The document provides an overview of literacy practices used in primary and secondary schools in the UK. It discusses how phonics and other approaches are used to teach early reading. In secondary schools, it examines case studies of two London schools that take different approaches to developing students' literacy skills, including for those learning English as an additional language. The schools emphasize developing strong oracy, increasing vocabulary, modeling writing, and integrating literacy across subjects. The document concludes with Ofsted's 10 principles of effective literacy practices commonly found in successful schools.

1. Photo by John-Morgan - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/24742305@N00 Created with Haiku Deck

2. The aim of my talk is to give a
brief overview of how literacy is
taught and applied in schools As CTK’s intake is
drawn from around
200 schools, this is
an important
context for our own
strategies and
policies on literacy
at CTK

3. Synthetic phonics
(UK) or blended
phonics (US), also
known as
inductive phonics
This a method of teaching reading which first teaches
the letter sounds and then builds up to blending these
sounds together to achieve full pronunciation of whole
words.
It is a de-contextualised, bottom up approach

4. Briefly, on primary schools
English is mostly called
“Literacy” and Maths,
“Numeracy” in Primary schools.
• Phonics/synthetic phonics for
early years
(phonemes/graphemes –
decoding-testing)
• The Big Talk/Writing (VCOP:
vocabulary, connectives,
openers and punctuation)
• Genre Pedagogy/Functional
Grammar

5. St Mary’s Primary School, Swanley, Kent

6. Year 5 Timetable from St Mary’s Primary School, Swanley, Kent

7. Improving literacy in secondary
schools: a shared responsibility
Age range : 11-18
Published: April 2013

8. “‘Literacy’, is more than the mechanics of reading,
writing, speaking and listening. “
“The National Curriculum demands that
connections be made between each strand and
across subjects, which calls for thought and
understanding, for recall, selection and analysis of
ideas and information, and for coherent, considered
and convincing communication in speech and in
writing.” (Ofsted)

9. “All pupils should be encouraged to:
• ‘make extended, independent contributions that
develop ideas in depth’
• ‘make purposeful presentations that allow them to
speak with authority on significant subjects
• engage with texts that challenge preconceptions and
develop understanding beyond the personal and
immediate
• experiment with language and explore different ways
of discovering and shaping their own meanings
• use writing as a means of reflecting on and exploring a
range of views and perspectives on the world.” (Ofsted)

10. For Ofsted “best practice” is where teachers
have devised an approach to literacy which best
suits pupils and the communities which they
serve.

11. Today, I will briefly focus on two case studies
from the seven cited in Ofsted survey on
secondary schools as they seemed most relevant
for us at CTK.
1. The City Academy, Hackney 11-18
2. Woolwich Polytechnic School for Boys 11-18

12. The City Academy, Hackney 11-18
The key, according to the principal, is that
systems, including those for literacy, must be
simple, straightforward and consistently applied.

13. Assistant Principal, Shaun McGuigan:
“My policy, which initially consisted of five core
priorities and was later reduced to three, is
neither wordy nor abstract. Instead, it consists
of three simple expectations in terms of
teaching and learning, which we called our
literacy strands:
• Always insist on full sentences.
• Talk, model, write.
• Are you checking your work?”

14. • Students are expected to respond in full
sentences and in Standard English; teachers also
model this, to challenge poor oracy, and to
provide students with the language necessary for
a high-level response.
• Before setting their students to write, teachers
model the process of writing: the thinking, the
planning, the drafting and the editing.
• All students carry a green pen for proofreading
their own and their peers’ work. They also use
them for applying levels descriptors in their
comments. There is an equally explicit and
shared expectation that pupils’ writing is
carefully structured, using paragraphs, capital
letters and full stops.

15. Literacy is at the centre of this school’s curriculum
Shaun McGuigan: “I always focus on these basics:
• how to model writing
• how to promote excellent oracy
• how to ensure students take responsibility for
their own literacy
• and how to make literacy an interactive part of
all lessons”.

16. Other significant literacy focuses at City
Academy:
• Teachers are expected to include a literacy
objective in lesson plans.
• There is a strong focus on reading within the
school. The academy expanded their library
with an extra floor to contain their extra
books.

17. The City Academy, Hackney 11-18
• Their straightforward approach ensures that
all staff and students are clear about their
responsibilities
• There is consistent application of the policy
across the school. This is then monitored
through lesson observation and book checks

18. Reading is a key element in the academy’s
approach to literacy. There is an expectation
that pupils will read individually each day for 20
minutes. This is monitored by the librarians
through discussion and the students’ book logs.
Reading is not confined to English lessons.
Reading sessions occur across subjects.

19. Continuing Professional Development - CPD
Hackney City’s English department leads and has
“ownership” of literacy across the school. They provide
three insets a year. They also get one other department
to lead inset during the year:
• The policy is not an end in itself. Its successful
implementation is coupled with a programme of CPD
that is both comprehensive and constant.
• They work hard to get staff to “buy into and apply”
their literacy strategies.
These bullet points identify two common features
across Ofsted’s case study schools.

20. Case Study 2
Woolwich Polytechnic School for Boys 11-18 :
Developing literacy skills for those with English
as an additional language
Pupils in this ethnically and culturally diverse
school arrive with lower-than-average prior
attainment. Many have limited English skills. The
proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups
is more than four times higher than the national
average.

21. Assessment, confidence-building and immersion
The school sees confidence-building and
immersion in the school culture as twin priorities
for those arriving in Year 7 with a very limited
knowledge of English.
Jason and Simi from
Woolwich Polytechnic
High School for Boys film
their live reports for
News hour ...

22. Teachers are aware of the language demands faced by
pupils, which are added to the complexity of the
subject content
• Teachers in all departments are acutely aware of the
demands made on pupils having to learn the language in
which they are now being taught as well as having to grasp
the essentials of what they are being taught in each
subject.
• It is understood that pupils may be reluctant to speak, read
or write in some subjects but not in others, depending on
how familiar they are with the lesson content or how
comfortable they feel in the class or group.
Still, complex texts are perfect for extending students knowledge of academic
language and disciplinary, subject knowledge.

23. Applying literacy through speaking and listening:
• teachers plan ‘talk’ into all lessons, ensuring that it
engages all pupils, is purposeful and structured and
that individual contributions are monitored and
developed
• encourage pupils to draw on their own experiences
and to use their own language if they are struggling to
convey an idea or feeling in English
• give pupils time to rehearse their contributions, so
that they are less anxious
• systematically introduce key vocabulary and phrases
• model good speaking and listening, demonstrating
high expectations.

24. When asking pupils to write, teachers:
• provide a structure pupils can use when planning
their own writing
• introduce the task with discussion of key words
and phrases, ensuring that pupils build up a
reservoir of relevant vocabulary
• model the activity, inviting pupils to discuss how
the teacher’s model meets the task’s objectives
or how it might be improved
• reassure pupils in the very early stages of
English acquisition that they may write in their
own language and then, with help, discuss in
English what they were trying to communicate.

25. Other literacy strategies
Many of the pupils at the school are bilingual, fluent orally
but often less secure in their writing. Their progress is
monitored through Raising Attainment Plan (RAP) meetings.
For these pupils, the emphasis is on targeted intervention to
support and develop literacy skills identified as relatively weak
across the curriculum or in one or two subjects.
Intervention groups focus on a specific area, for example,
consolidating and extending writing.
Activities often include:
• work on sentence structure and punctuation
• for many C/D borderline GCSE pupils, learning how to
match the verb form both with the subject and with the
prevailing tense being used in a passage.

26. Links with pupils’ homes and community
All at the school recognise that language development at
home is as important as at school. Regular meetings are held
with the major ethnic groups of parents – Nigerian, Somali
and Nepalese –and specific needs and methods of support are
discussed.
This helps to break down language barriers and to provide
continuation of learning outside school, even where English
is not spoken in the pupil’s home. There are members of staff
from all the school’s key ethnic groups who can speak native
languages and understand the cultural backgrounds of pupils’
families.

27. Ofsted’s 10 Principles of Good Practice,
based on the seven case study schools.
1. Setting literacy issues firmly within the
teaching and learning debate
“Literacy initiatives are less likely to be
successful where literacy is seen as something
separate from normal mainstream teaching and
learning”.

28. 2. There are no quick fixes
“How long does it take to effect any significant
change in literacy practice? In the successful
schools visited, literacy had become a permanent
feature of their development planning.
There was no attempt to address literacy through a
one-off training day for staff and the display of key
words around classrooms.”

29. 3. The active support of head teacher and senior
leaders for cross curricular literacy learning.
“While this may be an obvious point, it remains an
important one. This report illustrates the
importance of active leadership by head teachers
and other senior leaders in making the case for
literacy. In the survey schools, head teachers cared
about literacy and ensured that it remained a
constant topic of discussion. “

30. 4. Use of specialist knowledge to support
individual teachers and departments
“It is clear that literacy should be a whole-school
initiative that goes beyond the scope of the
English Department and Languages Depts. These
subject teachers can support teachers who lack
confidence with their own use of English by
giving help with grammar.”

31. 5. Making the case for literacy in all subjects:
showing ‘what’s in it for us?’
• The link between literacy and more effective
learning in every subject area needs to be
established clearly and explicitly
• The starting point for all teachers should be:
‘What literacy skills do students in my subject
need and what approaches to language learning
will help me to be an effective teacher of my
subject?’

32. 6. In successful schools, good use is made of
specialists from English and other subjects to
support the development of effective strategies.
• It is important to ensure that these specialists are
committed to cross-curricular literacy.
• Equally important is to provide time and
resources for close collaboration with other
teachers in the development of practical
strategies and schemes of work.

33. 7. Learning from each other and sharing good
practice across the curriculum
“What was consistent was the intention to
identify good practice across all areas and
disseminate it.
All teachers are likely to be enthused by hearing
about something that works in another subject
area – especially if it’s not English. The use of
literacy advocates or specialists in different
departments can work well in some schools.”

34. 8. Embedding good practice in schemes of work
and development planning
“Teachers need collectively to know about the good
practice going on in their own school and to
recognise how this might be translated into equally
effective literacy-boosting activities in their own
subject area. Such cross-fertilisation can and should
provide the basis for whole-school development
planning for literacy to be implemented consistently
across all subjects, with each subject maintaining its
individual character.”

35. 9. There is full use of the library and librarian
The librarian had an important role in
developing reading.
Many of the imaginative programmes to
encourage reading are inspired by librarians.

36. 10. There’s no one way to get it right
“All of the case studies showed how different
schools established successful cross-curricular
literacy initiatives, sharing some common
principles but each approached the challenge in
a way that grew out of its particular context.”

37. Other Literacy Practices used for 11-18s
Direct Instruction (systematic or explicit instruction)
It is skills-oriented, and the teaching practices it
implies are teacher-directed. It emphasises the use
of small-group, face-to-face instruction by teachers
and aides using carefully articulated lessons in which
cognitive skills are broken down into small units,
sequenced deliberately, and taught explicitly.
Barak Rosenshine and Robert Stevens (1986)

38. Direct Instruction
These teaching
functions included
teaching in small steps
with student practice
after each step, guiding
students during initial
practice, and ensuring
that all students
experienced a high
level of successful
practice.

39. Excellent Futures Curriculum
• As part of the EFC (Excellent Futures
Curriculum) pupils in Years7 and 8 learn a
range of core skills, such as being creative,
managing time, showing initiative,
understanding and using the skills for writing
and problem-solving, as they work through 12
themes.
• In EFC, students are taught through project
based learning (PBL).

40. Here is a link to a blog where I place links,
resources and presentations for teaching academic
language. http://academicliteracy.wordpress.com/

41. I have sent you an email of this presentation
together with four strategies for using the Tier 2
and 3 words that we are focusing on each term.
For listening and for giving your time and
attention today.