Disciplinary Literacy has been identified by the EEF as the number one strategy for improving the literacy of students within secondary schools. It is a term which encompasses the unique ways students must be able to read, write and speak in each individual subject area. This article sets out ways in which you can employ […]
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Christopher Edge talks about the benefits of working in a team that brings together a range of diverse voices and perspectives to help inspire the next generation to build a better world.
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The vocabulary gap is perhaps more difficult to spot at Key Stage 3 than it is in the earlier years. By this stage, students will have 7 years of schooling under their belt, yet, when questioned directly, will struggle to define words they should be very familiar with by now. Exacerbated by Covid interruptions, teachers are faced […]
Read more Literacy is essential at all ages and stages of development. Working in a forward-thinking school, we are aiming to put literacy at the heart of the curriculum as it is the scaffold underpinning learning and understanding in all subjects. However, after a grilling from year 10, I found that teaching etymology wasn’t necessarily having the […]
Read more Keep the bigger picture in view The image of the Reading Rope is a powerful one. As a primary school teacher for 20 years, I worked to twist together the fibres to build and strengthen the rope with the aim of sending pupils to secondary school fully able to access the curriculum. Now, working at […]
Read more Most teachers will tell you that the longer you remain in education the more you feel: training, professional development dialogue and staff CPD goes in cycles. New variations of past ideas emerge and make you question two things: one how old you feel and two, why you didn’t pursue these ideas when they first emerged? […]
Read more I am a teacher working in a school which is in a deprived area of Portsmouth, England. As Lead of Phonics and Reading, I am really keen to promote language skills within the school, as the children who start nursery and school in this area come with very limited language. As is the case for […]
Read more I was appointed as Language for Learning Lead at Icknield Community College in September 2016 with a broad rather vague brief. ICC is an Oxfordshire academy of 700 11-16yr olds on roll with lower than national average FSM, EAL and SEN cohorts. Building on my predecessor’s legacy, I continued to deliver a ‘word-of-the-week’ to tutors […]
Read more As a graduate in both English Language and Literature, I always had a vague notion that vocabulary development was best undertaken through reading a variety of texts and encountering new words in context. I assumed that vocabulary could be built merely by using context clues and by encouraging pupils to read for pleasure. We would […]
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As if Covid didn’t present enough problems – we have noticed a frightening increase in the number of students who have completely disengaged with reading. I blame the pandemic for this because the National Literacy Trust’s annual survey found: ‘some children and young people reported that a lack of access to books (with schools and […]
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