Bob Cox, author of the Opening Doors books, shares some key principles and strategies for a challenging primary English curriculum – based on the latest addition to the series.

Every school’s intent is to be ambitious for its pupils. In the privileged role I have as educationist, consultant and writer, I so often admire displays, website quotes, inspirational messages and exhortations to pitch high and achieve dreams; yet I also realise how complex this can be to apply in the classroom on a day-to-day basis.

Primary teachers are expected to be experts in many subjects, so detailed support is needed in specific domains. Along with my team of ‘opening doors’ consultants, and with case studies being explored constantly with the schools in our network, we have been able to condense and express into a new publication some of the key principles and strategies needed to develop high-quality, ambitious primary English from which every pupil can benefit. This means that pupils who are already advanced and need regular immersion in literature, language and ideas are provided for in rich and creative ways: not by discrete divisions from others or by labelling, but through a challenge culture which encourages and enables all pupils to aspire and reach further. 

It's not just a question of talking about risk-taking, the unexpected, the wonder of top-class thinking skills, philosophy and quirky writing; it’s using the resources and strategies to make this all happen. How many keynote speeches have I attended over the years receiving deserved rounds of applause for charisma and style and social justice – but giving little indication for teachers who are not subject experts of where to actually begin.

I’ve seen schools hugely idealistic, wonderfully caring and totally committed, wandering in the dark for pathways to subject-specific depth. It’s all too easy then to adopt a package, a linear routeway, a stepped process which often tends to leave high performance learners revisiting concepts previously mastered. This can leave teachers de-skilled in the longer term too, as the delivery stages can dominate thinking and planning more than creative ideas. The latter needs the constant fuel of new challenging texts, quirky possibilities and curiosity. That starts with the teacher’s autonomy and nurturing of ambition. I am seeing this happen across our network and it’s very exciting!

In short, personalising approaches in any way can becomes harder if teaching to the middle rather than beyond the top takes a cultural grip. If models of excellence and ambition start to be squeezed, teachers themselves may lose sight of their own potential and ‘age-related’ notions become a goal rather than a starting point.

Our new book ‘Opening Doors to Ambitious Primary English’ provides the guide that schools have been asking for to confront that key issue of HOW ambition expresses itself in English, with a mixture of research, case studies, ideas and examples of pupils’ writing.

Essentially, high performance learners will benefit from being in a school where challenge for everyone is a priority! 

Five key principles for achieving this:

1. Pitch lessons beyond the level of the most advanced pupil.
2. Scaffold and intervene as appropriate for others.
3. Link quality texts from the past to the present and across the globe.
4. Exploit the potential of literature, including poetry, to give scope for new learning and deep knowledge acquisition as well as general knowledge.
5. Plan for sequencing and progression of knowledge via concepts in English.

Five key strategies for successful implementation:

1. Access support is needed continually, even for advanced pupils; this could include chunking stages; visual literacy; music; drama; questioning as a culture.
2. Productive group work and structured classroom talk provides the explorations of style and language needed for in-depth comprehension of quality texts.
3. Diversify the question layout to meet the needs of the pupils.
4. Develop quality writing via taster drafts which can link into sustained writing.
5. Zoom in to teach the specifics of English; zoom out to offer linked-in whole-text reading.

This is just a snapshot of the exciting work which we facilitate and activate. It’s very fulfilling. Our work is particularly in tune with attempts to inject high aspiration by matching intent to resources and approaches which will lift pupils’ standards and confidence.

Visit our website to read more about the five resource books in the series and the new book which will become the lead one, as it puts into words what schools have already been achieving to inspire so many more to follow. It’s time to make your primary English that much more exciting! 

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“Opening Doors to Ambitious Primary English: Pitching high and including all” is available to order now from Amazon or Crown House Publishing.

NACE members can benefit from a 20% discount from all purchases from the Crown House Publishing website. Log in to our member offers page for details.

More from Bob Cox:

• Opening doors to challenging English for every pupil: quality text to quality writing
• Recorded webinar: Developing an ambitious English curriculum for all (login required)

Bob Cox, author of the Opening Doors books, reflects on the importance of high-quality, challenging texts for all pupils, and key factors for the successful implementation of a challenging English curriculum.

As the author of the Opening Doors series of books for English at KS1, 2 and 3, I’ve had the pleasure of developing a UK-wide network of schools and organisations committed to providing an enriched diet of English where every pupil has the opportunity to relish new challenges. This is particularly pertinent for those advanced pupils whose whole morale can be threatened by revisiting concepts they have already mastered; but it is just as vital for pupils whose reading scores may be low.

We are seeing the high-pitch approaches, encouraged by so many educationists, being turned into reality in the day-to-day classroom by teachers using top-quality texts, poetry, quirky short extracts and contemporary children’s literature with a ‘meaty’ depth. The sheer scope of the language and style is a springboard to genuine comprehension journeys with the teacher’s questioning, knowledge transmission and fascinating oracy being delivered through an inspiring range of methodology. Such is the scope for learning in challenging texts, that the knowledge acquired in the reading can then be applied to the writing.

For example, just read a few lines of Dionne Brand’s Wind: 

I pulled a hummingbird out of the sky one day
  but let it go
I heard a song and carried it with me
 On my cotton streamers
I dropped it on an ocean and lifted up a wave
 With my bare hands…

Now see what Faith Gorman, a pupil at Red Barn Primary, has written:

I came in the night,
Luminous black,
Dashing, darting,
I made the street lamps flicker and jerk as I swept by,
I saw the foxes and owls capture their prey…
 
You can well imagine the range of teaching methodology, word power building and drafting that will have gone on in the process, but without Dionne Brand’s image-making and without overtly exploring the language and techniques, the crafting of the writing would have been less imaginative. There would also have been less knowledge about language acquired: personification, rhythm and meaning; specific vocabulary choices.

Using complex texts and developing the teaching strategies to go with them is key: “start kids out with complex texts that they cannot read successfully; then teach them to read those texts well.” – Timothy Shanahan, February 2017

In my work many years ago as an LA consultant and a freelance deliverer of provision for able pupils – then called ‘gifted and talented’ – there was huge interest from schools in the potential behind the devising of a top-class curriculum; but there were huge concerns about pupils with low reading scores being left behind. That made a lot of sense. In addition, there were concerns that pupils with high learning potential actually disliked risk-taking so much that moving them on to high-level texts and questions was not easy. Schools still report that pupils with very high potential can get upset about an incorrect answer, whereas other pupils can be so used to difficulties that they find it normal to ask their way out of them. [For more on this, take a look at NACE’s work on perfectionism in partnership with York St John University.]

Clearly, challenge for every pupil must become a habit, a norm, an expectation – and then the pupils demand it themselves instead of being wary! I’ve seen this happen in many schools. Resilience grows and healthy ambition prospers. Getting unstuck becomes fascinating, not threatening.

So, when I came to write books for English, pitched high, often asking more of pupils in terms of depth of thinking and breadth of quality reading, I was determined to ensure inclusive routes to excellence which would support equality of opportunity and social justice, and recognising the entitlement to high-class literature – from past to present and across the globe – for all learners, but pitched beyond where the most advanced pupil might be.

These are some key ways in which we have supported schools which are following the Opening Doors approach, and schools have fed back to us as a community growing in knowledge together.

So, what allows those doors to open?

• A whole-school action plan is needed to design an English curriculum which progresses from challenge to challenge, concept to concept, and through transition into KS3.
• Access strategies should flow through the curriculum: scaffolding, responding to need, clarifying, exemplifying and adapting. Pitch high but offer support when needed.
• See the sample units under free resources on my website for examples of our radial questioning layouts, which end the notion of very able pupils treading water on easy questions. We move them straight to high-level challenges if they are ready.
• Opening Doors schools build in whole-text reading in rich and immersive ways, with plenty of choice. Alongside this, extracts provide a focus for language study, depth and comprehension explorations; link reading provides range and diversity in an ethos of skilled facilitation and expectation.
• Teachers develop their own reading and expertise, offering that to pupils as the most wonderful opening of doors to general knowledge, increased confidence and articulation of ideas that there can be. 

So, the quality of the text explored deepens learning immeasurably, and that new learning is applied in ambitious writing – but it’s the teacher who makes the difference! Without you, it’s much harder for this to happen.

Reference

Brand, Dionne (2006; originally published 1979), Earth Magic. Toronto: Kids Can Press Ltd.
Full unit features in: Cox, Bob (2019), Opening Doors to a Richer English Curriculum, ages 6-9. Carmarthenshire: Crown House.

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Find out more…

To learn more about the Opening Doors approach, explore Bob Cox’s website. Plus: Bob online on 13 October 2022 for an exclusive live webinar for NACE members – register here.

If you would like to buy the Opening Doors books for your school, remember that NACE members can currently benefit from a 20% discount on all purchases from the Crown House Publishing website. For details of this and all current member discounts, visit our member offers page (login required).

Gail Roberts, More Able and Talented Coordinator at Llanfoist Fawr Primary School, shares a simple but effective activity to engage and challenge all learners – combining mathematics, oracy, collaborative working and more…

Facilitating learning, rather than directional teaching, not only ensures children take ownership, it also opens the floodgates to more able learners. Obviously it is vital to choose an effective challenging task and teach the skills they need beforehand, in order for learners to access the experience fully and develop it further through ongoing evaluation.
 
In the past at school, children may have brought cakes in from home to sell as an enterprise activity. Although this is usually an enjoyable experience, it isn’t a true representation of the profit and loss of running a business, and fails to optimise on additional opportunities for learning.
 
In this alternative activity, I ask learners to work in teams to make 3D shapes and then come up with a plan to sell them. This gives them a tangible experience, a determination for gaining information about shapes, and a chance to make choices which they can then witness the effects of at first-hand.

Develop key skills and understanding

From two weeks before the planned “sale day”, I encourage learners to consider the skills they will need and provide opportunities for them to develop these. Identified skills include:

• Persuasive language – learners are challenged to think of sentences that will entice people to stop at their stall, come up with a catchy jingle or slogan, etc.
• Negotiation – bartering on prices for the shapes.
• Understand profit and loss and interest.
• How to keep a record of the accounts, on paper or electronically.
• Elect leaders of the group and allocate team members.
• Sell using at least two languages.
• Working effectively as a team toward a shared aim.

Teaching the children how to formulate the boxes on a spreadsheet is easy, if you have previously taught coordinates. When spoken about in simple terms, profit and loss can be seen by every child. Allowing more able learners to formulate the spreadsheet gives them the opportunity to make it as complex as they want, while the opportunity to develop a business plan allows more able business minds to shine.
 
Giving learners time to think and plan for the sale day ensures that ideas can be evaluated and developed, and allows the group to come together as a team.

Replicate real-life challenges

The activity can also be used to help learners develop their understanding of real-life business processes and challenges, including:

• Premises to rent – every 15 minutes learners must pay rent for their stall; if late, they incur a fine.
• Property maintenance – fines incurred for untidy stalls.  
• Marketing – stalls decorated to attract customers.
• Interest rates – opportunity to start business with a loan, which must be paid back with interest.

Allow learners to shape the activity

The learning can be further enriched by inviting learners to suggest rules for the running of the activity. For example:

• When buying, be willing to pay more if learners can answer questions on the properties and names of the shapes, and if well-made or decorated.
• If someone in the group is not working efficiently, allow the team leader to give a warning or sanction.

Over many years of facilitating this kind of learning, the outcome has never been the same twice. Learners think of things that I would never have come up with. For example, this year they discussed ideas to test individual skills and allocate jobs based on ability, rather than simply getting every team member to cut, decorate, stick and sell. They discussed ideas about firing those who weren’t working hard enough, buying other teams’ products and selling them on at a profit, buying another table to expand their company, and researching language patterns and properties of shapes in order to sell to a broader audience knowledgeably.

What learners say…

While the summary above is hopefully sufficient to allow you to run a similar activity in your school, the impact is best expressed in the words of learners themselves:
 
“I thought this was an excellent idea for learning. Without realising it, we were making many cross-curriculum links, especially between maths and oracy. We were using strategies for problem solving and working as a team. We were having fun but learning at the same time.”
 
“I think learning in this way makes it easier to learn, because we are learning important things, but at the same time having fun. I prefer learning this way. I like being in charge of my own learning, thinking outside of the box, rather than being told.”
 
“This was a fun, challenging and exciting learning environment. This made it easier to remember the skills we needed and to use them effectively.”
 
“At the start of the challenge I didn’t have a clue what a spreadsheet was, but I enjoyed the challenge and felt proud that I could format the whole sheet myself and code new boxes when I needed to.”
 
“Communicating in a different language was challenging. However, it helped me to appreciate other people’s struggles to speak English. Our group worked cooperatively, making the most of individual talents.”
 
“It didn’t feel like we were learning. However, reflecting back on what we did, I realise I learnt and used a vast range of new skills.”
 
“It took me a matter of minutes to learn the properties and names of a massive amount of different 3D shapes. This was because I had a real purpose to learn. I was so proud when a visitor asked me questions on the properties and I blew him away with my knowledge and how confidently I was able to answer his questions.” 
 
“It helped me to understand the importance of working as a team. We all had a job to do. These were selected, because we could do that particular thing really well. It made me feel like it was an actual place of work and we were actually doing a ‘job’. Real-life situations like these help me to realise the importance of everyone’s unique abilities.” 

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Gail Roberts is the MAT Coordinator, Maths Coordinator and Year 5 teacher at Llanfoist Fawr Primary School in Monmouthshire. She has worked in education since 1980, starting out as an NNEB with children with severe difficulties in basic life skills, and gaining her NPQH in 2007. Llanfoist Fawr gained the NACE Challenge Award in 2017, in recognition of school-wide commitment to high-quality provision for MAT learners within a context of challenge for all.

Next week NACE and Rising Stars are hosting the English for the More Able conference in York, bringing together educators, researchers and advisers from across the country to explore strategies to challenge more able learners in primary English. In this blog post, Victoria Burrill, author of Rising Stars’ English for the More Able activity book series, picks out 10 texts with a lasting power to engage, inspire and challenge young learners – plus recommendations of what to read next…

The Twits by Roald Dahl

I am yet to meet a child who doesn’t love Roald Dahl’s stories and I think it’s because they make you laugh, cry, grimace, cower and cheer all at once. You will meet characters like none you’ve met before and you will want to read this book over and over again.

If you like this, try: Fizzlebert Stump: The Boy Who Ran Away from the Circus (and joined the library) by A. F. Harrold

A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton

This is a simple tale of adventure and friendship. The relationship between the eponymous child and his ursine companion will enchant you and teach you that not all adventures are the same.

If you like this, try: Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo

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

If you want to experience the power of imagination, this almanac of wondrous beasts will whisk you away and hopefully encourage to create your own incredible creatures.

If you like this, try: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate Di Camillo

This charming tale will take you around the world, both under and over the sea. The protagonist, Edward, will enchant you and show you how some characters can capture your imagination and your heart.

If you like this, try: Because of Winn Dixie by Kate Di Camillo

Oranges in No Man’s Land by Elizabeth Laird

This is a story to make you think, to make you feel grateful and safe, and to help you understand that good can come from tragedy. It will open your eyes to the lives of others.

If you like this, try: The Garbage Kid by Elizabeth Laird

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

A story like no other. Told from a number of perspectives, this is a story of facing difficulties and finding friends. This book will make you feel something that you won’t forget.

If you like this, try: One by Sarah Crossan

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Prepare to be spooked! This book is beautifully written and will teach you the power of words in creating atmosphere.

If you like this, try: Coraline by Neil Gaiman

The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde

An old story with a message which remains current and important. This simple tale is full of storytelling power. It has a moral to which we can all relate, whether we are the children or the giant.

If you like this, try: The Little Prince by Anton de Saint-Exupéry

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

This story offers its readers the ultimate “What if?” It will make you think and wonder about things you may have never wondered about before. Join the protagonists in making the ultimate life or death decision.

If you like this, try: Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

The Unforgotten Coat by Frank Cottrell Boyce

This book uses words and pictures in an usual way to tell a very human story and one which is very relevant to our modern, global society. It will make you think and might open your eyes to the experiences of others.

If you like this, try: Coming to England by Floella Benjamin

Victoria Burrill is Head of English at Newton Prep School in Battersea, London. She teaches Years 5 to 8, preparing children for pre-tests and entrance exams for London day schools at both 11+ and 13+ and Common Entrance at 13+. She has written for both Rising Stars and Galore Park for the past four years and her catalogue includes the English for the More Able series, 11+ Practice Papers and Revision Guide, and the Galore Park English textbook series for Years 3 to 6. Her particular passion is to instil a love of literature in her students and she plans her lessons around whole novels, using them to teach key skills and to evoke a love of a good story.

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.