North Heath C P School

In 2002, 42 per cent of year 2 children at North Heath C P School achieved level 3. This was up from 37 per cent in 2001 and 28 per cent in 2000. The rise was due to a focus on the whole school ethos and promotion of children’s personal and social development, as well as the introduction of specific strategies to be used by class teachers.

School background

North Heath is a large town school with 373 pupils organised into 15 classes; there are three reception classes and two classes in each subsequent year group.

There is a high attendance rate of 97 per cent, although the school works hard to achieve this figure. There are fewer than average numbers on the special educational needs register (16 per cent), largely because the school runs intervention programmes, despite timetabling difficulties.

Children on School Action and School Action Plus are supported in small groups.

There is a high turn-over of staff because the school is based in an area of high-cost housing; recruitment is not easy. However, the school has an established headteacher and senior teacher (but no deputy headteacher).

The school places a lot of emphasis on establishing good behaviour and positive attitudes towards learning at the beginning of each academic year. The headteacher is a frequent visitor to classes, and children's personal and social development is recorded electronically by means of a prioritisation ‘traffic-light’ system which is accessible to class teachers. Any child recorded as red in this system is set targets, usually on an individual educational plan (IEP). Descriptions of behaviour, attitudes and personal and social development always appear first on termly reports to parents.

The calm, purposeful ethos of the school is conducive to making improvements, especially in something as hard to improve as writing.

How many children are more able?

The number of able children is not above average, but the school does have high expectations for them. These expectations are clearly communicated to parents, who are very supportive, probably because of the time spent contacting them.

What prompted the introduction of this way of working?

The school made improvements because of concerns about the gap between reading and maths on the one hand, and writing on the other. Links with a local Beacon school had already led to ways of improving children’s writing. The links included: headteacher-to-headteacher discussions; English coordinator exchanges; visits by class teachers to view each other’s practices in the classroom. The school adopted some strategies, adapted some, but not all of them, and developed some of its own.

How is this related to the School Improvement Plan?

Improving children’s writing is one of four main priorities. Additionally, every teacher in the school is given a performance management target, directly related to improving writing.

How are the more able (potential level 3 writers) identified? What is looked for?

On entry to year 2 children are levelled in the following way: 2b/2a are expected to reach level 3 and 2c are analysed to identify any potential level 3 children using the criteria listed below. The school aims to work towards the best scenario forecast and it encourages close links with year 1 teachers. Teachers forecast children’s beginning-of-year and end-of-year levels as a key stage one team. They aim for level 2c at the end of year one. Intervention groups such as Education Learning Services (ELS) are used to boost slow starters.

Teachers look for:

• fluent and interesting speakers who have a good range of vocabulary and sense of audience
• good readers who are reading a range of texts
• good attitudes to learning and the desire to succeed
• children with good personal development who are willing to persevere, even when faced with difficulties, and who are not frightened to make mistakes
• children who have reasonable handwriting skills and do not have to concentrate on the physical aspects of writing
• those who are reasonable spellers, using phonics wisely but also have an idea of what looks right.

What assessment criteria are used, and where from?

The school uses the following assessment criteria:

• national curriculum level descriptions
• literacy strategy expectations
• the school’s writing continuum; this was developed from the West Sussex continuum and other documents to make it as specific as possible for each level.

How is differentiated work planned?

Teachers meet every Thursday to plan according to year groups, and they also meet according to key stage groups or two year ‘bands’ to ensure progression and standards. Each lesson is differentiated at three levels and teacher focus groups are highlighted. Part-time teachers provide extension lessons, and classroom assistants support and extend groups.

Writing targets

Each term, group targets are set and all children have their target included in the front of their English book for reference. Parents are made aware of these targets on the child’s interim and end-of-year reports. The targets are taken from the next level on the school continuum, and are reviewed with the children.

Extended writing

Children are given time to plan their narrative or non-narrative writing. Opportunities are given for drafting and improving writing. The children then make a final neat copy focusing on presentation.

Cross-curricular writing

A variety of texts related to subjects such as RE or history is used to teach reading and writing. We deliver a broad curriculum to give varied writing opportunities, utilising skills learned in English lessons.

Varying the audience

The school encourages the children to aim their written work at a varied audience in the following ways:

• by reading their own writing in assemblies
• by reading their work to younger and older children
• by writing letters to people outside the school
• by making class books which can be shared at home.

These activities heighten children’s expectations. Paired reading in plenary encourages them to assess legibility, sense and style. They are asked to identify the successful elements in their own, and other children’s, work, as well as thinking how their writing could be improved.

Within English lessons

Word level

Focus is given to four or five key words each day in the style of the mental part of the maths lesson. These follow the literacy strategy lists and include commonly misspelled words. The school covers level 3 spelling expectations, such as spelling patterns, use of rhyme, learning rules for changing tense, silent letters and introducing diagraphs such as ‘ph’. Teachers set weekly differentiated spelling homework, focusing on a range of spelling patterns to encourage vocabulary use in writing at school.

Children are taught to join their writing from the beginning of year 2 and joins are taught in groups of letters that follow a pattern. Teachers also use prompt posters and vocabulary cards, which are kept on display.

Sentence level

The school focuses on level 2a/3 requirements such as:

• taught mechanics of connectives/conjunctions for sentence extension
• rearranging sentences - mechanical approach raises boy’s achievements
• lists of adjectives, powerful verbs, adverbs
• punctuation – speech marks, omissive apostrophes
• modelled writing
• interruptive prompts to read good work.

Text level

Story structure is taught through the use of writing frames and modelled writing. When planning, children use notes and storyboards. They are asked to write in the style of other author's texts as a scaffold for lively writing and the inclusion of detail; and they use drama and interesting props to stimulate imagination, character’s feelings and personal experiences.

Children use cross-curricular links and real-life experiences as a base for non-narrative writing such as letter writing, instructions, reports and recounts of experiences. Teachers use frames and skeletons to teach layout and structure; Sue Palmer’s textbooks have been very useful for this purpose. Teachers are encouraged to have an awareness of gender; for example boys tend to be motivated by the introduction of topics such as tractors and wizards.

What are the outcomes of this way of working?

This way of working builds on work done in Reception to improve children’s oral fluency and their ability to work as a team, not as a collection of individuals. It also builds on work done in year 1 to develop their phonics and word-recognition skills, as well as handwriting.

Extended writing in year 2 allows children to focus on content rather than handwriting. Drama and role play engage the interest of children and encourage them to be active learners. This also helps them with content for their writing and prompts them to write a little about ‘feelings’.

Teachers have detailed knowledge about what to teach the children, and use specific strategies. They have high expectations of the children, and the children are aware of what is expected of them.

What are the advantages of working this way?

Success raises children’s self-esteem and increases parents’ interest and expectations. This way of working has reinforced teamwork and improved commitment from teachers and classroom assistants. It has led to close tracking of individual children’s progress, which aids planning and report writing.

What problems were identified?

More effort and time are needed to work this way, but improvements in children’s progress raises teachers’ job satisfaction. Part-time teachers and non-teaching assistants spend a high proportion of their time raising standards in writing and this may be detrimental to other subjects.

Where to next?

The two year 2 teachers will be working with teachers from another school to help them raise their standards. This reinforces the school’s work and makes the teachers think more deeply. The school is going to introduce more drama activities into English lessons. Teachers are moving away from the literacy hour; it has served a real purpose but now is the time to teach more creatively. The school is taking a more cross-curricular approach to enable English skills to be practised within other subjects, and planning will change to suit the new cross-curricular approach.