Three school improvement priorities (no.1)
Well hello there, and welcome to update #138!
When I’m talking with colleagues about what their priorities are, they generally fall into three broad strands.
Now I’m a statistic of one, so it might not be an accurate picture, however the first that colleagues say they are keen to improve is this:
Developing literacy, including across the curriculum
When we dig into why this is a priority, there tend to be two main reasons:
Wanting all pupils to be able to read, understand and talk about stories, novels, poems and non-fiction texts and to create their own
Knowing it’s important for pupils to access subjects across the curriculum, and realising that to do this, pupils need to be supported to understand the technical, tier 3 vocabulary, and texts of greater lexical depth and complexity
It’s a tall order!
Fortunately, there are some strategies that are having impact.
The one I believe is most promising is the ‘Just reading’ research from the University of Sussex. The results are impressive: 8.5 months progress in reading comprehension, with a surprising 16 months progress for pupils identified as ‘poorer’ readers.
Schools trialling this have found similar impressive results.
If improving literacy is a priority in your context, it’s worth checking out how Rob Grover and Ritchie Slack trialled it at Nene Park Academy, it’s free to access on Myatt & Co
There are similar impressive results for primary where Gayle Fletcher and Lauren Haines share how 93% of pupils in Yr 2, and 83% in Yr 4 made at least 6 months progress. The Just Reading Primary Project is free to access.
I talk about the reading deficit and what we can do about it in this webinar, access with an annual or group subscription.
In the next post I’ll discuss the second school improvement priority: inclusion.
Until next time
Mary