Our Solutions: ‘Ofsted’s English Subject Report’
‘Telling the story: the English Education Subject Report’ was published by Ofsted on the 5th of March 2024. In this blog, we will outline the key research and analysis. We have also thought carefully about how Literacy Counts supports excellent literacy education in schools, MATs and clusters, in both the consultancy and training that we provide and the quality resources we produce.
Reading
It was wonderful to see that ‘the teaching of reading has improved markedly’, with schools prioritising reading and investing in phonics programmes. However, the report highlights there is still some way to go:
There is less clarity about ways to build fluency and comprehension
There is a lack of understanding of how to develop fluency to ensure all children are successful
Pupils’ attitudes to reading vary
Text choices are not always based on literary merit
Gaps, particularly in key stage 2 and 3, are not always addressed effectively
There is a lack of practitioner knowledge of phonics beyond KS1
Literacy Counts Support
Product Focus – Ready Steady Comprehension
Ready Steady Comprehension is a progressive planning resource that helps schools to deliver whole class Shared Reading through fiction, non-fiction and poetry. These units have been developed to make the greatest difference to children’s reading attainment and promote a life-long love of reading through language-rich, challenging texts. With a focus on developing fluency and comprehension, this resource supports the Ofsted recommendation to:
’plan a reading curriculum that over time builds pupils’ reading fluency, linguistic knowledge and knowledge of the world, and that does not limit children to responding to exam style questions.’
Literacy Counts Support
Product Focus – Ready Steady Intervention (Primary and Secondary)
Ready Steady Intervention is a 1:1 Teaching Assistant intervention for children that make progress less quickly in reading from Year 1 - Year 10. The intervention encourages the love of reading, helps develop children into effective readers, and ensures that all children are able to read easily, fluently and with good understanding. This programme supports the Ofsted recommendation to:
‘make sure that staff who support the weakest readers know how to identify whether they need help with decoding or reading fluency and act on it.’
Project Spotlight
Did you know that we can deliver projects to local authority clusters, MATs and schools? As an example, we have previously worked with Cheshire West and Chester in the teaching of reading at KS2 and 3, with the following aims:
1. Understanding of common practices in the teaching of reading
2. Improve reading cultures in KS2 & KS3
3. Increase outcomes in reading
4. Increase children’s positive attitudes to reading
Get in touch here to develop a reading project with Literacy Counts today.
Writing
The explicit teaching of grammar, sentence structure and punctuation is taking place, as is spelling and letter formation (mainly through phonics) in most schools. Opportunities for writing are planned for in English and in other subjects. Some schools use high-quality models and example sentences to help pupils to practise. The need for further developments were identified:
Pupils are not given sufficient teaching and practice to become fluent with transcription early enough
Oral composition is rarely used to practise using grammatical conventions and different sentence structures
Key vocabulary is not necessarily embedded through repeated practice in different contexts
Inaccuracies, including the basics, are not addressed in some schools
Difficulties are sometimes mistaken for a lack of resilience or stamina, rather than curriculum weakness, leading to a lack of explicit teaching or practice of knowledge and skills that are not yet secure
Writing tasks are sometimes too complex for children to do, before they are secure in the components of the writing task
There are too few opportunities to draft and edit or to write in a range of forms and styles
Literacy Counts Support
Product Focus – Ready Steady Write
Ready Steady Write is a distinct and innovative resource that helps schools develop a sequenced, ambitious curriculum, placing quality literature at its core. Ready Steady Write is evidence-based teaching of writing which empowers teachers to provide high-quality teaching through children’s high-quality literature. With a focus on sentence accuracy, oral composition, story songs, vocabulary and the different components of writing, this resource supports the Ofsted recommendation to:
‘help schools to understand the different components of written language and how to sequence, explicitly teach and assess them.’
Literacy Counts Support
Product Focus – Ready Steady Spell
Ready Steady Spell is a progressive systematic spelling programme that develops metacognition. It covers all National Curriculum expectations for all year groups. It provides full coverage, in a cyclical way, through engaging rule rhymes and a range of practical strategies, reinforcing and embedding learning systematically and interactively.
Ofsted Recommendation: ‘Take full account of the foundational knowledge and skills outlined in the national curriculum and ensure pupils practise transcription skills.’
Literacy Counts Support
Project Spotlight
Did you know that our project work is bespoke and shaped to the changing needs of our schools and clusters? We are currently delivering a two-year writing project with a cluster of schools in Birmingham with the following aims:
- A fully sequenced, ambitious curriculum implementation
- Comprehensive professional development for leaders and practitioners
- Access to a wealth of writing resources YR - Y6
- Lead and develop pedagogy & practice
- Empower practitioners to provide high-quality teaching of writing through high quality literature
- Support all learners’ fluency and stamina for writing
Here is a testimonial from one of the participating schools:
‘Engaging in the project with other schools has been a huge benefit as I have been able to work collaboratively with other subject leads. Our consultant is fully committed to ensure we work well as an individual school and MAT. I would highly recommend any school participating in this 2-year writing project as it has been invaluable to the improvement of writing in our school.’
C Canny, English Lead, Brownmead Academy.
Get in touch here to develop a writing project with Literacy Counts today.
Spoken Language
Some schools have thought carefully about the language they want Reception children to understand and be able to use. They have considered the importance of immersing children in a wide range of well-chosen stories, rhymes and songs. This develops children’s understanding and use of rich vocabulary and language structures. In most schools there are opportunities for debate and discussion in different subjects and for speaking in assemblies and productions. However:
Schools (often) do not consider spoken language well in their English curriculum
Schools are not always clear about how to teach the conventions of spoken language
The components which underpin effective spoken language are not taught
Literacy Counts Support
Project Spotlight
We have been supporting the development of all aspects of English with several local authorities. In 2022-23, we provided comprehensive oracy training for schools in Cheshire East. This included:
- A whole school approach to the development of oracy
- A focus on progression
- Audits for consideration
- Whole school culture and strategies
- Language-rich environments
- Roles and talk frames
- Developing interaction and questioning
Here is some feedback from one of the participating schools:
‘Very useful strategies that can be introduced immediately into the classroom to better develop pupils’ oracy and comprehension skills. Superb! Keep it up!’
Andy Brady, Headteacher, Chelford Primary School
Get in touch here to develop an oracy project with Literacy Counts today.
Combining the Different Modalities of English
In primary schools, there is a disconnect between the different modalities of English (reading, writing and spoken language). Teachers do not always take account of how a pupils’ prior knowledge of one modality affects their ability to learn another. They therefore miss the chance to provide opportunities for pupils to apply their knowledge and build on it across different modalities, helping them to embed learning.
Literacy Counts Support
Product Focus – Ready Steady Literacy (Ready Steady Phonics, Ready Steady Comprehension, Ready Steady Write, Ready Steady Curriculum, Ready Steady Spell)
Implemented together, our resources provide a whole-school solution to developing an immersive, connected and coherent curriculum. The suite of resources helps leaders to understand what needs to be taught and when. With a focus on history, geography, science, oracy, reading and writing, the content has been designed so that, over time, the likelihood that children will remember and connect the steps they have been taught is maximised. It also allows subject leaders to clearly understand how well children are learning and progressing.
Ofsted states that organisations working with schools should:
‘provide guidance for schools about how to help pupils who are struggling with the foundations of word reading, handwriting and spelling.’
Literacy Counts Support
Did you know that we have developed struggling reader and struggling writer courses for staff meetings, twilights, INSET and via recorded Zoom training? Click here for any aspect of CPD for schools, MATs and clusters for the English curriculum.
Courses coming up next term are:
Finally, we will be providing an online training session for English Subject Leaders (not linked to our resources) to support them in responding to the Ofsted Subject Report on Wednesday 24th April (9.15am -12pm). Click here to sign up today!
