the site’s “Big Questions”, watch videos, test their knowledge, join live online events, and pose their own questions.

4. Really short stories

To challenge learners to focus on the quality of their vocabulary and precision of language use, Fran Pett at John Ruskin Primary school suggested giving tight parameters for written tasks – such as a 16-word limit for short stories, or a maximum number of sentences per paragraph.

5. Headteachers’ challenge

At Oakleigh House school, learners are challenged each week to take on the headteachers’ challenge, posted up on the Aim High board. Responses are shared in an assembly, with outstanding work showcased on the board.

6. Questioning for parents

To help parents and carers develop their use of questioning, Salcombe Preparatory School runs workshops on this topic, featuring practical demonstrations by staff and students. These events are supported by a booklet on questioning for parents and carers, and aligned with other events for maximum reach.

7. Model United Nations

Finally, Nathan Wooding at Edge Grove Preparatory School recommended participation in the Model United Nations as an inspiring and engaging way for learners to develop a whole range of skills, including independent learning, project work, research, critical thinking and negotiation.

How does your school support working in depth? Add a comment below to share your ideas.

Getting to grips with mastery doesn’t have to be hard work – far from it. In this blog post (originally published on schoolsimprovement.net), NACE associate Sarah Carpenter outlines a simple but effective use of mastery to improve primary English provision for all learners, including the more able…

While teachers and schools are at different points in the maths mastery journey, it’s now fairly clear what that looks like and what’s expected. When it comes to English, however, there’s relatively little guidance on how to use mastery effectively.

Inspired by Michael Tidd’s advocacy of longer literacy units, covering fewer texts and focusing on writing for a social purpose, over the past three years I’ve worked with schools to develop a mastery approach for primary English. This is certainly not the only approach to mastery in English, but it is an approach that I and the schools involved have found effective.

The concept is simple: each half term the teacher selects a central “driver text”. This is paired with a range of supplementary texts, including fiction, poetry, non-fiction, multimodal texts, and cross-curricular links. The unit is planned around the driver text, building in curriculum requirements and a broad range of writing opportunities.

This approach gives all learners the opportunity to develop a secure understanding of the driver text, subject matter and key skills – as well as the scope to work in greater depth and to explore and showcase their creativity and writing abilities.

Here are six reasons to try this mastery approach in your primary English provision:

1. It works for learners of all abilities

First and foremost, mastery is about providing support and opportunities for learners of all abilities to develop at their own pace. This approach allows time for all learners to become familiar with the central text and subject matter, and to practise specific skills such as predicting, comparing, making connections and synthesising.

For learners working below age-related expectations, you’re not moving on too quickly, and there are opportunities to consolidate skills through repetition. At the other end of the spectrum, more able learners have opportunities to broaden their knowledge and understanding of the writing purpose, bring together multiple texts, and deepen their subject knowledge.

The inclusion of poetry in each unit helps to expand learners’ vocabulary and get them thinking creatively about the choices they’re making. The use of non-fiction and cross-curricular texts provides opportunities for the more able to make clever use of sources, and to play with their writing styles, taking the audience and purpose into account. They have a bigger toolbox to draw on, allowing them to really show off their finesse as writers.

2. It engages even reluctant writers

When choosing a driver text, I try to choose one that will capture the interest of everyone in the class, particularly keeping boys in mind. Then I plan the unit to incorporate a wide variety of writing opportunities – short, medium and long – so even reluctant writers face something manageable and interesting, that breaks the mould in terms of what they’re usually asked to write.

3. It develops deep subject knowledge

Bringing in supporting texts with a shared theme allows learners to develop a deep sense of subject knowledge, so they can write as experts in the field. Just as a published author wouldn’t start writing without doing their background research first, we’re setting the same expectation for our pupils. This approach resonates very much with highly able learners in English.

4. It makes more effective use of time

This approach takes up no more or less time than would already be used for literacy sessions, but makes more effective use of that time. Covering fewer texts in a more focused way means more time to get deeply into the full range of curriculum requirements – in terms of reading, writing, drama and spoken language. You can even use the driver text or an accompanying text for guided reading sessions, so everything is working together.

In terms of planning, you do need to allocate more time at the beginning, because you’re essentially planning out the full half term in skeletal form. You can adapt as you go along, but you need to plan ahead to ensure you extract everything you can from the driver text and stop at the right points, building up that sense of mystery and anticipation, and allowing for reading and writing opportunities along the way.

Once you’ve chosen the driver text, you’re looking for those opportunities to bring in non-fiction, and searching for appropriate poetry connections. Once you’ve done this groundwork, you should find you spend less time on weekly planning, because you’ve got the framework in place.

5. It works for all types of text…

…even (or especially) picture books! I often choose picture-based story books or graphic novels, such as David Wiesner’s Flotsam or Shaun Tan’s The Arrival – which can be interesting when you tell people the unit is going to improve children’s vocabulary and grammar! Other driver texts I’ve used include Robert Swindells’ The Ice Palace, Rob Biddulph’s Blown Away, Helen Cooper’s Pumpkin Soup and Alexis Deacon’s I am Henry Finch.

Essentially, you’re looking for a text where you see lots of potential to go off at all sorts of different angles, and bring in cross-curricular links. For example, with I am Henry Finch, there are lots of links to be made with PSHE.

6. It’s fun!

Last but certainly not least, this mastery approach is fun. I’ve developed units for KS1, lower KS2 and upper KS2, with positive feedback from all. Not only have schools got some fantastic writing and reading responses from learners, but the children have really enjoyed it. They appreciate the opportunity to get deeply into one particular text – but not to the extent where they get bored, because they’ve got the addition of other texts of different types, and the scope to show off just what they can do.

Raise the bar

Reading for life

In this second of two blog posts, mathematics consultant Belle Cottingham outlines five approaches to ensuring more able learners are effectively challenged within a maths mastery curriculum.

In my previous blog post, I argued that a maths mastery approach holds the key to ensuring our more able learners develop the creative problem-solving skills they need for success – not only in exams, but in life more generally.

Of course, this is all great in theory, but how do we effectively achieve differentiation in maths mastery? There isn’t a strict right or wrong answer, but here are five approaches to try…

1. Anticipate and adapt.

Good teachers anticipate. They know their learners and anticipate what they may say, what mistakes they may make, what answers they may give. All learners are different, with different strengths. Just because a learner is more capable at calculation, doesn’t necessarily mean that s/he is also more able at problem-solving or shapes.

Anticipating answers is not easy; it takes years of experience and constant growth and development from the teacher’s point of view. However, the more accurate the anticipation, the better the tasks and the more appropriate the challenges the teacher can set.

2. Use skilful questioning to promote conceptual understanding.

Mastery is not about doing repetitive questions. In fact, the beauty of mathematics itself, with or without mastery, is that it is infinitely stretchable. Questions can be solved in more than one way. Questions can be asked in more than one way.

For example, let’s imagine a group of children are learning the 8 times table. Some will be quicker than others. Some may already recall the tables. Just because they can recall them, however, doesn’t mean that they understand why.

“Why is 8 x 3 the same as 3 x 8?” “What does 8 x 6 look like?” “Is 8 x 6 > 6 x 9?” These are just some of the ways the question can be asked or extended.

Each of these questions will make learners think beyond the simple calculation. A calculator can calculate; a brain can reason, question, explore… Brains were built for exactly that!

3. Use problems that can be extended for more able learners.

The choice of tasks and questions used in the classroom should be carefully considered and selected. The questions should be set so everyone in the classroom can readily attempt them, falling within the overall knowledge bracket, but they should also be suitable for simple extension to challenge and deepen understanding.

Continuing the tables theme, a question like “Find different ways to calculate 12 x 4” can be very rich in answers.

Some students may add 12 + 12 + 12 + 12, making links between addition and multiplication.

Others use the multiplication facts that already know. The 2 and 10 times tables are taught before the 12 times table. Hence, they can calculate 2 x 4, 10 x 4, then add the results.

Or they can simply use the properties of multiplying by 4, double, then double again. 12 x 2 = 24 and 24 x 2 = 48.

There are many ways to think about multiplying two numbers, and each of them can link to other ideas, concepts and applications.

4. Use concrete pictorial and abstract (“CPA”) representation.

More able learners can benefit as much as their peers from the use of CPA representation to visualise and represent mathematics in different ways.

Providing concrete material for everyone will facilitate more able learners’ need to meet problems which are presented in different ways, in different contexts and with use of more varied vocabulary. Using the table question, more able learners may use counters or marbles to explain to a partner what 6 x 8 looks like. Being able to articulate the mathematical thinking is a very important skill that we need our future mathematicians, engineers, teachers and doctors to have.

More able learners may also be encouraged to work in mixed-ability groups and asked to write a question based on a picture they see, or write a question that has a mistake in it… The options of extending a mathematical task are limitless and the more it happens, the more robust the mathematical foundation in our learners will be.

5. Allow time to explore, think and reflect.

This is very important for all learning to happen. The mastery approach provides this. Reflecting on mistakes that a learner has made herself, or that someone else in the classroom made, is a very good strategy that can be used to clear any misconceptions, and is particularly effective through the learners’ own voices. Having time for reflection is crucial in creating maps of knowledge that can be used in developing future concepts or embedding the roots of the existing ones.

Mathematics consultant Belle Cottingham has a Masters in Mathematics and Learning, and a decade’s experience in teaching and tutoring maths for all ages and abilities. A member of the Mathematical Association, Association of Teachers of Mathematics, National Association of Mathematics Advisers, and Japan’s Project Impuls, she writes for the Mathematical Pie Magazine and has authored teaching guides and textbooks, including contributions to the Rising Stars Mathematics range. You can follow her on WordPress and Twitter.

Lesley Hill, headteacher of NACE member Lavender Primary School in North London, shares her school’s approach to ensuring the curriculum remains broad, engaging and meaningful – alongside a successful focus on good outcomes for all learners.

“Lavender” School conjures images of a delightful school in a leafy suburb. It is a delightful school, but we have our challenges. The number of children with English as an additional language, and of those eligible for FSM, are both above national averages. We also have a high number of children with need. However, challenges are not just about closing gaps, and when it comes to curriculum one particular challenge is to hold on to what is important.
 
In the late 80s, I was an advocate of themes, of helping children see links in learning and maximising creativity. Although I understood the need for a national curriculum (to avoid children potentially repeating the same topic year after year!), I had serious concerns about a rigid, dictated and narrow curriculum that would merely feed standardised tests.
 
A few decades (and curriculum reviews) on, and I don’t believe that prescription has to stifle creativity, or that children have to learn within a narrow framework to get results.

Empowering learners to make choices… and mistakes

For some years, most of our subject teaching has been done through cross-curricular topics and we insist on at least one pupil choice topic per year. Classes or year groups vote on different themes and teachers ensure that the statutory knowledge and skills are covered within the topic. In KS2, we aim to include children in the planning process by asking them to consider how the required topic content could be taught.
 
Our use of pupil voice helps to engage and motivate our learners, but we also want them to have ownership over their learning. The introduction of growth mindset five years ago made a marked difference in terms of attitude, and was particularly empowering for those higher-achieving learners who find it so hard to “get something wrong”.

Developing skills for self-evaluation and reflection

Learning to learn strategies were also embedded and this culture enabled us to introduce fast, effective feedback a year ago. Teachers do not write in any books, but mark verbally during lessons, through 1:1 or group conferencing. Children peer- and self-assess and write reflections on their learning against success criteria. The self-evaluative process needs higher-order thinking, and allows learners at all levels to develop those skills.
 
Meta-cognition is promoted through peer work and is particularly successful for higher achievers when working with lower achieving or younger children (such as through our Reading Buddy scheme). Talk partners are therefore picked randomly to allow a range of peer-work experience. Group and paired feedback has been successful across the curriculum. I opened a sketch book recently and read, “I spoke with my partner and we thought that I should put more shading and detail on the petals.” Our “drafting and crafting” approach is used across the curriculum, enabling children to reflect on all learning, not just the core subjects.

Encouraging creativity at home

The fact that we value all subjects is visible in our homework policy. Learners have the usual spellings and number facts to learn, but also work on given topic themes. Because the titles are quite open (such as “Enfield Town”), children can access them and deepen their learning according to their own starting points. On home-learning day, you might see children carefully manoeuvring a model volcano, clutching a home-made booklet about local history or a USB stick with a slideshow about chocolate. They might just have a sheet of notes that have been prepared for a “lecture”. They share these projects at school, paying special attention to their presentation skills, which are then peer- and self-evaluated.

Extracurricular experiences and engagement

Visits and outings are built into our curriculum. We develop enterprise and aspiration through trips to businesses and institutions, such as Cambridge University, and by inviting in key people. We value working with others, getting involved with school cluster creative projects wherever possible. Last year, we were able to buy in a British Sign Language (BSL) teacher from a partner school to teach sign language to every class from nursery to Y6. We also encourage entries to events such as the annual Chess Tournament and Mayor’s Award for Writing, and are in the process of organising a spelling bee across our partner schools.
 
Home-school partnerships are important to us. Family days, where parents come in and work alongside their children, as well as exhibitions and information fairs, help us to share our wider curriculum. One event saw parents being led on a tour through the WWI trenches and, last year, families came in to learn the school song (written by the children themselves). We also work to build wider community links through events such as bulb planting with the local park group, or charity choir performances. Our School Council representatives are confident and vocal when considering local and wider issues and how we can support others.

What does it all mean?

Lavender's results are very pleasing across all key stages. Our GLD, phonics, KS1 and KS2 combined outcomes remain above national figures, with progress data of our higher-achieving children being better than national in all subjects.

OK, so Year 6 do have to do practice tests and more homework than most, but you'll still catch them sneaking into my office during a unit on mystery texts, going through my bin, and desperately trying to work out if I'm actually a spy. Despite budget pressures, I will continue to find the money for Herbie's insurance (our school dog's work with the most vulnerable children is priceless) and I’ll always value our subject leaders for the passion and drive they bring to our curriculum.

Data will always be top of my agenda, but it's there alongside breadth, depth and enrichment. A broad and balanced curriculum doesn't have to be at the expense of good outcomes for our children.
 
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 book, Once Upon a Green Pen, which explores creating the right school culture, is due to be released early next year.