As we dive into the new academic year, education professionals are keenly aware of the evolving challenges facing schools. Be it budget constraints, increasing demands in areas such as SEND, or the ongoing pressure to improve student outcomes, the new term is set to be as busy as ever. Given this backdrop, it's easy to understand why technology strategies sometimes end up in the "too hard bucket."

However, can we really afford to let technology remain on the backburner? I'm convinced the answer is a resounding "no," and here's why.

Why technology should be central to your school improvement plan

Technology is not just a tool; it's an ecosystem that can fundamentally transform the education landscape, especially for multi academy trusts and individual schools alike. When executed correctly, a digital strategy can significantly impact student engagement, staff satisfaction and operational efficiency. However, the key to unlocking these benefits is integrating technology into your broader school improvement plan.

Inconsistent and unreliable technology not only frustrates staff but also hinders effective teaching and learning. Therefore, to truly "connect the classroom," you need a solid digital foundation.

Where to begin?

Building a robust ICT infrastructure should be the starting point of your digital journey. Infrastructure isn't just about having the fastest broadband connection; it’s about ensuring that the connection is secure, reliable, and supports your pedagogical needs. A well-designed local area network (LAN) equipped with the right switches, cabling, and Wi-Fi solution is pivotal.

Migrating to cloud systems

Cloud-based systems offer long-term savings and operational efficiencies. They not only facilitate remote learning but also pave the way for a plethora of services for schools. It's not just about lifting your data and services into a cloud like Microsoft or Google. It’s about rethinking what’s possible with this new infrastructure and aiming for innovation and school improvement.

One-to-one pupil devices: a long-term goal

Moving towards a one-to-one pupil/device ratio may seem daunting, especially given budget constraints. However, many schools are achieving this through creative financing models, including parent contributions. Such a model may not be immediately feasible for every institution, but it's an ambition worth considering in your long-term planning.

ICT services; overcoming misconceptions

There's often a misunderstanding that ICT services for schools are relatively straightforward compared to corporate IT. But those who have been in both sectors know that education IT is complex and unique. Schools not only require a robust back-end infrastructure but also need to ensure age-appropriate safeguarding and security. Timing is crucial, too. Unlike in the corporate world, schools can't afford lengthy deployment projects. Every month counts in the life of a student.

Join us for a deeper dive into digital strategy

Understanding that school leaders crave real-world insights into creating and delivering effective digital strategies, we've organised a free event:

Creating and delivering an IT strategy for schools and trusts

10th October 2023
09:00-15:30pm
Robertson House, Stevenage

Content for the day:

• detailed real world case studies

• building the digital vision and defining objectives

• engaging stakeholders

Here we will delve into the intricacies of digital strategy formulation for schools and trusts. Attendees will learn about products in the education market, benchmarking of costs, procurement processes, and much more.

In conclusion, devising a digital strategy isn't just a box to tick; it’s a transformational journey that can significantly contribute to your school improvement plan. With the right approach, technology can do more than just connect the classroom; it can redefine education for the better. So, let's embrace the challenges and opportunities that this new academic year brings and make technology an integral part of our mission to enhance learning outcomes and school efficiency.

To join us in our mission to harness the transformative power of technology for the betterment of education, please sign up for our free course: Creating and delivering an IT strategy for schools and trusts.

Looking forward to meeting many of you there!

You may also be interested in: New academic year: Is it time to change your school MIS system?

I have been an English adviser for a few years and there’s one area that I’ve failed to have the impact I would have wished to: Oracy.

It seems there is rising interest in government with the Labour Party recently setting out their stall for an oracy curriculum.  There is also ‘The Oracy All-Party Parliamentary Group’ (Oracy APPG).  They offer the following definition of oracy:

‘The ability to speak eloquently, to articulate ideas and thoughts, to influence through talking, to collaborate with peers, and to express views confidently and appropriately’

A small minority of schools have prioritised this area of the curriculum.  Although there is a spoken language programme of study in the national curriculum, few schools have a programme of purposeful and explicit teaching of these skills.  It is, of course, common to see group discussions, talk partners and so on, but have the children had explicit instruction?  Do they know the skills involved? Do they know how they can manage these? Do they know what they might improve upon?

It is suggested that oracy education improves engagement with learning, supports wellbeing, and improves academic outcomes. It allows pupils to structure and articulate their thinking, then develop and deepen it in collaboration with others.

Why teach oracy?

The most compelling answer is that, as many of you know, is that oracy skills in primary school are a predictor of life outcomes as an adult.  The Oracy APPG report highlighted studies illustrating that:

‘One in four pupils who struggled with spoken language at age five did not reach expected standards in English at the end of primary school. In comparison, only one in 25 pupils with good language skills failed to meet expected standards. One in five children with poor language skills at age five did not reach expected standards in maths at the end of primary school, compared with one in 50 who had good language skills.’

It is crucial that oracy is taught (rather than facilitated) and the following are some prompts to promote discussion in your setting and hopefully entice you to investigate this area of education in more detail.

Varying levels of formality – writing and oracy

In writing we support children to write with differing levels of formality, as appropriate to the intended outcome.  It is also essential that children are able to vary the levels of formality in their spoken language.  We should begin by valuing the children’s home language and dialect and we build their repertoire of variations of formality from there.  This supports them to communicate in a variety of situations, sometimes known as ‘code switching’.  As able users of language, we are often able to switch effectively between a home language when speaking to family, to something slightly more formal, for example when asking for help in a shop, and further along a scale of formality if speaking to a person of authority.  To do this, we don’t just change the words we use, we often change the tempo, volume, manner and accent (I am old enough to remember having a mum who had a ‘telephone voice’).  In an ideal world, there would be no reason for children (or adults) to code switch as long as they are communicating effectively.  However, in the Oracy APPG, The Times journalist, Terri White noted:

‘Accentism is often aimed at certain regions and people of low socio-economic backgrounds. She added in overcoming accent bias, it is important to ‘empower young people to the best of their ability’. 

Accent is only one aspect of varying formality and, as I said, these are points to promote discussion in your school.  I’m sure, if you chose to discuss the above point, there would be some very lively interactions.

Reading fluency and oracy

I’ve made a link with writing, and of course, there is also a link with oracy and reading.  In reading, we know the importance of teaching fluency.  We also need to teach many children to be able to communicate ideas and thoughts in a coherent, fluent manner.  It’s amazing sometimes to listen to children explain an idea.  Even with the most able language users, you will often find they communicate in very disjointed non-sentences.  I was lucky enough to undertake a study tour of education in the USA.  We saw some stark differences in US and UK classrooms.  However, the most noticeable one of all was that in districts where there was high deprivation, the standards of oracy were remarkably high.  One reason for this is that the children are asked to present their learning at length quite often.  If you think about your own classroom, how often do children speak for more than one minute at a time and what percentage of your class would do this on a regular basis?  Of course, if we return to the link between reading fluency and oral fluency, reading aloud is one way that children can become used to speaking fluently and developing the correct levels of formality.

‘Speak for Change’ Oracy Report

The following recommendations were made in the Oracy APPG ‘Speak for Change’ report:

• ‘Recommendation 11 in the cracks in our foundations report sets out that the Department for Education (DfE) should introduce a ring-fenced fund for continuing professional development (CPD) focusing on improving foundational skills in the classroom. This is important in overcoming the issue of teachers feeling ill-equipped and unprepared in teaching foundational skills such as oracy in classrooms. 
• Recommendation 14 calls on the DfE to introduce new National Professional Qualifications (NQPs) for leading numeracy and leading oracy. 
• Recommendation 15 of the report calls on the DfE to put oracy education on an equal footing with literacy and numeracy by introducing oracy in the national curriculum and piloting new Oracy Hubs, in the style of English and Maths Hubs. ‘

Begin the conversation

Can you get ahead of the curve and consider how you can begin developing the teaching and learning of oracy in your school?

At HFL Education, we are excited to be hosting Neil Mercer, Director of Oracy@Cambridge, at our ‘My Voice, My Writing’ conference.  I have to admit to being quite a fan.  His book ‘Words and Minds’ changed my classroom practice for ever and led me onto an MEd.  Through practice-based research, I developed a deeper understanding of oracy and its benefits for helping children think together.

Join us at the conference to see what you think.

Further oracy reading

Here are some other blogs I have written around this subject:

Bring language to life – be more aardvark

Linking science and English for impact – developing standards of writing and science across the school

Painting the picture with words

As I ponder this dilemma, as both a parent and an educator, I wonder what the solution is. We all know and recognise the importance of regular attendance in the early years. However, how do we communicate this with our families and really get it right from the start?

As a new academic year creeps up upon us, attendance for children at our early years settings is increasingly important, to establish secure routines and attachments and to provide them with the very best start to their early education. Research shows that regular part-time attendance from the age of 2 in a good quality early years setting has a lasting impact on children’s social development and intellectual attainment throughout school. (The Effective Provision of Pre-school Education Project: Findings from the Pre-school Period. Sylva et al, 2003).

However, parents and carers may not understand how important regular attendance is at your setting.

Now I’m not talking about the families that may take advantage of a cheap holiday in term time once a year, it’s the families that regularly don’t attend and a pattern forms, each time making it increasingly difficult for the child to re-settle, form lasting attachments and leaves them missing out on crucial learning opportunities. Families need to know that regular attendance and being punctual are an expectation of your setting. Ensuring you cover this through your induction processes, with a particular focus on routines and relationships can help families understand the importance of their child’s personal, social, and emotional development.

Building relationships with our families is a real strength of early years settings. We have the privilege of really getting to know them, often going on home visits offering us an insight into a child’s world outside of our setting. We are often offered are opportunities to discuss the child’s daily routine. Many parents and carers come to you with a whole range of questions and queries – from toileting, speech and language, to sleep routines. This is a real opportunity to support families, for example, some may struggle to put an effective morning routine in place, and getting their child dressed and ready may seem overwhelming. This is when we can step in to help, perhaps children who are consistently late or often don’t arrive could be offered afternoon sessions instead. Perhaps we could share resources like visual timetables to use at home to support the parent establish an effective morning routine. You may even wish to share details of the local Family Centre who may be able to offer some additional support or parenting programmes.

Many of you will offer workshops, information sessions, or stay and play activities where you will talk to parents and carers about their children’s development and how they can support this at home. Consider how you could communicate the importance of attendance through these sessions or through any information you share.

Finally, consider consistency and support for your staff across your setting. Are all key persons noticing change and following your attendance policy? Is everyone comfortable to challenge non-attendance? How soon after the session starts are parents and carers contacted by phone to ensure the child is safe?  Are your procedures clear for all staff and do they know what to do if a child is absent and no contact can be made with the family?

Attendance at non-statutory school age will always be a challenge. But we have the power to turn that challenge into an opportunity. An opportunity to get to know our families and support them, and this may be temporary (after the arrival of a new baby to the family for example) or longer term (a parental aversion to educational settings stemming from their own experiences), but information and relationship building is key.

Building strong relationships with families and sharing our expectations around attendance and the importance of a child’s early education, which research shows us makes a significant difference to outcomes for children, will begin to build the foundations for good attendance in the future.

In 2011, the pupil premium grant (PPG) was introduced to help close the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers. The funding is available for children in Reception to Year 11 and there is a set criterion for the eligibility for this funding found in the Pupil Premium overview:

• children who are eligible for free school meals, or have been eligible in the past 6 years
• children who have been adopted from care or have left care
• children who are looked after by the local authority

Service pupil premium (SPP) is additional funding for schools, but it is not based on disadvantage. Children are eligible for this funding if they have parent/carer:

• serving in HM Forces
• retired on a pension from the Ministry of Defence

Whilst this funding is a positive step in supporting disadvantaged and vulnerable children, there are a few challenges to identifying exactly who is eligible when starting Reception. These challenges include families lack of knowledge about the funding, later applications made due to children receiving universal free school meals or declining to apply through personal embarrassment.  There are a few strategies that schools have implemented to help gather this information sensitively to ensure all eligible children are able to receive funding sooner.

Transition procedures

It is important to gather as much information about children and their families prior to staring school. The transition level of need tool (TLoNT) should help you to identify vulnerable children to help prioritise an enhanced transition process, however, all children need effective transition procedures in place to enable them to settle into school.

• feeder settings – ensure that you make time to visit the new children at their feeder setting in the summer term (PVI/school nursery/childminder). If this is a challenge, make time to have a conversation with each child’s key person remotely (telephone/video call) to find out about the child’s interests and potential barriers to learning. Use these discussions to find out whether the child is in receipt of Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) funding as this may be an indicator of eligibility for PPG funding. Parents/carers will still need to apply for PPG funding even if the child is receiving EYPP funding.
• parents and carers – include the PPG application form in your admissions pack as many parents/carers like to ensure they have everything prepared for their child to start school. Alternatively, take the forms with you to home visits or when having 1:1 conversations prior to the children starting. This way, you can talk it through with parents/carers or even help fill them in with them if required. There are occasions, where through home visits, practitioners will identify a vulnerability for the family, however, this might not indicate that they are eligible for PPG funding. These families still need to be monitored to ensure that should they become disadvantaged, the school are able to provide them with appropriate support.
• school events – use induction meetings to provide families with information on how the school can support them with home learning and relevant support services if required. Make families feel welcome through informal meetings or workshops to help build positive relationships. This could also be an opportunity to provide them with time to complete relevant paperwork. If you have asked families to complete documents digitally, this might be a challenge. Consider providing laptops/computers/tablets for parents/carers to access in school.

The Supporting Smooth Transitions toolkit has a wealth of information on how to enhance transition processes for children and families including resources that can be sent directly to them during the summer holidays which is when many families are most vulnerable.

Communication

Review your communication procedures to ensure that they are accessible to all families. Consider conducting a survey to find out the most effect method of communication for your families.

• emails
• texts
• school digital platforms
• social media
• telephone/video calls

If there are challenges with families understanding the communication coming from the school, this may hinder information being gathered in a timely manner. Ensure that all communication is inclusive of the families in your school community. Do you use simple, concise sentences? Do you use images or icons to enhance your messages? Have you considered recording voice notes/messages for parents/carers to be able to listen to? Can your messages be easily translated into various languages spoken at home?

Take time to review how parents/carers can communicate with the school. It should be just as effective as how the school communicates with home.

Initiatives

It could be worth offering incentives to families in return for the information required to identify eligibility such as a free…

• book bag
• school jumper
• P.E. Kit

This also enables all children, including those identified as disadvantaged, to have appropriate school clothing/equipment. Whilst this type of incentive requires an initial outlay it is worth considering the long term gains. Once a child has been identified as eligible for PPG funding they will be eligible for the rest of their time in the Primary phase, irrespective of changing circumstances.

NB A child in Reception will attract £1,455 for the Reception year and a further possible £8,730 by the end of KS2. This is a considerable amount of money to improve outcomes for that individual.

Roles and responsibilities

Whilst it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure positive outcomes for every child, it is best practice to ensure that a member of staff’s role is to monitor and evaluate the impact of funding on outcomes for disadvantaged children. One part of this role should be co-ordinating the identification of eligible families. PPG funding can be used to fund this member of staff to spend an allocated amount of time per week/term to oversee this. It would be beneficial if this person’s role included…

• attending welcome meetings and parent consultations
• contacting parents/carers either face-to-face or by telephone
• liaising with external professionals

By implementing a range of robust strategies, you will be able to identify children eligible for funding. It is then that you can consider how to allocate the funding to improve outcomes for individuals and begin to address social inequality.

For further guidance on a supporting vulnerable and disadvantaged children look at:

Resource: ‘Making the difference - Early Years Toolkit digital edition - Supporting disadvantaged and vulnerable children’