Primary First - Issue 24

PrimaryFirst The journal for primary schools Issue 24 £5.00

“No system of external tests which aims primarily at examining individual children can result in anything but eductional waste.”

A.N. Whitehead in the Aims of Education

“No system of external tests which aims primarily at examining individual children can result in anything but eductional waste.”

A.N. Whitehead in the Aims of Education

National Association for Primary Education

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR PRIMARY EDUCATION

Rosemary Evans

Bequest Award

Are you a recently qualified early years/primary teacher (QTS gained since June 2016)?

Are you keen to reflect on your professional development as a classroom practitioner?

Are you keen to get something published in an educational journal and add it to your CV? If so, we hope you will be interested in the Rosemary Evans Bequest Award to be given on an annual basis to the best article received for publication in Primary First from a recently qualified teacher. The award is for £200 and the theme can be selected from one of the following: • The highlights and challenges of taking on your own class • What do you see as the key principles and/or values which inform your approach to learning and teaching?

• How can teacher retention be improved?

• The global teacher for the 21st century.

The article should be between 1500 - 2000 words and you are welcome to select your own focus and title, but drawing on one of the above themes.

The article should both critically explore aspects of your own experience and identity as a recently qualified teacher and be informed, where appropriate, by relevant literature.

The final date for submission for this academic year is 1 May 2019. It is to be submitted electronically in Word or PDF format to Robert Young, NAPE General Secretary at rmyoung1942@yahoo.co.uk.

The Primary First Editorial Board will judge the submissions and it is anticipated that more than one submission will be considered for inclusion in the journal, although not in receipt of the Award itself. Further details about the Award can be requested from Robert Young.

Editorial The credibility gap between professionals in education and the political bean counters grows wider by the day. Indeed the possession of expertise in teaching and learning is regarded by many politicians as a positive justification for ignoring our advice. We demur about the value to children of the rote learning of multiplication tables but no matter say the DfE policy makers, this is what has been decided so just get on with the chanting and we will be testing your pupils to see that you have obeyed.

In the light of the excessive political intervention in our classrooms it is a sad but real fact that teaching which puts children and how they learn at the centre of our work has become a subversive activity. There are many fine schools which refuse to follow the narrow, test centred, curriculum so cherished by ministers. Such schools deserve high praise and are strongly supported by the families they serve, however there are too many others, particularly where they face the challenge of a disadvantaged community, who find it difficult to demonstrate the examination results which will ensure the continuation of their dedicated work. Each year more teachers and heads leave the profession than can comfortably be replaced by the initial training system, they are pushed out by intolerable demands. All of us who are proud to be teachers may be forgiven if in the depth of a sleepless night we ask when will it end, when will we be trusted to carry out the vitally important work for which we have been trained without such ill advised pressure from those in power who are convinced, mistakenly, that they know best?

We must not expect that a blinding flash of enlightenment will suddenly overtake the bean counters who are so sure that education is a business which can be directed from central government and that the quality of learning, the product, is properly measured by crude test results.

Nevertheless there are signs of small but real changes in public and professional opinion which will one day build towards a fundamental shift in political policy.

The comparative international studies provided by the OECD have often been used, however improperly, by ministers to justify an imposed return to the rote learning of the past. But times and the OECD change and here is Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director of Education and Skills, at a conference considering future education trends commenting upon the UK’s current testing regime. “In primary schools, the price headteachers pay for success is a Key Stage 2 too often dominated by the dark shadow of SATs, SPAG and the 12 times table, with many of the more creative subjects driven out of the curriculum...”

Equally significant in signposting reform in the future is the signalling by OFSTED of a major change in the framework for making inspection judgements. The intention is to focus on the quality of education and the curriculum rather than to rely on test results. The consultation launched by the DfE has been quick to exempt Key Stage 1 from this momentous change but nonetheless all practitioners will welcome what is undoubtedly a significant step towards enlightenment. Of course how it works out will depend on how individual inspectors interpret the new framework but at least OFSTED, unlike the politically dominated DfE, is acknowledging the harm stemming from excessive testing.

So we should not lose heart. Our focus on the children and the reality of their needs will win through in the end.

About us

Editorial Editorial Board Photo Credit

John Coe Peter Cansell, Stuart Swann, Robert Young, Robert Morgan Sam Carpenter

Primary First journal is published three times per year by the National Association for Primary Education.

Primary First, 57 Britannia Way, Lichfield, Staffordshire, WS14 9UY Tel. 01543 257257 Email: nape@onetel.com ©Primary First 2019 Spring Issue No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written permission of the publisher. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the editorial content the publisher cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher.

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Editorial

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Jonathan Doherty and Josh Guthrie offer improved assessment

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Tony Eaude introduces the campaign, Humanities 20/20

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Sounding Off! A personal view of OFSTED’s definition of the curriculum

What Have We Lost? An experienced head teacher looks back

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Mervyn Benford reflects on the grouping of children as they learn

Robert Young considers the latest DfE demand

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Review: Putting the Test in its place

Progressive teaching in Wales

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Creative approaches to teaching grammar

by David Reedy

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Rethinking the humanities and why they matter in primary education by Tony Eaude This is the first of two articles in Primary First about the humanities in primary schools. This one explores what is meant by the humanities and argues that these are essential as part of a balanced and broadlybased primary curriculum. The next will describe a campaign called Humanities 20:20, the purpose of which is outlined briefly at the end of this article.

The Cambridge Primary Review (Alexander, 2010) highlighted how ‘Curriculum 1’ - those aspects of English and mathematics most easily tested – has always dominated the primary curriculum at the expense of ‘Curriculum 2’ – the rest, including the humanities and the arts. There is increasing concern within and beyond the profession at how the primary curriculum in England has in recent years become dominated by Curriculum 1 and outcomes which can be measured by tests and increasingly narrow and unmotivating for many children.

As a result of these concerns, three colleagues and I co-edited a themed issue of Education 3-13 on the primary humanities looking at the situation in the four nations of the UK and discussing what the humanities ’are’ and why they are so essential as part of the education of the whole child.

The situation in England in relation to history, geography and RE (often thought of as the humanities subjects in primary schools) is not clear in terms of how much time is allocated to them, how well they are taught and the level of teacher expertise to teach then well. However, there is strong anecdotal evidence that provision is at best patchy and that these subject areas are often treated somewhat cursorily, with an emphasis on propositional knowledge and allocated very little time, especially as SATs approach. Although the primary curriculum in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales rightly reflects distinctive aspects of the national culture and is organized through broad ‘areas of learning’ rather than by separate subjects, the humanities still struggle to have the same status

as what is tested in literacy and numeracy.

The humanities have traditionally been seen as central to being an educated person. In Eaude (2017), I discussed what this should look like in primary schools. While in higher education and secondary schools they have usually been defined in terms of disciplines or subjects, exactly what is included is a matter of debate. For instance, geography has sometimes been thought of as within the humanities, sometimes in the social sciences; and the overlap with the arts, for instance in relation to literature and drama, has never been clear. I argued that it may be more fruitful to consider what the humanities are intended to achieve rather than thinking in terms of subjects; and that a better starting point may be the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of the humanities as ‘learning or literature concerned with human culture.’ This led me to suggest that the humanities help us to explore what it is to be a human being and how people have lived and thought in different societies and cultures - and that this is done through disciplines as varied as literature, philosophy, learning a foreign language and drama as well as history, geography and RE. The conclusions of that issue were summarised in Eaude et al. (2017, p 5) as follows: ‘we suggest that there is a pressing need for humanities education in an increasingly complex world; and to argue the case for humanities on the grounds of the development of the ‘whole child’. In particular we would advocate for children: understanding concepts related to human culture such as time, space and belief in how human beings 05

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can understand themselves and their relationship with the natural world, places and with each other; • developing skills and habits associated with critical thinking such as assessing and interpreting information; • exploring their own identities, values and beliefs and enabling them to be interested in those of other peoples; • learning to understand, and empathise, with people who are different, as well as those who are similar, challenging stereotypes and becoming more humane and compassionate individuals.’

As such, the humanities make a vital contribution to what in schools is called children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development (SMSC) – an area which, though legally required, is often misunderstood and given insufficient attention.

Martha Nussbaum (2010) argues that the humanities are essential as a foundation for democratic citizenship which requires children (and adults) to engage with complex ideas in a thoughtful and reflective ways, taking account of other people’s views and being prepared to listen, discuss and learn to disagree respectfully. Such an approach enables children to become more empathetic and compassionate and can help to challenge stereotypical views. In Nussbaum’s words (2010, p 23), ‘it is easier to treat people as objects to be manipulated if you have never learned any other way to see them.’

Empathy is built up in many ways, over time, but doing so entails understanding how other people, especially those who are different, live, feel and think, rather than only knowledge and skills. For example, no one doubts that literacy is important, but, in Michael Morpurgo’s words (2011), ‘it is through literature, not simply literacy, that we learn to understand and empathise. As readers, we learn about the lives of others, other places and cultures, other ways of seeing the world. We find out about the past, understand better how we made our today and how our today makes our tomorrow.’

This does not mean that children do not need to be literate and numerate; or that they do not need knowledge. Of course they do, to provide an accurate foundation for their views and to correct misapprehensions. But they need more than that if they are to learn how other people live and

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think and to develop the qualities associated with global citizenship. There are distinctive concepts and terminology associated with History, Geography and Religious Education which help children to understand ideas which, though fascinating, are often quite abstract and distant from their own experience. As a result, I argued that ‘children need to learn the propositional knowledge, and the technical language, associated with separate disciplines. Examples of the latter include: • historical terms such as monarchy and revolution; • terms related to physical and human geography such as climate and volcanoes, population and urbanisation; • terms associated with religious beliefs and practices, such as faith, worship and pilgrimage’ (Eaude, 2017, p 349); but that it is no less important is for children to be introduced to the distinctive ways of working associated with the humanities, especially history, geography and RE, (and one might add other areas such as science). These active ways of working include fieldwork, observation, interpretation and discussion and are engaging and motivating for all children, especially those less engaged with more ‘academic’ learning, though they may be initially unfamiliar and disconcerting for children used to listening passively. Moreover, they encourage critical thinking which in Bailin et al.’s words (1999, p 281) involves ‘the kinds of habits of mind, commitments or sensitivities (which) include such things as open-mindedness, fair-mindedness, the desire for truth and an inquiring attitude.’ Such qualities are essential in a world where information can be accessed, but where children, and adults, cannot be sure who, and which information, to trust.

We believe that such an approach resonates with what children need and how many primary teachers would like to teach. It is important to recognize that there is no one way of organizing the curriculum to achieve these outcomes, though I believe that broad areas of learning as in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales may provide a better, more flexible structure than separate subjects. The humanities can be taught well in discrete subject lessons, though teachers must be prepared cross subject boundaries and encourage children to do so. They can also be taught well through cross-curricular themes, though teachers

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must be aware of, and help children to understand, the key concepts of different subject disciplines, such as those outlined above. Moreover, activities such as hearing stories and taking part in drama –whether as watcher or participant – are well-tried ways of children learning about other people and themselves and how they feel and respond. Such activities can be used successfully in most subject areas.

One concern about the current emphasis on skills in literacy and numeracy is that often these are taught in ways that are separate from a context which is meaningful to children. As a result, children may become technically good at learning these skills but without knowing how to apply them in real contexts.

The humanities, especially History, Geography and Religious Education, provide wonderful, engaging contexts for children to apply and embed skills associated with literacy, especially, and numeracy.

Teaching the humanities well is not easy, particularly when dealing with abstract and sometimes controversial ideas, such as racism, migration or damage to the environment. Teachers require good subject knowledge, but even more important is the pedagogical content knowledge to select and structure subject knowledge so that lessons are engaging and meaningful for that particular group of children. Teachers need also to be enthusiastic and not too worried if lessons do not turn out quite how they had planned. Often primary teachers worry about their lack of subject knowledge as a result of the very limited time available in initial teacher education and few opportunities for career-long professional learning. However, just as one would learn to cook or to drive by trying relatively easy recipes and journeys at first, the ways of working described above can be gradually introduced and the relationships and expectations built up over time, so that more controversial issues can be addressed in a thoughtful and respectful way.

Teaching in this way requires flexible planning, so that one can follow up children’s ideas and interests, rather than just delivering content in ways that are pre-determined in advance. The children’s learning may be difficult to test simply, except in terms of content, but you can still assess what they have learned. However, such assessment is most valuable and motivating when it is divergent – finding out what children have learned rather than whether they have remembered what they were expected to learn – and focussed on successes rather than

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inadequacies. Portfolios of work provide an excellent way for teachers, parents and above all children to see what children have achieved and their progress over time.

As indicated, we are planning a campaign called Humanities 20:20, which is supported by NAPE and several other organisations and will be launched in May 2019. This is intended to; • raise the profile of the humanities in primary schools, especially in History, Geography, RE and citizenship; • empower all those involved in schools to consider how they can use the humanities as a context for educating children for the complex but fascinating world in which they live; and • provide ways of sharing and encouraging creative, imaginative approaches.

This campaign will be the subject of another article in Primary First. In the meantime, please follow us on Twitter at Humanities2020 to find out more or show your support. If you would like to be involved, and perhaps contribute a short case study about your work in the humanities, please contact me at tony@ edperspectives.org.uk I hope that working together primary teachers can restore the humanities to their rightful place in the education of the whole child.

References: Alexander, R. ed. (2010) Children, their World, their Education - final report and recommendations of the Cambridge Primary Review. Abingdon: Routledge Bailin, S., R. Case, J. R. Coombs and L. B. Daniels (1999) Common misconceptions of critical thinking, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 31 (3), 269-283 Eaude, T. (2017) ‘Humanities in the primary school philosophical considerations’, Education 3-13, 45 (3), 343353 Eaude, T., G. Butt, S. Catling and P. Vass. (2017) ‘The future of the humanities in primary schools – reflections in troubled times, Education 3-13, 45 (3), 386-395 Morpurgo, M. (2011) I Long For The Day When Amnesty is Needed No More The Guardian 29th May 2011 Nussbaum, M. (2010) Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities. Princeton: Princeton University Press

Dr. Tony Eaude is an independent consultant and writer. He is the former head of East Oxford Primary school in Oxfordshire.

What Have We Lost?

by Geoff Marshall To think about what we have lost in schools over the last fifty years, and then to select from among so much, is to risk being a typical ‘moaner’ as we have learnt to call them. We must guard against a sense of a past dimly remembered but which we are persuaded was a wonderful time overseen by kindly people.

Our present confused condition is, by that account, the fault of accidental incompetence, privilege and simple neglect. On the contrary the loss of our focus on the needs of children has not happened because governments were unaware of the achievements in primary education but was rather the work of people who were well informed, thoroughly disliked it, and were determined to stop it. Interestingly, this attitude was shared by both main parties and it is worth examining why that should be.

The political view can be summed up as ‘education is the means to instil knowledge which adults have and which children should acquire’. So schools must be indifferent to whatever might interest children.

Indeed interest is considered an obstacle to the work of teachers who must miss no opportunity to thrust ever more knowledge into their unfortunate charges.

All children everywhere, no matter what the local opportunities or disadvantages, must be driven through the same abstractions to deliver the same answers and be assessed in the same way. The results will then be stored for future reference. Too many schools are now actively harming children by denying their curiosity, making learning a matter of memory, and insisting what is learnt only has worth if it can be processed for the purposes of the DfE. Education rewards conformity and control whilst success is achieved through competition and all too seldom by cooperation.

That is what happens when the needs of the state come before its people. The individual becomes docile fodder in a workforce flexible and amenable to the needs of the economy. Sadly so much is generally agreed and education is only criticised when young

employees fail to meet requirements.

And here we come, almost by accident to the critical, almost criminal, neglect by pressured schools of the central motivation for learning and living which is choice. Choice is the essence of democracy, the chance to reflect upon the issues, to balance one against another, to make a choice and be responsible for it.

Education is a version of that. It is the opportunity to examine experience at first hand, reflect upon it, and draw out personal conclusions to act upon.

Furthermore, the skill of choosing cannot be taught : it must be experienced. Grown-ups talk of learning by experience, of living and learning - but these are mere and worthless words when the pressure is to insist upon children learning to do as they are told almost without thinking.

Success is judged Children are not prepared for the world by a growing of work when schools competence and are praised for insisting upon obedience, confidence in conformity, control making choices and and working to the in the width and rules. And employers complain that they depth of the work. show no initiative, cannot discuss and share ideas, are timid and wait to be told. Even at university with pencil poised they wait to be told what they must know.

So that is what I miss. If children are encouraged to choose within their growing capacity to choose, they will flourish in all fields of enquiry and once more will astonish the world. Those who destroyed the achievements of primary education did so essentially because they might lose control of a vigorous, unpredictable, irreverent movement whose work could not be measured and was only concerned with the child. They didn’t understand that learning by experience is a difficult skill to acquire. Doing what you 09

10 are told is easy, the challenge being for some to see what they can get away with. Making choices is a skill which lives with you as we see in the dilemmas in which our M.P.s find themselves.

If I cut my finger in the kitchen it is not just my finger, or my hand, which responds. My whole being becomes part of the drama. I am suddenly aware as never before of the dangers of kitchen knives, of the need to keep first aid to hand, of the blood oozing over the floor, of the predicament of being alone in the house at such a time, of the pain gradually making itself felt. And then there’s a flash of recollection when I lectured the children about knives. Gradually as has happened, I come to terms with my dilemma, I manage to find what I need, deal with it and then comes the reflection on what happened and why and how best to avoid it. Such are the ways in which we learn. It is not a purely intellectual drawing of hypothetical abstractions: it is an effort to come to terms with this particular experience using all my instincts as well as my intellect.

Children must decide what aspect of the experience they wish to explore, then what abstractions to make, followed by choosing which of various ways they will use to demonstrate them and finally practising the use of tools and material to be employed. All the above stages will be repeated with growing refinement and confidence. Success is judged by a growing competence and confidence in making choices and in the width and depth of the work. Above all nothing is more important than anything else because education as I understand it does not detach parts of the child to inspect and measure and compare, but embraces the entire child as of interest essential to the learning process.

If children are once again to be encouraged to grow naturally and abundantly then classrooms must be fitted to permit this learning by exposure to firsthand experience. There may be growing plants and small animals, insects and puppets, Victoriana and models and a range of literature chosen as in a library and set in a comfortable place appealing to the browsing reader.

None of this is prescriptive so long as the intention is to create a child’s version of an interesting world upon which attention can be focused and work begun. In time there will be painting and printing, pottery and poetry, measuring and weighing, recording and calculating and fabric work, all representing the beginning of what

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might be a prolonged exploration of the alternative ways in which to respond: because there is no best way, only different ways, some more appropriate than others and it is in the making of these that the child begins to realise informed, responsible choices. However satisfying it may be to dress a display with a drape printed by a child, it is always a greater pleasure to know that it came about through the choices and skills of the child.

So finally I miss being in a school where we planned together to prepare for a term’s work across the fields of study yet knowing that something unforeseen might well take a child away on his or her own personal exploration. None of this can happen now. We have lost the sense of making a school every day different to what it was before with a singular identity created by the free choices of its members who build it with serious yet happy dedication.

Geoffrey Marshall is the former head of Sherwood Park Primary school in Hampshire.

The illustrations are of work by his pupils. The poem, Supply Teacher is by Allan Ahlberg.

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Hard Times: Back to the Tables!

by Robert Young Later this academic year the multiplication tables check assessment framework is to be trialled in our primary schools with the intention of rolling it out for all Year 4 pupils in 2020. The test to be taken on line will consist of 25 questions, all in the same format (eg. 4x8=32) with 6 seconds allowed for the response. Of all the initiatives taken by central governments in recent decades, for me this is in so many respects the most dispiriting and reactionary. Not that one should not place importance on the knowledge of multiplication facts, as a form of shorthand in mathematical calculation. One cannot question the value of being able to recall such information, but to give it the status of being an aspect of mathematics which is worthy of exclusive national assessment seems to me to be extraordinary and to fly in the face of everything we know about the development of mathematical competence in the primary years.

• At the heart of mathematical competence is an understanding of the conceptual frameworks which underpin mathematical knowledge. Therefore the capacity to handle computational operations (of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) is essential if the child is to master the world of numbers and if this had been the focus of the assessment, its rationale would have been on much firmer ground. The facility to recite the times tables per se will not guarantee the ability to utilise multiplication appropriately. The swift recall of number facts may be amenable to testing, but it has little to do with mental agility and in particular the grasp of the inter-relationships between the four operations.

• The examinees are not expected to demonstrate the application of multiplication to the solving of problems. They are not even expected to exemplify their capacity to handle multiplication tables through a variety of questions in different formats; this kind

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of mathematical flexibility is totally missing from the proposed test. In its place is a single format, so mathematical competence in all its complexities is reduced to a memory based test, devoid of any conceptual challenge. Indeed the six second interval scheduled for the children’s answers is specifically designed to prevent the children from working out the answer – heaven forbid, they might At a time when all engage in thought!

eyes are on teacher

• In any case, where is the evidence that retention, surely multiplication tables we should have the are being ignored confidence in teacher in our primary professionality schools? Frequent visits to a variety to respect their of schools across capacity to monitor local authorities and mathematical progress across key stages without the imposition have confirmed for me the extent to of another form of which multiplication testing? tables have been taken seriously by teachers, with plenty of opportunity for rapid recall of number facts, as well as other relevant activities. They are explicitly written into the National Curriculum, so why add an additional layer of national testing to a system, which is already excessive in its assessment demands? The government claims to be concerned about the mental wellbeing of its pupils, but it is difficult to square this with the further intensification of the testing regime.

• Another concern is bound up with the serious risk that especially in Year 4 there will be a narrowing of the mathematics curriculum, as teachers prepare

the pupils for the test. Its prioritisation is explicable in the context of teacher accountability for pupil performance, but this can only have a detrimental impact on the breadth of pupil experiences in mathematical learning. What implicit messages does this send to children about what is crucial in the discipline of mathematics? Of course, the most principled of our teachers will do their best to mitigate the risks by managing the lead-up to the testing with sensitivity and imagination, but why should they have to contend with such pressures?

At a time when all eyes are on teacher retention, surely we should have the confidence in teacher professionality to respect their capacity to monitor mathematical progress without the imposition of another form of testing?

Robert Young is General Secretary of the National Association for Primary Education. He is a former Director of Learning and Teaching in the School of Education, University of Greenwich.

• Nick Gibb, the Schools Standards Minister, in February 2018, argued that the test will ensure that all pupils leave primary school knowing their tables by heart and able to start secondary school with a secure grasp of fundamental arithmetic as a foundation for mathematics. By conflating the two aims, he appears to have given legitimacy to the test, but in reality the former has little to do with the latter. As a means towards an end, the rapid recall of multiplication facts may be one of several valuable tools in working towards computational expertise, but that is only one element which contributes to achieving a secure grasp of fundamental arithmetic, a legitimate and robust intention for mathematical development.

If the latter was his major concern, then the assessment framework should have been designed differently! • The anticipated expenditure of 5 million pounds in the initial development of the framework is difficult to justify in relation to the financial cutbacks experienced by schools and one can argue that this sum of money could have been invested more productively in other initiatives, especially those designed to promote teacher professional development in mathematics. • My overall conclusion is that this is a redundant and retrograde initiative, based on a false premise about the elements making for mathematical competence, at risk of restricting rather than opening up mathematical learning in all its richness and taking up financial and human resources which would be better deployed elsewhere.

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Beyond the Classroom

by Aled Williams All Saints Church in Wales Primary School in Barry, is a voluntary-aided school sponsored by the Church in Wales, with over 240 pupils from the early years to Year 6. Rated as one of the top five per cent of schools in Wales, All Saints is a Lead Practitioner School for Wellbeing, and strives to create a stimulating 21st Century learning environment that delivers the highest standard of education and rich opportunities for its pupils.

Here, deputy headteacher, Aled Williams, explains how All Saints is equipping its pupils with real life skills by placing education in their hands, creating an inclusive whole-school ethos and taking learning in all subjects, including science, technology, engineering, arts and maths (STEAM), well beyond the classroom walls.

At All Saints, we understand the importance of developing the skills and experience that pupils need to equip them for life after primary school and beyond, and therefore work to nurture these skills while also fostering their academic potential; it’s about life-long learning.

As part of this, we try to offer lots of exciting and diverse opportunities as a way of supporting the knowledge they’re developing in lessons, as well as giving them responsibility and the chance to engage with skills that they might not be able to experience in the classroom.

For example, our Year 5 pupils recently went on a three-day residential to the Brecon Beacons, but they organised the entire trip! There is a lot to be learned from arranging an event, and so this was a great way of giving pupils ownership of their learning and

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developing crucial life skills including organisational abilities, teamwork and problem-solving. Of course, we supervised the process, but the pupils were in charge of researching possible trips and locations, contacting them to see if they had availability on the reserved dates and then booking the place they liked best.

They then arranged the itinerary for the trip and planned the entire adventure, including the activities, the evening events, and they even picked the menu based on dietary requirements and the fussy eaters! So all-in-all, the entire trip was very much led by them.

One of the evening activities was a DVD night and, as part of this, they factored in popcorn and sweets, so together they worked out what flavours were most popular and then went online to see how much they could buy with the budget they had. For example, they worked out that although small bags are often cheaper, they might not be as cost effective when you take the price per gram into consideration. We then took the pupils to the shops to buy everything and they had planned it all so well that they came in below budget! This in itself was a great opportunity to get them using their mathematical and problemsolving skills within a real-world context and they were all enthused by the process; it’s about taking opportunities for learning outside of the classroom and developing these skills for life.

A mini parliament We also help build our pupils into skilful and wellrounded individuals through our Senedd groups, named after the Welsh parliament, which place our pupils in positions of responsibility to become the voice of our school community.

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We have eight Senedd groups, and each has a chair and a vice-chair, a secretary and a digital lead which meet regularly. These groups include a sports council; the school nutrition action group (or SNAG), which has done lots with the Tesco “Eat Happy” project; a wellbeing committee; Criw Cymraeg; an Eco committee; prayer pals; digital directors; and our LEGO® Ambassadors. Two of our pupils are also elected as first minister and deputy first minister and they both attend governor’s meetings and other important events.

We also use LEGO® Education resources in lessons, which has extended beyond the classroom because our pupils see the benefits. We have a LEGO Lounge and an after school LEGO Club As technology to help further becomes an everequip pupils with greater part of our real-life skills and lives, we’re finding responsibilities, and as part of Senedd, that year-onhave introduced a year, our children LEGO Ambassadors are coming to initiative.

school with more developed IT skills.

teachers about how they can use the sets in lessons, and we help teachers use the sets in STEAM lessons too. I am more confident since being an ambassador and really enjoy delivering presentations to our school and at conferences.”

How often do pupils get the chance to truly have an impact on their school community? Probably not often. But there is so much to be learned from giving them the chance to present their ideas and explain why something should change or where there are opportunities for improvement. By placing them in roles of responsibility, we are preparing them for their futures in the world ahead.

Today’s tech world As technology becomes an ever-greater part of our lives, we’re finding that year-on-year, our children are coming to school with more developed IT skills - it’s a generational thing where technology has become part of a pupil’s 21st Century pencil case. So it’s our responsibility to stay ahead of this by being able to develop these skills even further and prepare them for their future in what is very likely to be a tech-based world.

A big part of the ambassadors’ role is delivering training, as the pupils are our in-house experts. They train our younger pupils to become ambassadors and also deliver courses and training for other teachers and schools that visit us to see what we’re doing and how we’re enhancing the curriculum using the resources. It never fails to amaze me how professional and confident our children are when delivering training. Recently, for example, they delivered a presentation to over 300 people during a conference at Cardiff City Stadium; while I was as white as a sheet, they were totally unflappable!

We encourage the use of technology equipment and resources in the school and have a range of different devices, including 15 Mac Minis, three MacBooks, six HP laptops and five Chromebooks. We also have a number of iPads which are used across the school; some of these are set up for Foundation phase, and others for Key Stage 2, as the apps we need to buy and use for the different year groups are varied.

Maisie Peter is a LEGO Ambassador: “We really enjoy the LEGO and teaching people how to use the different sets. We speak to other schools and

In STEAM subjects, we take every opportunity to enable our pupils to understand how crucial these subjects are on their future and actively promote

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The technology in the school means that we try to make lessons as interactive and digitally-led as possible because we strive to deliver the curriculum in an engaging and relevant way for our pupils, and this enables pupils to see that the skills they’re learning are adaptable and go across lots of different areas.

hands-on learning and teamwork because these are essential for building those all-important life skills.

After all, learning is not done on your own, and it shouldn’t be done in isolation or in silence. Working together, collaborating and pupil-led learning should be part-and-parcel of education, as these are key life skills.

STEAMing ahead With this is mind, we use robotics resources in the STEAM classrooms to give our pupils the chance to delve deeper into the subjects together and truly grasp topics and their real-life applications.

The resources task pupils to engage with tangible activities such as building their own machines, vehicles or models that can then be coded perform specific functions, enabling them to see the real-life implications of STEAM first hand.

The children find the hands-on element of robotics resources really useful as abstract ideas such as forces and motion become easier to grasp when learning is kinaesthetic, and in turn, the real-life applications can be understood. These resources also encourage resilience, as you can’t really get anything wrong; instead they keep trying until they find a solution that works. It’s an incredibly valuable resource for teaching STEAM. One of our Year 6 pupils, Lila Nunn, uses robotics resources during science lessons and says, “Openended projects are great because you don’t have any instructions, and it’s really hands-on which is exciting. The other week, we even built our own models of a desktop fan and then programmed them so that when someone walked up to the fan, it would turn on, and when they walked away, it would turn off again. It was challenging, but it was really fun working in partners to look at the different ways we could build the fan and code it to work.”

By using a hands-on and tangible approach when teaching STEAM, our pupils have made incredible progress. We’re now using robotics resources

designed for secondary school students with our most able learners in Years 5 and 6 to further challenge them and develop their coding, computing and STEAM skills, and develop the critical skills they need for their future at secondary school and beyond.

And taking this further, because we’re very skillsorientated and very active at giving our pupils reallife learning opportunities, we have partnerships with several businesses. It’s important that children understand the link between what we do in school and the relevance to their later life and careers. We connect the skills and knowledge they’re learning to people in different jobs, whether that be in a local bakery or government job.

We’re very lucky that a lot of our parents have good connections and a variety of occupations, but this is often the case in all schools, so it’s important for teachers to utilise parents’ knowledge and careers!

A few of our parents, for example, have jobs within the armed forces and the international centre of aerospace training, so we regularly invite parents in to speak with pupils about their professions, so that they have a greater understanding of the possibilities.

Equal opportunities Unfortunately, despite the increasing focus on encouraging girls to engage with STEAM, there’s still an unfair bias. However, we are dedicated to providing equal opportunities for all our pupils and work hard to ensure our girls recognise that there is a big space that’s waiting for them in the STEM industries.

The robotics resources have helped hugely in encouraging girls to engage with the STEAM subjects, as they’re able to see that they’re very capable and their potential and the resource really brings their ideas to life.

As part of STEAM week, we met with two female researchers from Cardiff University who had come 17

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over from America and the pupils were able to look around the lab and it was brilliant because I could see the girls thinking “I could do this” and “I think I’d like to do this”.

Likewise, another example is when we take pupils to the theatre, so that boys have the chance to engage with the “art” element of STEAM that might not traditionally appeal to them. It’s important to have that balance.

During the week we also had scientists visit us; Science Made Simple, a Cardiff based company offering inspirational educational experiences; a science teacher from our local comprehensive school came in and did some practical science experiments; and we took them to science and discovery centre, Techniquest, which they loved!

We also visited the International Centre of Aerospace Training to show them all the different roles and jobs that exist within the ever-growing aerospace industry. And they met students who are doing apprenticeships at the local technical college, which showed our pupils that if university isn’t their preferred route, then there are other options, and perhaps they’d like to learn a trade; we’re not alienating children, it’s about an inclusive environment.

Building a positive learning environment Inclusiveness is an inherent part of our school ethos, and it’s entwined in everything we do. For example, the trip to the Brecon Beacons was very much about inclusiveness, with pupils encouraged to include each other in all the activities. It was so touching to see them all working together; they sorted out their activity groups and sleeping arrangements for the accommodation, and it was their collective responsibility to support each other, so when a couple of the pupils felt homesick, they looked after each other. The onus for the entire trip was very much on them, and I couldn’t have been prouder of them all.

As a teacher, you think that’s a big tick; my job is done. You might not be able to physically record the data, assess it or put it in a tick box, but these are real life skills that permeate into all other aspects of a pupil’s learning.

If we want to provide our pupils with exciting, engaging, life-long learning experiences that build the skills needed for their education and beyond, then we can’t put barriers in front of pupils, we need to give them opportunities and create a positive learning environment for everyone.

And this is what we do at All Saints: we bring the classroom to life using technology and education resources because our pupils are better able to engage with learning, get hands-on and understand what can often be abstract concepts. And we create rich opportunities for pupils, giving them ownership and the chance to explore their potential and develop not only authentic life skills, but a passion for learning too.

Our pupils enjoy coming into school and learning, and they do it while smiling too! And this is what learning should be about; promoting lifelong learning and preparing them for their futures as tech-savvy, independent and confident thinkers who have adaptable skills to take into the workplace and beyond.

To find out more about the work the schools does, and the resources it uses, visit www.allsaintspsbarry. com and LEGOeducation.co.uk

When Aled Williams wrote this article he was Deputy Head of All Saints Church in Wales Primary school. He is now Deputy Head of Albert Primary school in Penarth.

Go teach outdoors!

No fuss ideas for Maths and English lessons that can be completed in school grounds and don’t cost the earth!

View samples at www.collins.co.uk/KeenKite

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Pioneering work on assessment through teacher leadership.

by Jonathan Doherty and Josh Guthrie Leadership is an essential component of school development. It is commonly associated with the Headteacher and senior staff at the apex of school management structures. One model of leadership, distributive leadership, however, views leadership as a shared and collective endeavour that involves all members of the organisation (Harris, 2003) and puts teachers at the heart of this. Teacher leadership supports whole school development, and is one where teachers at any stage are directly involved in leading learning. Teacher leaders are both ‘givers’ and ‘receivers’ of authentic CPD. Being close to the ground, they are well placed to make change happen in schools, and control the conditions for teaching and learning in classrooms. In this sense they are a hybrid of teacher and leader. Berry (2016) calls them ‘teacherpreneurs’. As change agents they spread their ideas across a school. They use influencing skills to impact on other teachers, parents and the wider school community. Their role is often varied: they might lead professional learning sessions, liaise with a higher education institution, local schools and agencies, engage in action research, mentor student teachers and lead curriculum innovation. In this article we report on an example of teacher leadership in helping to develop a new approach to assessment in literacy.

One of the biggest challenges for schools in the last few years has been the removal of levels of assessment, part of a policy drive to provide greater school autonomy within a school-led system. With the removal of levelled assessment, schools are now well placed to design assessment systems that fit the needs of the school and its pupils more closely. It is also

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an opportunity for teachers to steer this process. Josh joined the school as a Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT) at a time when national assessment levels had just been removed and the school was looking to develop a new assessment system where pupils in each group were assessed against age related standards, not levels. This was alongside a new tracking system for pupil progress and a new marking policy. With the removal of levels of assessment, the School Leadership Team recognised this as an opportunity to understand children’s learning and progress more deeply, and were keen to embrace a new assessment system for writing that was principle -based and involve pupils’ voices more explicitly. This became an opportunity to show teacher leadership in action, working closely with colleagues in and outside of the school.

To begin the work, Josh designed questionnaires to gather information from staff on their views on the current assessment of writing in the school and the pros and cons of a new system in the school. These were given to members of the Senior Leadership Team, the assessment coordinator, the literacy coordinator and the Phase leader. They were also sent to a school outside of the Academy to gather data on how a school with a different approach was assessing literacy in the school. He gave out questionnaires to the Year 6 pupils to capture their important voice in this research.

Observations of teaching and sampling of pupils’ writing also took place. Three themes came out of the overall analysis: Conversion from a levelled system was a challenge.

There was agreement that it was a challenging process due to the lack of a framework or guidance on the

process. Colleagues expressed feelings of caution due to the lack of a standardised assessment system which was familiar to them. Most of the teachers viewed the removal of the ceiling of levels as positive in terms of enabling children to deepen their learning.

The new system should be underpinned by principles of formative assessment . The school places great emphasis on children’s engagement with assessment, their voice and the use of formative assessment to support this.

The new assessment structure better captures success in writing. Teachers felt that they now give more time to the mastery of a skill. The assessment allows for an objective to be taught and then explored more deeply.

It has removed some of the barriers to learning and has helped reduce pupil disengagement, replacing it with a ‘can do’ culture in literacy lessons.

Almost a year on, the school is still refining its structures and processes for literacy assessment. It recognises that it is in a transition period and still needs time to embed the new system within schoolwide procedures. The work has had many benefits.

Teachers are continuing to learn the ways of the new assessment and the objectives that lie within these new steps, replacing the familiar levelled system of assessment. Children now find it easier to articulate their learning and their progress and this has been a resounding positive of the work. Children as learners are engaged and are gaining confidence and competence in their ability to self-assess and understand next steps in their learning. This has been excellent professional learning for staff and for whole school development, and through collaborative working, influence teaching and learning in and beyond one school and exhibit the kind of teacher leadership described in this paper.

References: Berry, B., Zeichner, N & Evans, R. (2016). Teacher Leadership.

A Reinvented Teaching Profession. In J. Evers & R. Kneyber (eds) Flip the System. Changing education from the ground up.

London: Routledge Harris, A. (2003) Teacher leadership and school improvement.

In A. Harris et al. (2003) Effective Leadership for School Improvement. London: RoutledgeFalmer Jonathan Doherty lectures at Leeds Trinity University and Josh Guthrie teaches at St. Mary Queen of Martyrs school in Hull.

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SOUNDING OFF!

The Education Inspection Framework’s Not-So-Hidden Curriculum by Colin Richards Ofsted are consulting on their proposed inspection framework with its emphasis (long overdue) on the curriculum. If you are the head of a small primary school, be concerned about the workload awaiting you in terms of curriculum revision and development. Even if you are head of an averagesized primary school or of a small secondary school, be anxious of how you and your staff will cope in the short- to medium-term. If you consider yourself child-centred, be anxious that your professional identity is being threatened. If you are a teacher in KS1 committed to early years principles be concerned about how your practice might be judged in future.

Any framework has to be based on a number of assumptions. Inspectors “trained” on the new education inspection framework will have a notso-hidden model in their minds as a default setting

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unless they challenge themselves or are challenged by other professionals to think differently.

What are some of the major assumptions of the framework’s not-so-hidden curriculum? The first is the assumed worth of the current national curriculum or, in the case of academies, something close to it.

That the content of that curriculum is valuable and appropriate is taken as read by the constructors of the framework ; it is not open to critical inspection.

Those schools, especially at the primary stage, who have issues with the appropriateness or with the level of detail of the current national curriculum, could well find their forthcoming inspection a difficult, frustrating or challenging process.

A second assumption is that the curriculum is best described as a collection of separate subjects. The framework places great stress on the extent to

which “teachers have good subject knowledge” and “present subject matter clearly”. Nowhere is it acknowledged that the curriculum could be described and transacted in other terms- as broad areas, as knowledge domains, as areas of experience or whatever. Nowhere is the possibility raised of interdisciplinary or, dare I say it, “integrated” work.

Those who do not share inspectors’ default subjectcentred model are likely to have difficulty convincing them of the value of their approaches.

A third assumption is that the curriculum is to be “delivered” from teachers to students through the transmission of knowledge and “cultural capital – “the best that has been thought and said”. The idea that the curriculum at any level could be co-constructed or even on occasion, negotiated with students forms no part of the thinking of the framework’s constructors. Schools willing find at least some curriculum time for students pursuing their own enquiries could find that practice questioned and adversely judged A fourth assumption is that the curriculum is to be delivered through whole-class teaching. Nowhere in the framework is the possibility raised of either group or individual work. “Adaptive” class teaching (a vague term at best) is assumed to ensure that no students are ever “left behind” as the class moves inexorably on from one unit of work to the next. Many would question that assumption and would concede that, however difficult, some form of in-class differentiation through group or individual work is necessary on occasion. They could well be criticised by default-mode inspectors for their “unnecessarily elaborate or differentiated approaches.”

Tellingly, the current Ofsted consultation does not ask for responses which either support or challenge those four assumptions. Like the four-point grading

scale they are “non-negotiable”. Their value is regarded as self-evident ….but is it?

Of course some schools, perhaps the majority, may share all four of Ofsted’s assumptions. They may not find them at all problematic. The challenge for them is to go forward, planning, implementing and assessing a curriculum to be revised in the light of Ofsted’s criteria for “quality of education” – a far from straightforward task given the contentious nature of “progression”, “sequencing” , “ambition” and other vague concepts embodied in those criteria.

The challenge for those not sharing one or other or all of the four assumptions is likely to be an existential one with threats to their professional identity along with a very heavy workload in the short-to medium-term.

Unwittingly, or perhaps not, the Ofsted framework currently being consulted on embodies a model of curriculum which is far from value-free or uncontroversial. Some may see it as a positive re-presentation of cultural capital; others as exemplifying back-to-the-Ark thinking.

While having personal sympathy with aspects of the default model, I believe that its controversial nature needs to be acknowledged, confronted and, if necessary, contested . The Chief Inspector is wrong in claiming that the proposed inspection framework represents “evolution, not revolution”. Its default position could perhaps be best characterised as ”counter-revolution” or even as “counterreformation.”

Professor Colin Richards was staff inspector for the school curriculum in H.M. Inspectorate and editor of its Curriculum Matters series.

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Mixed age and ability

by Mervyn Benford

Mervyn Benford reflects on the grouping of children as they learn.

Peter, age 10, with Sue, his 13-year-old sister, were visiting. Seeing sticks and logs in the bucket beside the fire, he pulled out a long thin stick and decided to strip the bark from both ends leaving him a section to hold and swing. He told Sue people could do anything if they were resourceful- not a bad word for a ten-year-old! Language is the technology we are still born with after all! He spotted the old fire tools. With the fire-shovel edge he began bark removal. He looked for sandpaper. With it he could both attack the bark and smooth the exposed surface but to remove dust he fetched a Swedish feather mop but the fire-brush did that better.

By now his sister became curious. Now the fire tongs played their part. One could hold the stick still while the other worked on it- together, co-operating. She asked what he was making. He had no idea! What’s it for? He had no idea. Two children from different phases found common challenge and the required skills and resources. Next morning, they started on a second stick- holiday time and no screens in sight!

I have seen it before. At home the same two had made a giant house from a large cardboard box, big enough to lie down in. Their older sister, 15, arrived and immediately joined in. She rigged up a torch to light the box through the already cut window.

Two years earlier all four, the eldest boy then 14, converted two large boxes that had contained garden chairs- presents for their parents- into similar places to conceal themselves, with openings to poke a hand out and wave- all their Christmas presents

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forgotten! In 1697 John Locke advised parents not to buy expensive toys- “Give them a bunch of keys!”

In most schools classes are single-age. There can be an 11-month age difference between youngest and oldest and a far wider spread of ability and achievement. In small schools a handful of teachers have classes wider in age and again a range of ability. The potential for using their ideas, their energies and talents in shared endeavour and purpose is the key to working with such children whilst being aware of goals and achievements required.

Peter, at 17 months, watched his older brother unwrap birthday presents. Sue, then 3, ran to see them across loose bubble wrap and popping some of the bubbles. Immediately the toddler dropped off his mother’s lap and tried to make his own pops. He ran out of wrap so looked for more and continued apace.

He engaged in what I had learned 50 years earlier as Nuffield Junior Science. Nuffield would exploit children’s own ideas and their own resources to identify problems and solve them. Teachers became enablers and guides- curriculum cards up the sleeve waiting for the appropriate moment.

I recognise these learning modes in children’s lives because I used Nuffield approaches to exploit the wide age and ability range (up to seven years according to NFER) in the single age classes of the first two large junior schools in which I had workedclasses of 40+ then! In listening to music that I played them I noticed the responses came from

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across the ability range. Written responses did not necessarily correlate with enjoyment or appreciation.

There were also times when it was more appropriate to put same ability together. I asked a Year 6 class to write an Easter Cantata. Mixed age and ability groups produced the characters and libretto, but those in the school’s specially trained recorder group composed the music to poems chosen as songs. The whole class then collectively advised me on the casting for the characters. They knew who should be Pilate, Judas Iscariot, Roman soldiers- and Jesus!

My next class was Y3. The following summer we had not enough for three Y3 or three Y4 classes.

I volunteered to take a mixed Y3/Y4- subject to the Y3 parents I had just had for a year agreeing!

Encouraged by my earlier Y6 experience I asked these 8- and 9-year-olds to compose a Jonah Cantata. No problems!

The power of individual experience to broaden horizons also showed in the individual short talks I expected each to give on a subject chosen by them. That they were the same age was quite immaterial! Personality and confidence were the telling factors! Talks were prepared at home, with parents! Something similar could inspire term-time holidays today! Preparing at home helped parents understand my aims and enabled them to endorse school aims. Typical subjects were a hobby or a holiday experience, helping mum or dad in house and garden or just a shopping trip.

My village school had two classrooms, separate infants and juniors. I soon learned they lived almost separate worlds, the younger in awe at times. After a year we changed the organisation completely.

We were three teachers and each had a third of the children 4+ to 11+. We would meet them at the start of every day as a register group, discuss the days plans and duties, remind them of on-going work and after 20 minutes they would follow whatever the timetable said.

We never worked with our ‘class’ as such.

However, we were responsible for their progress

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in mathematics and language across their entire primary school career. The timetable included time when children were not involved in other work and so were free and that is when they could pursue their ‘basics’ work. Staff not assigned a particular curriculum activity were also then free to support such pupils and particularly oversee their own register group.

The children had that teacher identity but also a further set of 4-11 age groups that re-mixed them for project work- a different set of names- planets for example! They also retained infant, upper and lower junior identities- a bit like Key Stages.

The oldest teaching Children thus had method in the book is three identity labels the master-apprentice for work. When that model - an expert timetable clicked in, it did so around instructs, encourages, our planning of the corrects a lesser curriculum.

skilled person -

The age-groups had often a learner. It is their uses. Spelling essentially the way tests and practice we learn at home. were ‘junior’ sessions (KS1 and 2) - likewise PE, art and music, where full age range seemed inappropriate. Our expectations of the children were clear but appropriately differentiated for their age and ability. The target remained to improve on previous performance, all reflected in individual assessment. Our prolific series of minibus outdoor visits also tended to reflect the particular age differences, though still in themselves wide enough.

Much was done in the ‘planet’ groups. It was fascinating to watch how Karen as leader in a hedgerow study arranged for the younger learners to be involved - for example holding the tape measure and observing how the older two resolved grass heights. Early management experience!

Teachers observing such activity intervene as they see fit. In such mode teachers choose the groups.

We know the children. Every group needs a leader-

not necessarily the most able. Every group needs someone capable at recording what happens and is learned - be it written or mathematical! Every group needs a peace-maker!

The first time we used this strategy was a study planned to expose history, science and mathematics in the adjacent churchyard- mine was Maths. I organised my 18 into four smaller groups and sent them out to start. I imagined difficulties so had my cards ready up my sleeve. Sarah’s group was under the lychgate looking ‘stuck.’ To my surprise they had plans- to count the flints in the church building! That would never have occurred to me! I now had to help them do it! Sarah was eleven. Rebecca was five, the youngest. They would stand her against the church wall and count how many she covered.

Then Anna, 9, said, “Rebecca’s a funny shape - we should use a square metre!” That very practical pedagogical insight of course came from the most able in the group. Ian, 8, rather a slow learner, was sent to fetch the metre stick and he knew where it was! Doing the work readers will imagine the problems of a practical as well as mathematical nature that arose and needed my professional input- not least sampling, averages and the height of the building. Finally, their measurements and scores needed bringing together and it was very appropriate to use a calculator!

The result was probably seriously inaccurate- but a very big number! It had not helped that north wall repairs had been in brick and stone more than flints!

We needed to weight sample averages to reflect the proportionate differences- quite stern mathematics but they could see why that tool helped! They had set a problem, found methods, tools and individual resources to work and produce an answer, solving problems that occurred on the way. These are brain skills the CBI has long complained schools do not enough produce! I had introduced them to important, real-world mathematical concept.

The oldest teaching method in the book is the master-apprentice model - an expert instructs,

encourages, corrects a lesser skilled person - often a learner. It is essentially the way we learn at home.

Families do not visit castles in year groups! They help with homework individually. Situations are flexible as opportunity offers.

The model was evident within our planet group concept. It is a model many schools adopted in the 70s and 80s in teaching reading. In my later years I found a school where Years 1, 2, 5 and 6 had older/ younger reading pairs who also did art and computer work together at times. It was most intriguing to see a Y6 and a Y1 painting together! And then the Y1 spotting something on a screen the Y6 had overlooked! Any individual working a computer individually was invariably surrounded by half a dozen mere on-lookers, often offering advice!

Traditionalist criticism saw these older pupils losing out- held back! There is no better way to lock in principles and facts than by trying to teach someone else. The masters in fact are learning more! While undertaking a study of small schools internationally for a Rowntree Foundation I met a US Senator in Nebraska who praised the “one-room” school as the place where you saw what was coming long before you need worry about it- and become ready for itwhile the oldest saw it all through new eyes. Sue had been more refined with shovel and sandpaper.

Peter, watching closely as he immobilised the stick with the tongs, at times decided he had so learned from her that he grabbed the shovel and took over.

It was a great help to me that I could bring to the school the experience of that earlier two-year mixed age class. Relations with parents are so important for a start. In small schools they are more readily on the same wavelengths as us- despite pressure from government targets. In a 250-pupil, standard, age-grouped primary I recently visited I saw a superb Y5 lesson in which eight small groups, of very evident differing language capacity exposed words in a reading passage for which they had to find other words of similar meaning- and weight. The dependence on home background and everyday life were very evident- a great resource for any teacher.

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It was no surprise that parent partnership in this school was almost as strong as in smaller schools.

At parents’ evenings the pupils led the reportingteachers merely chipped in! These Y5 word groups could as easily have been 4-11 and still drawn as richly on collective vocabulary. The discussion might have been even richer. Had the school developed such principles, parents would have understood.

When I worked as a rural schools co-coordinator, gathering children from several small schools for a study day, the younger children were often more confident, less inhibited, raising livelier, more relevant questions- more able to respond than those more set in their class activity ways. A Viking history lesson I was inspecting saw the final session in which the teacher had prepared key summary statements that her Y1/Y2 class, in small groups, had to discuss as true or false. All got them all right but one group leader admitted it was by majority decision in one question, “King Alfred built the first Winchester Cathedral!” Her two Y1 voted ‘true’ but

she herself, Y2, disagreed. The teacher asked her why - “He could not have done it all by himself!” The whole class learned something about language from that.

In a Y2 to 4 class lesson on Tutankhamun I visited elsewhere a few weeks later it was a Y2 who raised the rational question as to why, if the Pharaoh had to go on a journey, they put him in a succession of boxes! That lesson ended at morning break. Over coffee the teacher, whose Maths. lesson I was due to see next, had the courage to tell me she would let that history lesson continue as it had been going so well and I would have to re-arrange my timetable if I still wanted to see her teaching Mathematics!

That level of flexibility with key factors such as time, space and people is the secret of effectively working with mixed age and ability. It underpins effective working anywhere.

Mervyn Benford is the former head of a rural primary school in Oxfordshire. He moved from the headship to be adviser to small schools and now he is a writer and education consultant.

When the education given in a school is dominated by periodical examination on a prescribed syllabus, suppression of the child’s natural activities becomes the central feature of the teacher’s programme. In such a school the child is not allowed to do anything which the teacher can possibly do for him.

Edmund Holmes 1911

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Review by John Coe

Putting the Test in its Place by Jon Berry Pub: UCL Inst. of Education Press This is an unusual book in that it is directed towards teachers in their schools and not, as is so often currently the case, aimed at the reading lists of teacher training courses. Its authority, and indeed its power, is derived from the experience of teachers and parents as they strive to preserve humanity in education at a time when the political gradgrinds continue their insistence upon reducing the quality of learning to a set of unsoundly based numbers. Teachers, parents and children are involved in a system where everything is driven by test outcomes, regulation and measurement coupled with punitive control via the ranking of schools and inspection.

Finally Jon Berry opens up discussion of how we might work together to accelerate the moves away from the dominance of testing. He correctly identifies the highly promising emergence of parents’ organisations who demand more for children and whose political clout might well carry the day.

This is an admirable book which is published at a time when there are real signs that the tide is beginning to turn. It should find a place in the personal library of every teacher.

Jon Berry opens with a detailed survey of the crossparty tightening grip on the process of education since 1988. He sets out with precise clarity the way political calls for freedom were simply a cover for the centralisation of power away from local authorities, governors and parents. The sub heading of the chapter entitled ‘The autonomy paradox’ is devastatingly accurate; government policy is summed up as “We’ll set you free as ... long as you do what your told”.

This analysis alone is worth the price of the book and should be read by all practitioners who guard their professionalism.

What follows is an illuminating account of visits to seven schools involving discussions with six head teachers and 67 members of staff. These were brave people who, at some risk to their tenure, were successful in focusing on the children and resisting the current hegemony of relentless accountability through testing. It is acknowledged that the testing of children’s growing skill and knowledge has an acceptable place in our work but it remains essential that excessive testing is not allowed to distort and narrow the curriculum.

The publication of results as an index of quality is particularly damaging to children and their families.

Further chapters discuss the generally accepted professional view of the purpose of education, so much more than coaching for the next examination, and extends to home schooling and it’s message to those of us who work in schools.

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Creative approaches to teaching grammar in context: a route to more effective writing in primary classrooms

by David Reedy This article describes the rationale, process and outcomes of a project that took place in 2018 in the East London borough of Tower Hamlets.

Introduction I was commissioned by the Tower Hamlets Education Partnership (THEP) to lead a group of 20 teachers drawn from KS2 in 10 primary schools to explore creative approaches to teaching grammar in the context of writing across the curriculum. Tower Hamlets LA in east London has one of the most diverse populations in the country including the largest Bangladeshi community in England. In its primary schools 77% of pupils speak English as an additional language with 90 languages spoken.

Tower hamlets has the highest percentage eligible for free school meals (58%). Ofsted outcomes are very good – 100% of primary schools are rated as good or outstanding, for example.

The innovative Creative Approaches to Teaching Grammar project was informed by, and designed possibly to extend, current research, (see below) using classroom action research to develop a range of approaches to grammar teaching. The aim was to help children make more effective choices in their writing, informing and developing the quality of their writing. After sessions where I introduced some of the research and outlined successful approaches to teaching grammar in the context of meaning, the teachers carried out their own classroom projects.

They wrote case studies describing the work they did with their pupils and their reflections on the impact

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on their children’s writing and classroom practice.

I draw on one of the case studies below to illustrate the process and impact on children and teachers more generally. The case studies have been published in a book distributed to all schools in the borough (1).

Research evidence and rationale The explicit teaching and learning of grammar has been the subject of controversy for decades. The rationale for the teaching grammar in the 2014 English National Curriculum states; Explicit knowledge of grammar is… very important, as it gives us more conscious control and choice in our language. Building this knowledge is best achieved through a focus on grammar within the teaching of reading, writing and speaking. (DfE, 2013) The emphasis here is on grammar teaching in context having a positive effect on the ability of children to make effective choices in spoken and written language. However, the introduction of a statutory grammar test for Y6 pupils in 2010 and the content of all subsequent test papers have a different emphasis. The majority of questions emphasise grammatical terminology for labelling and identifying. The high stakes nature of this test has led to significant time being spent in KS2 classrooms on labelling, identifying grammatical

features in sentences in order for children to do well in the test. However, research evidence is clear: teaching to this test will not help children make more informed and effective choices when they speak and write.

Two significant large-scale studies (Hillocks, 1986; Andrews et al., 2006) found no evidence that formal teaching of grammar which labels and identifies items of language use, has any beneficial effect on language production. Indeed up to very recently there has been little published research carried out in primary classrooms about any positive impact of explicit grammar teaching on pupil outcomes, particularly in developing their response to and production of a range of texts.

Thankfully, there is now powerful research evidence that when relevant grammar is taught explicitly in context it can be very beneficial to young writers.

A large-scale study from Exeter University (Myhill et al., 2013) in secondary schools found significant positive effects for teaching grammar in the context of teaching about writing. This has recently been extended to primary pupils.

See http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/education/ research/centres/centreforresearchinwriting/ grammar-teacher-resources/ For research outline and helpful resources.

The Exeter research identifies four key pedagogical principles: LINKS: make a link between the grammar being introduced and how it works in the writing being taught; EXAMPLES: Explain the grammar through examples, not lengthy explanations; AUTHENTICITY: Use examples from authentic texts to link writers to the broader community of writers; DISCUSSION: Build in high-quality discussion about grammar and its effects.

A recent presentation (Myhill et al., 2017) included a helpful slide which shows how these principles play out in teaching and the role of metalinguistic terminology (i.e. grammatical terms) LINK

showing learners how grammatical choices create different effects in different texts

EXAMPLES

showing learners real examples of grammatical choices making particular effect

AUTHENTIC TEXTS

showing learners how grammatical choices are made in particular contexts

TALK

helping learners verbalise the relationship between grammatical choices and their effects in particular contexts

Metalinguistic Understanding: explicit knowledge about language

Myhill et al. (2017) These evidence informed principles about grammar teaching underpinned both the professional development sessions in Tower Hamlets and subsequent classroom activities.

The Tower Hamlets project In the spring and summer of 2018, twenty teachers from 10 primary schools came together for five sessions to consider the research evidence, explore creative practical approaches, share ideas as well as plan how they would approach this area in their teaching.

Between each session the teachers integrated the pedagogical approach into ongoing teaching and learning activities and then returned to share what they had done and what they had found out. The teachers were asked to plan two sequences of work which led to writing outcomes and to choose one of those to write up into a case study. A planning framework was provided.

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My role was to lead each of the five sessions, providing an outline of the relevant research and pedagogical approach, introducing the participants to a range of engaging activities focussed on making grammatical choices, as well as providing planning frameworks and an outline of the action research process. I also visited all the schools to discuss plans and provide further advice.

A note about ‘creative’ approaches Underpinning this pedagogical approach was a particular stance on what ‘creative’ would mean in relation to children’s writing. I emphasised that the creative element would become explicit when the teachers involved began to think and plan for how they were going to publish the children’s work. This meant that, right from the beginning, attention to purpose and audience became central to both teachers’ and children’s thinking – what kind of writing is this, what is it trying to do, who is it for and how will it be published in an engaging form (e.g. online to a general audience, class book for other children in the school, display seen by the whole school community, individual booklets to be shared with a parallel class and then displayed in the library)? The planning framework I provided supported this thinking.

The case study: Persuasive writing in Y5 The following case study is representative of the experiences of the teachers and children involved in the project. Anne Edwards is a year 5 teacher in Harry Gosling primary school (2). Anne’s class were going to produce persuasive leaflets drawing on the story The Boy in the Tower by Polly Ho-Yen. The leaflets were intended to encourage Londoners to evacuate their homes following an attack by the bluchers ( in the book these poisonous plants release spores and destroy tower blocks in London).

PrimaryFirst

This was the end point of a unit that was planned and taught in fifteen sessions over four weeks. The grammar focus was to look at how the choice of noun phrases and specific verbs could enhance the persuasiveness of the leaflets.

Anne explained: The children in our school typically find grammar and writing challenging, so we were keen to become involved with exploring creative and varied approaches to teaching grammar within the curriculum.

Anne began the project by exploring a range of authentic texts and models. An initial challenge was to find child-appropriate written texts demonstrating persuasive techniques and she used visual and audio models (for example television adverts for Marks and Spencer and Santander) to exemplify noun phrases as a persuasive device. The children went on to create noun phrases for different products and played with the position of the adjectives in the sentence, discussing the impact this had. This was then applied to descriptions of bluchers in their persuasive leaflets, for example, ‘The bluchers – deadly and destructive – coil around buildings’.

The class then moved on to consider the impact of specific verbs. Anne used videos of government officials convincing people to evacuate their homes because of impending storms (eg. https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=KfF1kTAr_F4&t=123s). The children analysed these videos and extracted the language they found most persuasive. Anne then helped the pupils to unpick how the succinct and precise verbs used helped emphasise the urgency of the situation. The pupils used this knowledge to write their own evacuation procedures: It is an urgent need that we must evacuate London and its nearby neighbourhood before we get buried underneath the foundations of this beautiful city.

The frightening bluchers, which are a new mysterious species of plants, are the eye-catching uncomfortable colour of metallic blue. The beautiful colour on their spiralling, coiling body shifts itself. These looming, beastly creatures, which have the dreams of shattering everything, are releasing spores every minute that they breath, that have been identified in the bodies of people who have died near the flattened buildings – venomous and poisoning. Engulfing everything in their paths, they are slowly achieving their goal. Who knows what might come next of these bluchers?

and complex sentences: As the menacing plants flourish etc. Here, the verb choices – flourish, coil, stalking, crush - precisely describe the destructive effects of the bluchers.

At the end of the unit, the leaflets were sent to the author, Polly Ho-Yen. Impact on children’s writing Anne was very pleased with the overall standard of writing produced. She explains:

In Figure 3 Tayyiba balances succinct sentences like: We still have time to get out. with more evocative

It seems that the children have taken on board the techniques of noun phrases and specific verbs more easily because they have seen them used in an authentic way originally rather than just in a teachergenerated model text. The emphasis has been much more on the impact of these techniques rather than just including them as they are ‘a year 5 expectation’.

All the children were able to think about their adjective and verb choices in relation to the impact on the reader and the examples above show how some children were able to manipulate this language successfully to have a persuasive impact.

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 2 shows how Zakiyyah has very successfully used verbs for effect. Her use of verbs such as flattened, engulfed, spiralling, coiling create a menacing picture of the bluchers. Her succinct and specific use of the verbs pack, charge, pour, call in her emergency procedures is effective in extracting the key things that must be done in an emergency evacuation.

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Anne also outlined how approaching explicit attention to grammar in this way has had an impact on the way she plans and teaches. Anne noted that: I think it is helpful to remember that we should first analyse authentic texts and consider what is making that text have an effect on the reader rather than starting with generated model texts which might ‘shoe-horn’ in grammatical techniques, such as relative clauses, because that is the year 5 writing expectation. My colleague, who also participated in the project, and I hope that the work will lead to the use of a good range of child-appropriate texts for different text types as well as striking a balance between looking at the authentic features of different texts, and the need to cover the grammar content laid out in the curriculum.

Impact on classroom and school practice As part of the action research process all the teachers noted the impact of the project on their classroom and school practice. Reading through their rich case studies, it became clear that four key ideas or themes emerged from the experience of teachers and children following this approach: • The importance of ‘authentic’ texts to provide rich contexts for exploring grammatical features and their effects as well as models for writing.

• The centrality of modelling and scaffolding by teachers to effectively support children’s learning.

• The development of children’s understanding of the importance of making effective and appropriate choices when writing to communicate their intended meanings.

• The essential need to plan for plenty of time for children to explore and experiment with the grammatical features before composing.

Impact on writing – and on teaching writing Every case study showed clear evidence of improvement in the children’s writing. There were gains in technical competence, fluency, organisation of material, motivation and awareness of how to engage a reader.

Every teacher focused on particular children whose writing had been a matter of concern or those the teachers felt could do even better. All children, whether described as lower attaining or higher attaining in writing, achieved more than might have been expected. The teachers also noted the impact of the project on their classroom and school practice.

Impact on reading While the use of authentic reading material was stressed in the project, the aim was mainly to improve writing through explicit and creative grammar teaching. However, pleasingly, as well as the gains in pupils’ writing, several of the teachers found that the work also had an impact on the children’s reading. Two of the project teachers expressed it like this: Interestingly, identifying the different types of noun phrases then impacted on the children’s reading comprehension as they began to recognise that nouns were described in many different ways. Rebekah Y3 As well as impacting the writing outcomes, I noticed many of the children in the class had improved reading attainment. I believe this is due to increased engagement in reading as we discussed more types of texts in detail and our thoughts as a reader. Rachel Y4 Conclusion This project showed that teaching grammar in the context of meaningful reading and writing can have a significant positive impact on both the quality of pupils’ writing and their engagement in the activity. It was clear from working with the teachers that much time was commonly spent on free standing, decontextualised grammar exercises with only peripheral links to the writing curriculum but which were intended to prepare pupils for the eventual grammar test. Many teachers commented that they would now be using this time to explore appropriate grammar for writing more effectively. This action research project demonstrated that, with appropriate support, teachers can develop their

grammar teaching to raise children’s standards of writing – and their enjoyment of using language to say what they want to say. This kind of professional support would be a very effective means of enhancing grammar teaching.

It would equally be highly effective if the Y6 grammar test were made non statutory, as in Y2, so that grammar teaching becomes more meaningful and so much more likely to raise writing standards.

Notes 1. Reedy, D. et al., (2018) Creative approaches to teaching grammar in Tower Hamlets primary schools. Tower Hamlets: Tower Hamlets Education Partnership (THEP) Available from UKLA.org/shop 2. I am very grateful to Anne Edwards for allowing me to use her work here.

References Andrews, R.C., Torgerson, S., Beverton, A., Freeman, T. Lock, G., Low, G., Robinson, A. & Zhu, D. (2006) The effect of grammar teaching on writing development, British Education Research Journal 32(1) pp. 39-55.

Department for Education (2013) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationalcurriculum-in-england-primary-curriculum (Accessed 16th July, 2018) Hillocks, G. (1986) Research on Written Composition: New directions for teaching. Urbana IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

Ho-yen, Polly. (2015 ) The Boy in the Tower Corgi Children’s Books ISBN 978-0552569163 Myhill, D., Jones, S., Watson, A. and Lines, H. (2013) Playful explicitness with grammar: a pedagogy for writing, Literacy 47 (2) pp.103-11.

Myhill, D., Jones, J., and Helen Lines, H. (2017) Writing Conversations: Development in Grammatical Understanding about Writing. Presentation at the conference Development in Grammatical Understanding about Writing, The Royal Society, December 2017 (downloaded from http://socialsciences.exeter. ac.uk/education/research/centres/centreforresearchinwriting/ grammar-teacher-resources/ (Accessed, 17th July, 2018)

David Reedy is General Secretary and Past President of the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA) He was formerly Principal Adviser for primary schools in Barking and Dagenham.

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