School or setting
- Authored by:
- Christine Wilson
- School:
- Thirty three Primary Schools across Kent
- Type of school:
- Primary
- Local Authority:
- Kent
- Region:
- South East
Learners
- Year groups:
- Year 3, Year 4
- Gender:
- Both
- Whole school:
- Yes
- People involved:
- LA adviser, Middle leader, Parent, Senior leader, Senior leadership team (SLT), Subject leader, Teacher
- Number of classes:
- One Year 3 and One Year 4 class from each school
- Number of adult learners:
- 77
What were your reasons for doing this type of development work?
The ‘Every Child a Writer’ National Project was developed in response to historical data that shows a continuing national dip in writing standards in lower Key Stage 2. The programme of support promotes a collaborative learning style approach between teachers and Specialist Teachers and aims to:-
- Accelerate pupils’ writing attainment by focusing particularly on the development of writing strands 9, 10 and 11, the areas that children find the most challenging.
- Improve standards of teaching and learning.
Kent LA had similar learning issues and was keen to obtain faster progress in Y3 and Y4 to ensure that children secure key learning earlier and avoid the desperate feeling of ‘catch up’ in Year 6.
Who might find this case study useful?
- Headteacher
- National Strategies consultant
- Senior leadership team (SLT)
- SIP (School Improvement Partner)
- Subject leader
- Teacher
Key points
Point 1
To accelerate progress in writing in Year 3 and Year 4
Point 2
A collaborative learning approach between Specialist Teachers and colleagues to improve Teaching and Learning
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What
The intention was to establish a new cadre of 11 leading teachers with excellent practice in improving writing and to identify 33 schools to take part. Approaches included Assessment for Learning (AfL), collaborative group work, classroom enquiry and coaching.
Impact
It was found that 55.3% of all pupils made at least two sub-levels progress in writing. The project schools are now making plans to embed learning and to extend the practice across schools.
Summary
There were several crucial things that made a difference. They were having specialist teachers, the commitment of headteachers and the attitude of Year 3 and Year 4 teachers to trial new approaches and materials to develop practice.
