Last summer, post SATs, the Hertfordshire team of KS2 moderators visited 119 schools over three and half weeks. As always, it was an intense and time pressured period but one that also offers a window into what is happening with regard to writing in a diverse range of schools. Now that some time has passed, I have been able to collect and compile, not only my own thoughts, but also those of many of the KS2 moderators and some of the headteachers who received a Moderation visit. Some common threads emerge that are worth sharing so that they can help to inform our planning and teaching of writing this year. I also hope that in sharing these findings, they can allay some of the anxieties that staff feel when they hear that they are to be moderated. To this end, the Assessment team have also produced a short document Year 6 checklist – writing teacher assessment that we hope will further support teachers with both their understanding of the revised Teacher Assessment Framework (TAF) and the requirements of moderation. 

Lesson number 1: Write away!

Carry on writing before, during and after SATs

It is understandable to want to focus on some SATs test preparation before the SATs test window. However, where this takes place at the expense of continued writing opportunities, this does impact on the number of writing pieces available and hence writing results. It is often from April onwards that a child is able to more independently apply the teaching from the autumn and first part of the spring term and really show us what they can do. Ideally, the majority of your evidence for the majority of your pupils would be drawn from the later part of the year where you can revisit, for example, the effective use of dialogue or features of formal writing that were taught in a more scaffolded way in the first part of the year. Having this bank of evidence from the later part of the year is key to the success in achieving the ‘pupil can’ statements independently.

Best practice saw schools where extended writing and editing was the norm. Moderators often reported a copious range of quality writing, often with two or even three literacy books filled per child – although the left hand page may be left blank for improvements or writing tips. Other schools may divide writing across folders and subject books. It is not about how the work is presented, but it is about ensuring there is sufficient writing to meet all the ‘pupil can’ criteria.

In one school, the moderator was impressed by the school’s cross-curricular approach to their writing. The moderator felt that it showed a really good emphasis on writing in all lessons.

In many schools moderators praised the good choices of quality texts that were inspiring the children and raising the standard of writing produced. Furthermore, many moderators commented on the passion shown by staff for writing and books. Moderators saw many staff really encouraged writing through a love of reading widely and plenty of role play and talk for writing. Moderators also commented on the skilful teaching of grammar through reading and through the children’s own writing, rather than taking up time with too many discrete grammar exercises. (It is worth remembering that the GAPS test does not form part of the school’s headline accountability measure, while the writing TA does.)

It is a privilege and an inspiration to moderate in these schools and there is much to celebrate – not least the enthusiasm, subject knowledge and skill of the Year 6 teachers.

Lesson number 2: Who are we writing for?

Consider the range of writing opportunities offered to ensure that they cover a range of purposes and audiences – both formal and informal.

Keep in mind the following four ‘pupil can’ criteria (as they work together) when planning the writing for the year: 

Basically, pupils need to be able to know the purpose and audience for the writing, and hence select appropriate language and sentence structure to fit the purpose and audience. So what types of tasks/genres should a teacher cover in Year 6?

To answer this question, it is worth looking at the exemplification and considering the range of tasks and the purpose and audience for each task in each collection. Let’s look, for example, at the tasks included in Morgan’s collection:

Morgan: EXS exemplification

Piece A: A short story

What is the audience and purpose? Probably any person over 10 years old who wants to be entertained/intrigued/spooked.

So the writer needs to include cliff-hangers/time-shifts, interesting characters, literary techniques, dialogue that both moves the story forward and reveals character etc. If the pupil can do this, they will be meeting the ‘pupil can’ statements above (differentiated by outcome).  

Piece B: A recount

What is the audience and purpose? To inform parents about the Viking day.

This can be written informally, in a chatty and conversational style, as it is for a familiar audience. However, it will also need a level of detail to make it of interest, and technical vocabulary that may need to be explained.

Piece C: A letter

Who is the audience/ what is the purpose? This is a formal letter to the workshop leaders, to thank them and give recommendations.  Pupils might be expected to make more use of passive constructions, modals, nominalisation, abstract nouns and succinct word choice (e.g. discover rather than find out) etc.

Piece D: Short story

This piece deliberately mimics literacy techniques used in the play Macbeth.

Piece E: Balanced argument

Who is the audience/ what is the purpose? The intended audience is the Local Council, in order to present their own views.

Again, this is another piece of writing with a formal tone. We might expect the features of formal writing to be evident and some direct address to the reader.

Piece F: Science investigation

A formal write up – we would expect passive voice, headings etc.

Looking across the pieces, you can see that there are opportunities to write for different purposes and audiences – and hence the writing will need to be appropriate to both task and audience. You don’t need to complete the same tasks – however you do need to allow opportunities for pupils to write both formally and informally as appropriate to a range of audiences and purposes. Consider, for every writing task, what the purpose is for the task, and who the audience is. Then consider what features – types of language and vocabulary – the writing might contain for these different audiences and purposes.

In the main, pupils tend to write ‘down the middle’: neither formally nor informally. It is the formal that most will struggle with. Therefore, we need to model and provide opportunities for formal writing, and then show where else this could be used – for example, a character in a story that is trying to assert their authority over others may speak more formally.

The trick is not necessarily to tell pupils to include a long list of features – but to consider purpose and audience and find some good model text. Above all, the writer needs to be able to write with the reader in mind – does it make sense? Can the reader follow it? Could I/should I phrase or structure any parts differently to make it more effective or easier to follow for the reader? 

Lesson number 3: Ease up on the scaffolding as you go through the year

There need to be an adequate number of independent pieces of writing. For schools using a ‘Talk for Writing’ type approach, the writing, at least towards the end of the year, needs to be at the ‘innovate’ stage and not be heavily modelled. If a number of children in the class have very similar sounding pieces it is hard to use this as evidence for a ‘pupil can’ statement (unless independently applied by the child elsewhere.)

This also applies to teacher feedback – ease up on being too directive as the year progresses. For example, instead of pointing out a spelling or grammatical error, give pupils time to find them and correct them independently.

Lesson number 4: Take time to understand the new criteria for greater depth and what this looks like in the writing

One of the main strands emerging this year regarded securing and accurately assessing ‘greater depth’ – perhaps not surprising given the changes to the TAF last year.  The revised ‘pupil can’ statements for greater depth represent the greatest change.  Given these changes, and the fact that teachers only have one exemplification portfolio for GDS (Frankie), it is not surprising that it is difficult to decide on the ‘cuspy’ children. 

It would seem that the 'pupil can' statement that was hardest to evidence was the statement regarding ‘assured and conscious control over levels of formality’. At the STA training for Lead Moderators, the STA stated that:  

Pupils working at ‘greater depth’ must demonstrate the ability to manipulate grammar and vocabulary according to the context of the writing. The emphasis on ‘assured and conscious control’ refers to the fact that choices made in their writing are deliberate and considered.

Obviously, writing such as ‘Frankie’s’ clearly meets this statement - but how ‘assured and conscious’ do our Year 6 writers need to be? Here it is worth turning to the ‘Leigh’ exemplification file as a benchmark as Leigh only narrowly misses the greater depth standard. There is one piece – piece B – where Leigh is able to meet the ‘assured and conscious control’ statement. If your pupil can write like piece B more often, then they are in with a chance of being at ‘Greater depth’. The annotations on the remaining pieces show where Leigh has been less consistent and hence why the award remains at expected standard. 

Reflect too, as you read the collection, on the purpose and audience for each piece in the collection. Are there enough opportunities for Leigh to write formally? Could more opportunities for formal writing have helped to lift Leigh into ‘Greater depth’? Does the recount provide any evidence for Greater depth? (No!) Additionally, has Leigh been given adequate time to re-draft some sections of her work to consider precision of language, or tidy up punctuation? The implications are that greater depth writers may need longer to craft their writing, as well as more exposure to a range of reading material and a range of tasks that have a clearly defined purpose and audience.

Lesson number 5: Spelling matters

Moderators see the Year 3/4 spellings misspelt more often than the words from the Year 5/6 statutory word lists. This is mainly because, as Year 6 teachers know, Year 6 pupils rarely use the words from the Year 5/6 spelling lists in their writing, whereas they do use the words from Year 3/4. In addition, half the words on the Year 5/6 statutory word lists are, in fact, easier for pupils to spell than many of the Year 3/4 words.  These Year 5/6 words do need to be evidenced, but they can be evidenced through spelling tests or dictation, if they are not naturally occurring in pupil writing.

Therefore, crack the Year 3/4 words before the Year 5/6 as these are the ones the pupils use most in their writing.  Model how to spell when modelling writing. “What spelling rule do I need to remember?  What could I do to try to spell this word?  Where could I get help?” etc.

Remember too that pupils should be using dictionaries and thesauruses in order to help them to use and spell more ambitious vocabulary choices.

To finish, let’s step back and think about each standard. A key question must be:-

What commonly stops pupils being the standard above?

Where pupils failed to meet the ‘working towards’ statements, they often had difficulty with sentence punctuation and spelling.

Where pupils failed to meet the ‘expected standard’, they often had difficulty with cohesion and writing for a range of purposes (mainly falling down on formal/ variation of sentence structure.) Spellings (frequently still Year 3/4) were often an issue. Watch out too for the comma splice.

Where pupils failed to meet the ‘greater depth’ standard, they may not have demonstrated the accurate (and considered) use of the range of punctuation, nor the conscious control over levels of formality required.

Given these difficulties, it can be useful to read pupil drafts, and place writing into three piles:

• writing that would most benefit from feedback around sentence construction/ punctuation
• writing that would most benefit from input around cohesion, and
• writing that would most benefit from feedback around word choice (particularly for more formal/academic writing. Consider too the importance of verb form). 

The following day, offer conference feedback to a group at a time. Meanwhile pupils not working with you could be given various writing or editing tasks – including reviewing spellings. (Ask pupils to read their work word by word backwards from the end in order to notice any spelling errors.)

Finally, as Lead Moderator for KS2 writing, I would genuinely like to express my gratitude to all the schools that we visited. Despite the fact that the visits are compulsory, the warmth of welcome never fails to endear and impress. As I am sure the moderating team will concur, it is a privilege to spend time in so many schools with staff who really care, just as it is a privilege to read the thoughts and words of so many 10 and 11 year olds.

Read more: Reflections on the 2022 moderation at both Key Stages 1 and 2. 

Our mental health seems to be something we’ve taken for granted, but the shifts in financial circumstances and the remnants of the Covid outbreak, are forcing us to pause and reflect.  The threads of good mental health are under significant strain and in danger of snapping.  Most worryingly, this is visible in both adults and children.

I’ve been reading David Harewood’s memoir Maybe I Don’t Belong Here.  He’s now a famous, critically acclaimed and successful actor – Homeland, Blood Diamond and Supergirl - but in his memoir he talks honestly and poignantly about his life, his breakdowns and his experiences of being sectioned.  In his opening chapter, A Letter to the Reader Harewood speaks vividly about pain, identity and belonging.  He says that he ‘struggle[d] to forge a sense of identity and belonging as a Black British man’ and links this to his first direct experience of racist abuse.’

‘A small crack appeared, perhaps just the faintest fissure at first, but over the years it grew wider and wider.  Caught between the two halves of my identity, I disappeared into the space between and woke up in a mental institution.  I had completely lost my mind.’

Harewood’s piece demonstrates just how vital it is that we take care of ourselves and more specifically our mental health.  For me, it also served as a reminder that there are groups and communities for whom acknowledging and talking about mental health is considered taboo, unacceptable within the culture or an external force that cannot be trusted.  I know.  I am part of one of these communities and I share in these concerns and fears.  They are not without foundation.  This may partially explain why racially minoritised groups are less likely to access mental health services at an early stage and benefit from talk therapies and therapeutic approaches.  But it does not explain why they are less likely to receive a mental health referral prior to a visit to A&E or a brush with the justice system[i].  Or why Asian or Asian British Pakistani men had the lowest recovery rates for IAPT talking therapies[ii].

In a recent piece of training we delivered, we included a video from MIND.UK in which a black man talked about receiving counselling from a Sri Lankan therapist and compared the experience and outcomes to his initial session with a white therapist.  In his specific case, it showed the importance of cultural connection, but more significantly the need to acknowledge a racialised experience when offering support.  For me, it really made me think about how important it is to ensure that people of colour in schools – pupils, parents and families, staff and governors – receive this level of care, this willingness to listen and an openness to acknowledge and understand.  This is particularly important for pupils whose behaviour is starting to be characterised as challenging or disruptive.  Harewood talks about his school experiences: the lightness, fun and clowning of primary school. But his exuberance later became perceived as disruptive in secondary school, and he was gradually sifted into a behaviourally challenged set.  Neither his family nor school were fully aware of the frequency of racist taunts, physical and verbal abuse, pressure and desperation to assimilate, or the sense of fear that cloaked it all.  Harewood’s experience mirrored a familiar scenario that he could not have been aware of at the time - but we now know to be true.  The Against the Odds report (2017) found that boys from African and Caribbean communities in the UK had similar levels of mental health problems at age 11 to white and mixed heritage boys. However, national data shows that African and Caribbean men are more likely to develop some types of mental health problems during adulthood[iii].

Our mental health can become frayed in a variety of ways. Those delicate threads start to shed becoming more fragile and threadbare as we move through each stage of life and begin to grapple with the demands of adulthood. 

I was heartened during the training this week when a secondary school dealing with behaviour issues mentioned that they had implemented the offer of a counselling session for victims and perpetrators.  In other conversations during this year, I have heard senior leaders in schools talking about peer-led mentoring, providing questionnaires to their stakeholders, revisiting and monitoring young people involved in racist incidents, drawing on community-links to better understand dynamics they might not be aware of, and one specific request from a school for assistance with supporting their pupils with racial trauma.  In one secondary school colleagues were surveyed and given the opportunity to reflect on their personal racial experiences.  The results were powerful and deeply moving.  Had a colleague taken an interest in the young Harewood’s mental health when he was experiencing racism, what impact could their care and willingness to listen have made to his life’s trajectory?  This work needs to take place if wellbeing and good mental health are a genuine priority and become an intrinsic part of a school’s preventative measures.

Our challenge is to understand what good mental health looks like in all those around us; to peel back the layers of self-protection and attempts to bind ourselves into the protective cocoons of determination, resilience and stereotypes about strength.  Real strength lies in the ability to ask for help and accept support before we are overwhelmed.  We must teach ourselves and our children to do this.

[i] A recent study of nearly 15,000 young people accessing mental health services found that young people from Minority Ethnic backgrounds were more likely to be referred to mental health services through routes such as youth justice and social services, than they were through perceived ‘voluntary’ routes such as primary care. Ethnic Differences in Referral Routes to Youth Mental Health Services Julian Edbrooke-Childs, PhD, and Praveetha Patalay, PhD

[ii] ‘Asian or Asian British-Pakistani men had the lowest recovery rates for IAPT talking therapies.’ McManus S, Bebbington P, Jenkins R, Brugha T. (eds.) (2016) Mental health and wellbeing in England: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014. Leeds: NHS Digital.

[iii] Boys from African and Caribbean communities in the UK have lower levels of mental health problems at age 11 compared to White or mixed heritage boys.  However, national data shows that African and Caribbean men in the UK are much more likely to develop some types of mental health problem during adulthood. For example, symptoms relating to schizophrenia, and to a lesser extent post-traumatic stress disorder. This does not occur in countries with a predominantly Black population. It appears to be an environmental risk related to experiences in northern Europe and the United States. Centre for Mental Health (2017) Against the odds: Evaluation of the Mind Birmingham Up My Street programme.

As a professional in the education sector for many years, it never ceases to amaze me how, once you are made aware of a ‘new’ initiative to address an issue, your focus of attention is inexplicably drawn to its potential influence. Over the years this has, for me, involved multifarious ‘fads’ that are ‘in vogue’ for short spaces of time. They become ephemeral as impact is minimal or they are based on subjective research.

The opposite of this situation has had such a profound impact on me recently, both professionally and personally. I am drawn to share my experiences and ideas in a wider context through the writing of this blog. I will separate it into three parts. Part 1 will provide an overview, rationale and intended impact. Part 2 will focus on ‘what that actually looks like’ in practice in Primary Schools and Part 3 will explore specific examples of the implications of what happens with young adults when their needs are not met early in their education.     

Rationale 

Led by Rachel Macfarlane, our overarching purpose at HFL Education is to ‘ensure that every young person, through access to a great education, should be able to realise their potential, regardless of where they live or their circumstances. Their education should be free from barriers presented by a lack of equality, diversity, and inclusion’. 

As a Primary Maths Adviser, a key part of my work focuses on the removal of any existing and potential barriers to learning. Within this, ‘barriers’ can sometimes be unintentionally introduced across the range of children’s needs from all prior attainment points. This will be explored in detail in Part 2 of this blog. 

Influencers 

HFL’s Education Services Team continues its focus upon meeting the needs of disadvantaged and vulnerable children. This has involved engaging with nationally recognised educationalists. Dr Dan Nicholls’ recent input has had a profound effect on my thinking and subsequent actions. Especially with regard to the theme of ‘belonging’ and its associated barriers. This includes heightened understanding of ideas such as ‘invisibility’, ‘disconnection’, ‘trapped by circumstance’, ‘security of a far greater equity through education’ and (linked to the title of this blog) ‘giving individuals what they specifically need and seeking to close the growing chasm between ‘those that have’ and ‘those that have not’ and ‘the curriculum as a lever’. 

I am not alone in my thinking. A recent blog by Kate Kellner-Dilks explores the whole curriculum as being ‘The moral imperative: creating a curriculum that develops identity, broadens horizons and enables success for all’. And in her recent and insightful blog, Nicola Randall asks the question ‘How can we advantage the disadvantaged?’ and states ‘…a child who has experienced economic hardship at some point, may not have developed a deep sense of self, built up over years of making meaningful connections with others and so do not feel that this community, this education system, is for them’.   

‘Belonging’ (from both a professional and personal perspective) 

I have been influenced by the collegiate approach within HFL. This has enhanced my thinking even more profoundly and led me to reflect on situations and circumstances in both my professional and personal domains. Within those, I recognise that conditions outside of the academic curriculum have had significant impact. These include instances from roles as a teacher and a leader, including being the Designated Person for Safeguarding and Professional and Personal Well-Being Lead, and as a child and father: 

• a boy in Year Five, whose father was a doctor and mother was a solicitor trashing the classroom
• children hiding in various locations around the school
• a girl in Year Four who was constantly looking out of the window as she was concerned about what state her alcoholic mother would be in when she went home
• following a boy through a South London town centre (whilst in constant contact with the police) who had escaped from school to visit his estranged sister who was in another school as a result of domestic abuse 
• dealing with a stream of parents/carers who were about to be homeless – many of these families were living in one room 
• providing food for children who came to school hungry 
• discovering that for a group of recent arrived Romanian children, the curriculum was not fit for purpose (explored further in a blog here)
• finding out by chance that my son was lip-reading in Year Two as he was deaf in one ear
• overcoming my own profound stutter/stammer during my time in Secondary School with multifarious strategies – which is almost resolved but still apparent on occasions – (this will be explored further in Part 3) 

In all these situations, the personnel had different ‘belonging’ needs and either adapted to the situations as ‘best they could’ or, at breaking point, implicitly ‘cried’ for help. One incredibly challenging situation was attempting to address gang violence and its associated racism that was having a severely negative impact in a school in a London suburb.  

In a recent meeting at HFL Education, David Cook referenced our ‘sphere of control’. We have control over the content of the curriculum, what we place emphasis upon, and also upon how we deliver it.

We, too, can influence the culture within the school. Both must meet the needs of all. There be may other issues outside of the curriculum to which we are not in control, and this may involve situations as dramatic as I have shared here. There could potentially be issues that affect a child’s understanding of belonging, or of not belonging; and this needs to be addressed. It can only be achieved through schools ‘getting to know’ each child as an individual to ensure that their needs are met and this ongoing process needs to be an integral part of the curriculum.  

Dr Dan Nicholls refers to this as a ‘call to arms’: ‘Our collective endeavour, is to use education to illuminate and bring more colour, to more lives. It is through our leadership and in teams, that we can unswervingly focus on our best levers, teaching and culture to bring light to this darkness and to say, “yes, you do belong.”

In her wonderful blog, (Part 1 and Part 2) Kirsten Snook, when referring to reading and disadvantaged children, uses the analogy of: ‘Think of the difference between having the stress chemical cortisol flooding the brain and body rather than the ‘feel-good’ factor of serotonin’.

How powerful would it be to have that scenario as the ultimate aim to enable a sense of belonging for all and thus removing all barriers? 

Moving forward     

The title of this blog (Part 1) refers to ‘Mind the Gap’. In this instance, I am not referring specifically to the gap in academic progress and attainment but more to the combined process of allowing ‘access for all’ children, which are inseparably linked, of course. I will use the analogy of alighting of a train to explain the intended outcomes and associated challenges.

On a recent train journey, it struck me that the doors providing the access to the destination are not initially in your control. As you arrive, you receive the following message: ‘We are approaching your destination. The doors will open automatically on the right-hand side. Please ensure that you mind the gap and take all your belongings with you. Have a safe journey’.

For me, this is figuratively similar to the ‘access’ gaps:

• the doors are access to the curriculum via a journey – different starting points and personal circumstances does not guarantee automaticity of access 
• access needs to be rapid or there is risk of being locked out – lack of progress 
• trusting the process is optional – reliability of content  
• access can be confusing – personalised needs not being met 
• being locked out with no access means another journey – disjointed path 
• one person in control – relies on complicity 
• personal belongings are similar but also different – backgrounds and societal situations can define needs 
• some people stumble and fall when crossing the gap, despite warnings – insecure application 

Ironically, all doors share this warning sign on the inside. Continuing the analogy of allowing ‘access for all’ through alighting the train, this makes me think it suggests that ‘If you do not fit in then please distance yourself’. Is this how children feel when they do not have a sense of belonging? 

On the same train, there are these posters: 

‘For many of the 1 in 5 disabled people in the UK, the attitude of others can make or break a journey. Remember, not all disability is visible. A little extra time and consideration can make a world of difference to everyone’s journey.  

Look out for each other.’ 

‘1 in 5 people have a disability, and not all are visible, so think twice before getting frustrated and be kind to others while travelling. 

Because everyone deserves a safe journey – We’re with you.’ 

These posters and associated dialogue speak for themselves when they are linked to the idea of ‘belonging’. The key realisation for me here was the link to values in society such as humility, accountability, collective responsibility, dignity, fairness, honesty, humanity, and individual rights.  

These values should be an interwoven part of any curriculum and linked to the personalised needs of each individual child, where fostering a sense of belonging for children can create an environment in which learning can thrive. When learning feels open and collaborative, children feel safe to share ideas. They are confident in applying their knowledge or skills and are supported when they take a risk or even experience failure. When children feel like someone knows them and believes in them, there is a greater motivation to succeed. 

There are often words and phrases in education linked to the gap such as ‘reducing’, ‘closing’, ‘diminishing’ or ‘removing’ it. Perhaps, in the 21st Century and beyond, the ‘gap’ will remain as societal, and other conditions mean that it exists and can be out of our full control. Our mission remains though. To enable all children to access and engage in rich learning and feel a deep sense of belonging in it. This will be explored further in Part 2 with the implications of not acting accordingly analysed in Part 3. 

In our last entry, we looked at the continuous loop of planning, teaching and assessing:

We focused on the planning side of things – ensuring our learning intentions were hyper-focused to ensure we knew exactly what we wanted the children to get out of the lesson. So, it makes sense to think that our next step is ensuring that the tasks we are asking the children to record demonstrate an understanding or application of the intended focus.

But, what does this look like? At the forefront, these outcomes should be closely linked to the learning intention. Any recording completed by the children should demonstrate what the children have learned not just what they have done. This is particularly true when completing a practical activity.

What’s the purpose?

This again brings us back to that part of the learning cycle that allows teachers to think why they are teaching this particular lesson. We need to think not just about the objectives but also about the purpose of each lesson. Are we wanting the children to learn the substantive knowledge (learning about concepts for example), the disciplinary knowledge (using working scientifically skills to answer an enquiry question), how we use our disciplinary skills or how to use a range of equipment?

How many foci can we have in a lesson?

It is ok to have more than one focus (science requires a great number of skills) but we should limit the number of foci in each lesson in order to ensure the outcomes are solid. Too many foci and our students will lose sight of those key learning intentions. In fact, research suggests that too often, the activities that children were completing were not actually strengthening their grasp of the specific concept (Intention and Substance Further Findings on Primary Science (2019). Sometimes the focus was too broad, sometimes the children were expected to complete too many things in each session, so the actual focus was a bit of a muddle and sometimes it was because the children didn’t actually understand the underlying concepts required (substantive) in order to recognise what the practical activity was showing them.

What we can take from this is that practical work must be connected to learning!

When it comes to recording, we have two areas to assess the children against – the substantive knowledge and the working scientifically skills.

Assessing working scientifically

Assessing working scientifically (although seemingly more challenging to ensure coverage, tracking and progression across an entire school) is quite straightforward in terms of assessment in each lesson. By planning and carrying out different investigations (with clear intentions on the working scientifically skill that is the focus of each lesson), teachers can assess against the national curriculum descriptors quite easily. The challenging part is ensuring children are given multiple opportunities across multiple strands to show their ability to meet these requirements (and that they’ve been taught how to use these skills effectively – again this comes back to intention and planning).

Assessing the Substantive

Assessment of the substantive can be a bit more open-ended and creative if we want it to be. Science as a core subject is a bit luckier in terms of recording as we are not pigeon-held into having to record in particular ways. Thus, the barrier of recording in written formats that some children truly struggle with doesn’t hold true for science. We can be more creative in the ways in which we ask our children to record. Yes, we can link science with literacy and mathematics and create posters, adverts, graphs, tables and the like as seen here:

but equally we can scaffold and allow for children to verbally or visually express their understanding in ways that tear down barriers that can prevent children from recording what they know.

Some examples can be found here:

This then gives teachers a very real way of understanding what their children know and can show.

There are many further examples of how to record creatively in our ‘Developing Young Scientists Bundle’ resources.

To conclude this part of our assessment in primary science series, I challenge you and your staff to think about how your children currently record their understanding. Do the children enjoy the opportunity to show what they’ve learned or is it constrained and prescriptive? Let’s allow them the opportunity to put pride in showing what they know.

Voices from the Classroom

Our new blog series, Voices from the Classroom, allows primary science teachers to share particularly effective practical experiences they have had with their classes. It’s a great way to showcase what your school is doing and written guidance and examples are available for those of you wishing to participate.

If this is something you would be interested in participating in, please e-mail Charlotte Jackson charlotte.jackson@hfleducation.org

Let’s be honest, assessment itself doesn’t simply begin with assessment. In fact, if we want to assess effectively, we need to first be thinking about our curriculum as a whole. What knowledge and skills do we want our young scientists to acquire? And then, how do we deliver this to ensure we are developing the knowledge, skills and understanding we intend to? Next, does the task we ask the children to complete show the knowledge and skills we intended for them to learn? Finally, does the work they provide show us that they have met the requirements for that particular lesson?

So where do we need to begin?

Ultimately, the ‘intention’ of learning is the key – what is the focus of the lesson? You may call this a WALT, an LO, an LI, an ‘I can’, but at the end of the day it is what we want the children to learn.

So, what could be the focus of a science lesson (particularly if you are completing a practical task)? It may be:

• developing understanding of the scientific approach to enquiry;
• developing knowledge and understanding of the natural world (substantive knowledge);
• learning how to use a piece of equipment or follow a practical procedure; and/or
• quite possibly a combination of some of the above.

And then, within that, which particular skill/what particular knowledge is the focus?

Armed with a clear objective and adding some success criteria, that shows how the children can achieve the learning you laid out, the purpose of the learning becomes crystal clear (Sarah Earle, Assessment in the Primary Classroom).

However, we all know that this is easier said than done…

How do we word it?

In fact, building learning objectives is, arguably, the most important part of planning and delivering a lesson. Should they be long and explanatory? Should they be short and to the point (especially if you are expecting the children to record it themselves)? Should they use technical vocabulary or aim to be more in child-speak? As Shirley Clark points out, the crucial part of any learning objective is that every child understands the intention of the lesson – whether they’ve written it themselves or not is not what matters.

Ultimately, the technical language we would ask the children to use in a science lesson should definitely be used in the learning objective (particularly if it is a specific skill or a new concept, we wish for them to learn/use).

Secondly, it should be context-free which allows children to understand that the skills or knowledge they are gaining aren’t tied specifically to that context but can be used in many different ways and returned to on a regular basis (Sarah Earle, Assessment in the Primary Classroom). We often do this particularly well in English where the focus of the learning intention is generally linked to the convention or genre as opposed to the specific context or text that is being used as the vehicle.

Within science, this is also possible by thinking about our learning intentions as skills or concept-specific as opposed to context-specific. This then leads teachers to know exactly what they expect to see when they assess the children against the substantive or disciplinary knowledge; it invites the teachers and children to answer the question: How well have I achieved this outcome? The success criteria can almost be used as a checklist to see how well the objective has been met.

Example

The below example shows how to build this kind of objective within a pattern seeking activity and shows explicitly the difference between a context-specific and concept-specific intention:

It is very clear how this skill/new understanding can actually be applied to many different contexts and can be a talking point to show the children that we could actually use this exact objective and criteria in a different context.

When children focus their recording on the learning objectives they cut down the time spent writing just for writing’s sake (recording what they’ve done) and they have more time to think, discuss and record what they’ve actually learned (Thinking doing, talking science).

This precision and the outcomes we see will allow us to be confident that pupils have acquired the necessary knowledge and skills rather than just experienced them.

So, let’s spend more time making our learning intentions purposeful for our outcomes and assessments of the skills and knowledge the children have acquired work to inform the next cycle of our teaching and learning.

To receive more information like this and to be informed of the release of part 2 and 3, please subscribe to receive our subject leader updates.

Voices from the Classroom

Our new blog series, Voices from the Classroom, allows primary science teachers to share particularly effective practical experiences they have had with their classes. It’s a great way to showcase what your school is doing and written guidance and examples are available for those of you wishing to participate.

If this is something you would be interested in participating in, please e-mail Charlotte Jackson charlotte.jackson@hfleducation.org

In Summer 2022, Year 4 class had the opportunity to attend the Pop-Up Outdoor Education Centre at Bayfordbury run by the University of Hertfordshire. We had a full day of sessions run by the students and staff of the postgraduate courses in outdoor environmental education.

Suffice it to say that our children LOVED their day out. Upon arrival, the children made little ‘photo frames’ out of sticks and twine and they were able to use these to help record the rest of their day. This was a great idea for all the children, but particularly for those who sometimes struggle to focus as it created a very effective and very real way of recording their observations from the day.

Pond dipping and mini-beasts

Pond dipping is always a hit with children, and it linked nicely to our Science unit: ‘Living things and their habitats’. The pupils were given a range of classification keys and identification sheets that allowed them to group, identify and name a variety of pond life. The skill was then repeated when we went on mini-beast hunts, where they used similar types of classification keys and sheets to identify even more living things in our local forest and grassland environments. The class had studied classification keys in the previous autumn/spring terms using our own school grounds, so it was a great opportunity to review and consolidate the children’s learning. The children felt incredibly confident collecting living things and ensuring they could safely return them to their homes. What was really amazing was that they were able to see a number of different living things that they hadn’t seen when we did this activity at school. This led to follow up conversations regarding different habitats in different places and how sometimes even a ‘pond habitat’ that is quite close by may still have different animals living in it!

Links to art

There were some fantastic links made between what the children had learned in Years 1, 2 and 3 about plants and artists that use nature to create art (particularly Andrew Goldsworthy). When we were looking at classification keys earlier in the year, we also focused on leaves and the different types of trees that we had in our local environment as well as what makes them unique. This understanding was particularly evident as the children began to make their own Goldsworthy-inspired piece and were talking about the different characteristics of the leaves and needles they could find. This link to art was brilliant and an interesting way to engage children with the nature around them.

Links to English

In the afternoon, the children were then given the opportunity to use what they’d learned from pond-dipping and mini-beast hunts to write poetry. This pre-learning allowed the children to use specific names of the creatures they had found and to describe carefully the habitats they had explored.

Becoming gardeners

Our final activity was the children’s favourite – planting many, many, MANY of their own flowers and fruit/vegetable plants. They created their own ‘plant pots’ out of newspaper (and were incredibly intrigued by the fact that they could put these pots directly in the ground without removing the paper). They were taught how to care for their new plants and what to expect from their growth. The children all took their plants home and planted them in their own gardens. At the end of the summer term, many of them stated that their plants were still growing strong.

Woodland Trust

When we returned to school, we completed a few follow up activities from the Woodland Trust that linked to our Forest School sessions – in particular the children created their own living thing that lived in one of the habitats that we had seen that day.

The outing really allowed our children to connect to nature and experience their learning first hand. The smiles and excitement really made the day worthwhile. It was such a success, and we very much appreciated the invitation from the University of Hertfordshire.

Voices from the Classroom

Our new blog series, Voices from the Classroom, allows primary science teachers to share particularly effective practical experiences they have had with their classes. It’s a great way to showcase what your school is doing and written guidance and examples are available for those of you wishing to participate.

If this is something you would be interested in participating in, please e-mail Charlotte Jackson charlotte.jackson@hfleducation.org

I have long considered that getting your Model for Writing (M4W) spot-on, is the key to successful teaching of writing. When working with colleagues to support with planning, this is where I often insist we start. I begin by guiding the teacher towards articulating what it is that they really want their pupils to be able to produce in writing by end of the unit, and what skills they want this piece to show.  This usually gets us straight to the crux of the issue because it gears us up to talk about what it is that the children can currently do, and what it is that they need to get better at. Moreover, this helps me as the adviser to support my colleagues in determination whether the skill being proposed really is an appropriate next step for the cohort. Often, at this point, I find myself trying to reign in their expectations (not something I do lightly, you may imagine). It may be that my colleague is attempting to move onto a skill that is not referenced in the year group’s Programme of Study, and doesn’t actually represent a suitable next step for the group; or, it may be that my colleague is moving on to the next writing skill too quickly, and that the children may benefit from lingering for longer on a skill that they are only just beginning to adopt in their independent writing.

When we have decided what it is that we want the piece to showcase, then we start writing. The term ‘showcase’ is one that I have found particularly helpful in the context of preparing M4W. The model – alongside demonstrating superb writing in line with whatever the task demands – should act as a window through which the skill that we are trying to foster can be seen. In this sense, the skill – be it ‘expanded noun phrases’ or ‘prepositional phrases’ or ‘subordinating conjunctions’ – should litter the piece to such an extent that the children cannot fail to notice its inclusion. This may make for a ever-so-slightly contrived piece of writing (although often I find that it does not) because you will be using that grammatical skill more often than you think strictly necessary. But, this is crucial because if that grammatical feature is only used once or twice, how likely is it that the children will consider it important enough to use in their own subsequent writing? Furthermore, if there are only a few examples contained within the piece, then you have allowed yourself a very limited number of examples to draw upon when discussing the use of this feature with the children. Instead, you would want multiple examples of this skill in use to allow you multiple ways in which its use can be referenced.

To exemplify this point, imagine that we are focusing on a year 3 class and that their next step to improve their writing is to extend their sentences using a range of subordinating conjunctions. When writing my model, I need to be mindful therefore that many of my sentences are indeed extended using this grammatical feature. If I am struggling to do that, then I might ask myself how the children will cope when asked to do the same task. Is it that the skill is not relevant to the task in hand (unlikely in this context, but it may be relevant if we were considering a different grammatical skill, such as speech demarcation for example)? In that scenario, the task may need to be re-thought to ensure that it acts as a suitable vehicle to allow this core writing skill to be enacted. What we must avoid at all costs is shoe-horning grammatical features into our models when they do not warrant a place. First and foremost, the model should have a purpose; the grammatical feature must work to ensure that the purpose of the writing is achieved.

When reviewing my model in light of my planned intentions, I might ask myself the following questions:

• how obvious is this grammatical feature within the model?
• is it masked by too many other grammatical features?

By this I am alluding to the fact that if you want a feature to shine, then you must dampen down the glare from the other writing features in the piece. It is counter-productive to try and showcase too many grammatical features in one go. If you equate ambitious modelling with throwing all the elements of the PoS for the year group into one piece, then disappointment will surely follow. Quite simply, the children will not be able to see the wood for the trees. Better to stick to just one core writing skill that you know the children need to work on, and let it shine.

This may mean holding back on other features that you know the children have yet to master. So, for example, if you deem ‘extending sentences through the use of subordinating conjunctions’ to be a key next step, then push your concerns about the use of prepositional phrases and adverbs of time to one place for a moment, and instead focus on the one big thing that you want them to develop. By all means, include a sprinkling of these in the piece, but don’t make them the star of the show.

What I find most rewarding about working with teachers to plan their M4W is that once complete, the model then dictates the learning required and therefore the lessons that need to be planned. Following completion of the model, the teacher and I may ask, ‘so if this is what I want the children to ultimately produce – or something like it – what learning experiences do I need to plan for to allow this to happen?’ This then leads to purposeful lesson planning, ensuring that each sequential stage provides a learning opportunity that will ultimately lead to the production of a successful piece, or pieces, of writing.

We may go on to rationalise that if we want this feature to be put to good use in their own writing, then the children will need ample opportunities to engage with the model. First and foremost, they should be encouraged to react and respond to the effectiveness of the piece: does it affect the reader in the way intended? What were the best bits? When the effect has been established, and ideally ‘felt’ by the children, then they can be guided to spot the grammatical feature that is ‘on show’; note its usage and consider its effectiveness within the context of the piece.

Some questions and prompts that I may use to support this are as follows:

• how might this piece sound if I removed the grammatical feature in focus?
• does it reduce the effectiveness of the piece? (In this instance, the model can be re-written to eliminate the feature).

Can the children spot what has been taken away? Can they name it? Can they re-insert the feature to restore the effectiveness of the piece? Can they come up with their own examples that they might be able to then use in their own piece of writing?

They will need to have lots of practise of using that grammatical feature – both contextualised within the piece that they are going to write, and discreet to ensure that they can apply the skill outside of the context. They would then benefit from seeing how other authors have used it to write effectively in similar contexts – cue the need for reading around the genre, where we show the children how other great authors have created similar effects using this grammatical feature. When ready, they need to have a go at creating an effective piece themselves –collaboratively at first. The teacher can be on hand at this time to collect examples of excellence where the feature in question –alongside other lovely bits – have been incorporated to good effect. Then, the children will need to have a go independently, incorporating this feature as they have been shown along the way. Finally, the children need to be encouraged to review their written piece.

• did it mimic the effect of the modelled piece? How and to what extent?
• how did the grammatical skill in question contribute to the effectiveness?
• can the children find an example of where they used this feature to great effect?
• conversely, can they find an example of where their writing was less effective and could have been made more so by the use of the feature in focus?

The journey across a unit towards producing a quality written outcome may seem long and undulating, but the starting point is always the same: it begins with a good model. One thing is for sure, getting that right is no doddle!

For more guidance on using and creating appropriately pitched models, inspired by quality texts, explore our Models for Writing booklets available for purchase from one of the HFL Education online resources:

Model for Writing discussion featuring The Great Paper Caper by Oliver Jeffers

Model for Writing recount featuring Traction Man by Mini Grey

Model for Writing recount (newspaper report) featuring Zeraffa Giraffa by Dianne Hofmeyr (illustrated by Jane Ray)

Model for Writing persuasion featuring Weslandia by Paul Fleischman

Model for Writing persuasion featuring The Spider and the Fly by Tony DiTerlizzi (based on the poem by Mary Howittt)

Helping children to flex their comprehension muscles on the best texts we can find - those that not only delight, amaze, and intrigue but that align well with the challenge featured in the test – will ensure that the knowledge and skills pupils have honed throughout their primary years are applied confidently during the timed test. Getting the pitch right therefore is key.

Selecting fiction texts in line with ARE has been helped by the publication of HFL Education’s Assessing with Age-Related Texts (AART) document. This is a unique reading assessment resource illustrating what ‘age-relatedness’ looks like at the end of years 3-6, as children move beyond book bands and reading schemes. Many teachers are finding this resource invaluable in helping them to refine their understanding of what constitutes a well-pitched fiction text for year groups across KS2.

You can find further details, including a video that explores this document, as well as others exploring the wider HFL Education KS1-KS2 Reading Tooolkit.

This blog is designed to complement this existing resource by offering an insight into the challenge presented by differing types of non-fiction texts.

By analysing the non-fiction texts that have featured in KS2 Reading SATs past papers, teachers can begin to build up a holistic understanding of the level of challenge presented in the test. Armed with this knowledge, teachers can engage pupils with texts of comparable complexity in the lead up to the SATs providing them with ample practise of tackling similar challenge in advance of the test day.

The KS2 Reading SATs consists of 3 texts comprising a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry – although not all appear every year and not in that order. The texts are designed to move from most accessible (text 1) to most challenging (text 3). Since 2016 (when the test became more demanding), the past papers have featured a non-fiction text in positions 1-3, thus enabling an exploration of each text to gain an understanding of the features that constitute increasing challenge, according to the Standards & Testing Agency.

What follows is an analysis of the non-fiction texts that have featured in SATs papers from 2016 to 2019. Teachers should use this analysis to cross reference with the texts they are exploring with their pupils in the run-up to the KS2 SATs. In order to prepare pupils effectively for the KS2 reading test, it is helpful if children have encountered and explored - to varying degrees as appropriate - texts that contain many, if not all, of the features identified.

The Giant Panda Bear (2018)

Text position 1 – most accessible pitch

Features of the text:

• fairly standard, prototypical text type - non chronological report;
• consistent use of simple present tense throughout;
• simple sub-headings clearly indicate the content of the paragraph, including the use of single-word headings e.g. ‘Appearance’, ‘Habitat’, ‘Diet’;
• short paragraphs – approx. 4-5 sentences per paragraph;
• majority of sentences begin with the noun relating to the main subject of the text e.g. ‘the panda’ or use of a pronoun (they) in its place;
• some limited use of fronted adverbials to start sentences e.g. ‘In the wild, their main diet is bamboo.’
• most sentences follow a predicable pattern e.g. noun + verb + complement (Giant pandas have…/ Panda bears are…/Newborn cubs weigh…)
• greater reliance on coordinating conjunctions rather than subordinating conjunctions (limited range of subordinating conjunctions used e.g. where, which, as because).

Swimming the English Channel (2017)

Text position 2 – middle challenge pitch

Features of the text:

• mixed text type: biography; recount; Q & As; report;
• large chunks of text with limited use of subheadings to introduce new topics/sections;
• increasing variety of sentence constructions: 55% percent of sentences begin with a noun: most other sentences begin with a fronted adverbial e.g. ‘Nearly twenty-seven hours later…’/’In fact…’/’It must be said…’;
• some use of figurative/literary language e.g. idioms, metaphor and simile (the lone swimmer);
• cohesion is created through synonymous references to the same subject, moving beyond the simple use of the main noun or pronoun e.g. the lone swimmer/the exhausted man.

Fact Sheet: About Bumblebees (2019)

Text position 2 – middle challenge pitch

Features of the text:

• mixed text type: report; persuasion; explanation;
• attempt at humouring the reader e.g. ‘Bumblebees will never interrupt your picnic or steal your sandwiches!’
• sub-headings break up the text but vary in construction e.g. questions; commands; noun phrases (Save our bees/ Did you know that bumblebees have smelly feet?/ Buzz Pollination);
• some use of figurative/literary language e.g. idioms, metaphor and simile (a lifeline/ Don’t bee confused)
• widening range of subordinating conjunctions used to extend sentences (e.g. because, that, which, so, when, if);
• cohesion is created through several synonymous references to the same subject, moving beyond the simple use of the main noun or pronoun e.g. bumblebees/fat, furry little creatures/hardworking pollinators.

The Way of the Dodo (2016)

Text position 3 – most challenging pitch

Features of the text:

• no sub-headings;
• use of a variety of sentence constructions: only 40% percent of sentences begin with a noun/pronoun;
• regular use of long, complex sentence constructions: 50% of sentences contain 3 or more clauses;
• limited use of coordinating conjunctions; reliance on use of subordinating conjunctions (45% coordinating conjunctions; 55% subordinating conjunctions)
• considerable use of literary language e.g. idioms, metaphor and simile (easy pickings/ slipped into the pages/ wiped out/ in a new light/ offered themselves up/ brought its fate upon itself);
• increased use of nominalisation (turning verbs or adjectives into nouns or noun phrases) used frequently throughout the piece e.g. disappearance, thirst, suffocation, discovery, indication.

In summary, the most accessible text is a prototypical example of a commonly encountered text type (non-chronological report). This is the sort of reading material often planned into the Year 2 curriculum (and regularly revisited thereafter), with pupils given multiple opportunities to read reports about various topics, often animals, and write their own reports about a topic of choice. The sub-headings aid the reader through their clarity and relevance to the information grouped beneath. Within the most accessible text, the sentence structure is mainly predictable and repeated and most often follows a standard pattern: noun +verb +complement. There is some limited use of fronting clauses/adverbials before the main clause. Sometimes a sentence will begin with a pronoun rather than a noun but due to the limited range of subjects referred to within the piece, it is relatively easy for the reader to keep track of the topic/subject in question.

More challenging non-fiction texts can be characterised by less regular use of subheadings to guide the reader. Where sub-headings are used, they may vary in format, style and purpose. These texts often present a hybrid of text types. Sentence structure begins to vary in more challenging non-fiction texts. Sentences often begin with a fronted adverbial, meaning that key info is delayed which has an impact on the reader’s ability to grasp the topic until they have got some way through the sentence and discovered the subject. Cohesion is created within and across paragraphs through the increased use of connecting adverbs, as well as the use of synonymous references to the main subject, or subjects, within the piece. Synonymous references to the subject are often through extended noun phrases rather than single words e.g. fat, furry little creatures. The most notable difference between the most accessible text and more challenging non-fiction examples is in the increased use of literary language, specifically the inclusion of figurative language, including idioms and metaphors. The world of fiction and non-fiction writing collide in more challenging texts. Humour can also feature - in the text examples outlined above, this is evident with the inclusion of a pun (‘Don’t bee confused!’)

In the most challenging non-fiction texts, the average sentence length increases in line with the regular use of multi-clause sentences; the reader moves from one long sentence to another long sentence with little respite. Most notably, literary language is used liberally throughout the most challenging non-fiction texts to create detail, depth and imagery for the reader. Sub-headings are often omitted and readers have to work hard to summarise as they read, teasing out factual detail from often quite lengthy noun phrases. Cohesion is created across a number of paragraphs with multiple subjects being referred to in multiple ways forcing the reader to keep track of several concepts across the piece. Nominalisation – the process of changing verbs to nouns - is also a more prominent feature of the most challenging text. This grammatical process is a feature of academic writing and makes the text appear more formal. The use of repeated nominalisation can tire the reader as they must unravel the meaning of a single word that would, in an easier text, be expressed as a more accessible verb chain, using, most probably, a more commonly encountered verb e.g.

Original version from the 2016 text ‘The Way of the Dodo’:

‘The very fact that the dodo was still alive and well on Mauritius 4,000 years after a drought that claimed the lives of thousands of animals is an indication (noun) of the bird’s ability (noun) to survive.’

Amended version removing nominalisation:

The very fact that the dodo was still alive and well on Mauritius 4,000 years after a drought that claimed the lives of thousands of animals indicates/shows/demonstrates/proves (verb) that the bird’s was able to (verb chain) survive…harsh conditions’

Although nominalisation does feature in the more accessible texts, it is used less frequently. Of particular note is that even though nominalisation often reduces word count (a verb chain is reduced to a single word/or fewer words e.g. ‘was able to’ becomes ‘ability to’) the average sentence length remains high in the most challenging text (see below); this reaffirms the challenge that readers face when tackling the hardest texts – each sentence contains a great deal of information meaning that there is a lot for the reader to work through and retain. In summary, it is the combination of more challenging grammatical features, alongside their frequency, paired with the lack of navigational features, such as headings, that creates the cumulative challenge in the hardest non-fiction text presented in the KS2 Reading SATs test.

Quick comparison guide:

The intention of this guidance document is to support teachers to gain a clearer insight into what constitutes challenge in the non-fiction texts that have appeared as part of the KS2 Reading SATs since 2016.

For further support in preparing pupils for the KS2 Reading SATs, please do explore our linked blogs:

Reflections from analysis of the 2019 KS2 reading SATs: part 1

Reflections from analysis of the 2019 KS2 reading SATs: part 2

Reflections from analysis of the 2019 KS2 reading SATs: part 3

Reflections from analysis of the 2019 KS2 reading SATs: part 4

The very short read for the time-pressed teacher

Now, more than ever, time is of the essence.  And in teaching that is really, really saying something.  Time is not exactly our most reliable or accommodating friend, especially when we have whiplash, what-day-of-the-week-is-it-now U Turns to contend with.   With this in mind, I am approaching this blog strategically. We could all do with as much strategic thinking as we can get at the moment. So, I am cutting to the chase and sharing the resource that underpins this blog upfront. 

You can read on if you choose to. Section two makes some recommendations of great individual stories, and also offers some suggestions for how to get the most out of others.  Section three goes a bit deeper and offers a rationale for prioritising the sharing of short stories, and considers the place of them across the primary phase, and as part of your reading provision/offer. But if you just want to take the book list and run, here it is, a specially updated list of really rather good short story collections for primary-aged children:  

Some titles are more mature than others – be it in terms of reading challenge or nature of content.  This is explicitly noted in the list.  Please preview prior to sharing in class.

The medium length read: some recommendations and suggestions

For readers of all ages, Janet and Allan Ahlberg are giants in the field of (short) storytelling. Good stories, well told. Simple. As. That.  I must thank Jo Bowers, Principal Lecturer in Primary Ed and Associate Dean at Cardiff Metropolitan University, for introducing me to The Clothes Horse, their wonderfully inventive collection.  My personal favourite from the book is the ridiculously charming Life Savings.  I think the learning opportunities, in terms of follow up discussion and thoughtfulness, will speak for themselves. You'll be left with a priceless image to hang onto every time you see some unexpectedly childish behaviour from those allegedly old enough to know better.   The collection is small, but perfectly formed. Now the less positive news. As far as I can tell, it is not currently in print, so I had some reservations about sharing it.  But it is too good not to. You can buy it used – get in there quick. (Quicker!) You can also join me in mounting a campaign to get it back in print.    Allow your young readers/listeners to soak up the storytelling voice that runs through each story, much as it does across their other works.

For readers in lower key stage 2, I would highly recommend Wild Stories by Colin Thompson.  This is another book that is not always available through the most convenient channels.  Please don't give up if you only see an expensive option.  You should be able to order this as an import.  It is a collection of gems. Quirky and beautifully written, it is a series of linked stories  set in a neglected garden as it turns wild following its owner’s departure. There is so much to recommend about this book, and its varied offering of poems and short stories, but one aspect that really struck me was the ways by which we come to have a real sense of place.  I probably don’t need to explicitly state the grammar elements that support this, so I won’t.  They take up enough space elsewhere, but if you are looking for some rich examples of how time, place, mood and atmosphere are conjured into being, look no further.  My personal favourite selection is Sid the Mosquito, as well as the book’s opening sections. 

Our Reading Fluency Project team have previously shared their own recommended shorter reads – just right for a session devoted to developing prosodic or performance reading. You can catch up with these here:

KS1 selections 

KS2 selections 

And most recently, KS3

From this later blog, Spells for home by Stephanie Burgis from The Book of Hope: words and pictures to comfort, inspire and entertain, has one particular story recommended for use to develop phrased, expressive reading. You can find an online edition of The Book of Hopes.

Once Upon a Place, is probably my personal favourite of the collections, though it faces some stiff competition.  It may be a personal bias in that it gathers a bevy of Irish writers, but it might just be  because it is brilliant, with a range of story genres (and poetry) for readers in Upper KS2.  To seal the deal, PJ Lynch’s beautifully crafted illustrations appear throughout.   The opening story, Gren’s Ghost gets things going nicely. Colleagues have shared it to very good response and effect in years 5 and 6.  Just to be clear though, despite the fact that I am about to refer to another ghost story from this book, it offers a range of genres. I might just mention the poem Bus Stop - I have taught this in several year 5 classes now and the discussion has blown me away each time.  One or two phrases or concepts need a little bit of live scaffolding, then watch the ripples of insight radiate wider and wider. 

My personal recommendation from Once Upon A Place works well with complementary books and other texts. Stream Time by Oisín McGann is another ghost story of a kind – a most unusual kind.  Read this for a fresh spin on a tale of the undead, packed with voice and framed in the most unusual way. You will certainly want to explore and discuss the choices that inform its narration. Having shared the story, consider opening up the ideas and themes of the story by sharing the more recent The Haunted Lake, an appropriately haunting picturebook that also benefits from the artwork of P J Lynch. Here though, Lynch also provides the words – and there are plenty of them forming an entrancing, hypnotic tale.  This is a short story vividly drawn in both word and picture. Draw out the thematic links and points at which the two stories reflect one another and then note the ways in which they differ. You will quickly see the ways in which the Haunted Lake shares murky waters with Stream Time. Given the themes that we have now opened up, go deeper still by moving onto David Almond and Levi Pinfold’s The Dam. It’s a brilliant book. Consider in particular the fabled “flooded” homesteads that surround The Dam and how this concept is mirrored overtly in The Haunted Lake.   Weaving these thematic threads across a series of rich reading episodes will deepen thinking as it develops conceptual, thematic and emotional understanding.

Nikki Gamble’s Story Shop contains  – amongst many other gems – Ray Bradbury’s brilliant All Summer in a Day. This story – like all others – is very much more than a grammar exemplar.  It offers up stunning writing, challenges children’s preconceptions of what good writing actually looks like, and then the ending thoroughly messes with their moral compasses. Another great story shared here is Nule by the uncannily good and much-missed Jan Mark.  Mark deserves her own paragraph and more but let me just finish this paragraph with a clear warning: no matter your age, no matter your capacity for rationality, do not read Nule if you have a certain type of bannister and you are about to settle down for the night.

Remaining with Jan Mark, last year a fantastic – and in places challenging – collection of her stories was gathered.  The One that Got Away is a joy of razor sharp characterisation, acute dialogue, and some very effective stings-in-the-tails.  Nule appears here too. However, the final selling point I want to highlight is just how enjoyable and thought-provoking some of Mark’s stories are for teachers. The One That Got Away is three pages of educational bliss. But it’s The Choice is Yours that I really want to recommend.  Bit-by-bit, exchange-after-exchange, a small heartbreak builds. It’s a back-and-forth kind of story with one unfortunate child trapped in a to-and-fro between adult agendas.  Characterisation is forensic across line-by-line perfection.  And the ending is quietly, mundanely devastating. 

The longer read: rhyme and reason

Why do I think short stories are worthy of consideration as a strand of your reading provision and a thread woven across or around your curriculum for literature? If we are short of time, it makes sense to shorten the reads.  And I don’t just mean the immediate here-and-now of time and task management, and the contextual pressures of  our responses during lockdown.  Each child that we teach has one reading journey unique to them.  Some will be brim-full of all kinds of genres, styles, concepts, characters and all those wonderful words that conjure them into a mental life.  Some might be reliant on the reading journey that we map out.  There’s little more rewarding than the shared journey through a good novel - I remember this from my own childhood (Antonia Barber’s The Ghosts in particular, thank you Mrs Jessop) and from reading aloud to my class (Coraline was collective reading at its best – not for the delicate).  But then there are only so many novels that we can get through across the year that we have a particular class of children.  Novellas can help to extend the range of reading encountered in our story time sessions and there have been some crackers in recent years (perhaps another blog). Short stories can extend this range further still, and so much of the finest writing comes distilled.

For now, this sharing of great stories might be a short blast delivered through online read aloud sessions. However, I’d ask you to consider, if you haven’t already, whether there is a space in your (more usual) curriculum to offer a provision or spine of high quality, short stories. A good short story will likely have benefits for all readers across the years, across the phases. They provide a singular, contained, and complete reading experience, and the effect may well be profound in terms of developing a sense of narrative structures. Still the benefits run far deeper than that.  Stories are so important in learning, in the acquisition, reshaping, and expression of all kinds of knowledge.  A story that subtly makes use of stylistic features can influence writing without you highlighting it.  Carve out space for your reader-writers to read/mull/absorb and the benefits will most likely come to the fore in due course.  This does not all have to happen within the confines of the classroom and amidst the pressures of the timetable.  Reading a powerful, thought-provoking story at home will likely go down far better than usual home-reading routines for our more reluctant readers.

Done well, short stories are a tightly effective form, just like poetry, and they are perfect when time is short.  I think they have a major, sometimes underdeveloped, part to play in schools. I’ve written elsewhere about the powerful contribution that short stories have to make. In that blog I shared a quote from Graham Greene I like the central point of the quote, though his choice of pronoun needs some thought, so here it is:

“With a novel, which takes perhaps years to write, the author is not the same man he was at the end of the book as he was at the beginning. It is not only that his characters have developed–he has developed with them, and this nearly always gives a sense of roughness to the work: a novel can seldom have the sense of perfection which you find in Chekhov’s story, The Lady with the Dog.”

Graham Greene

This perfection or, to go to the Latin roots, this completeness is one selling point.  The satisfaction of knowing how things turn out – or even sometimes the frustration of when things either don’t turn out how we hoped or turn out in ways that ask us to fill in some gaps. This – as much as a laugh, a scare, or a moment of sadness - is writing that affects and so is writing for effect exemplified in the most powerful way.  Another selling point is that with a well-designed spine of short stories, mapped across the years, as a minimum entitlement, we can ensure that we offer up a diverse range of styles, forms and voices. Enriched readers are all the more likely to be rich writers. To quote Debra Myhill, we further enhance the potential to write with a consciousness of “infinite possibilities” only here we not only mean in terms of word , phrase or clause level choices, but also whole text level awareness of the possibilities of writing to change how we think, feel, and how we perceive the world around us.  Which, when we think about it, describes teaching. Sharing well-chosen, well-delivered short stories, amongst all the other things I have offered, is good teaching.  And it’s as simple – and brilliantly complex – as that.

A postscript on developing writing that meets the GDS standard

Way back in 2018, I wrote a blog that was focused on setting up a new series of blogs to support the development of writing that could be judged as satisfying the GDS standard set out for Year 6. It aimed to do so through means that we might consider timelessly good English teaching, rather than any kind of statutory hoop-jumping or feature cramming.  Instead it was going to look at some key ingredients that I believed were most likely to support the development of what we might consider to be good writing, and  - because you are teachers working in a particular system with a considerable dash of accountability – would also support in meeting this specific marker of writing attainment.

This blog on short stories reflects part of the intended blog (under the first heading below) relating to reading mileage.  I think reading mileage is often thought about in terms of either overall volume of words or books consumed, and perhaps not so often the range and diversity of styles and voices we encounter. The unique destinations that those miles lead us to, through, and beyond.   A good short story spine offers a whistle stop tour to all manner of new and exciting places. Just remember to send us a postcard. 

To wrap up, I’ve included an outline of the proposed blogs as a renewed commitment to completing the series, for when the times are right.

Here are the intended focus areas:

Reading mileage: distance and destinations the provision of a rich, broad and deep reading diet.

The importance of oracy This has always been critically important but I am hopeful that recent books by Robin Alexander and Isabel Beck, Margaret Mckeown, and Cheryl Sandora will relight the fuse for dialogic practice. The skilled management of classroom dialogue about written language can be extremely powerful in enhancing both reading and writing, as well as talk itself.

The Writer's Workshop: crafting and redrafting – the move to reduce written marking and to explore the potential of more immediate feedback has opened a new window for the processes associated with writing conferencing as described by Donald Graves and others back in the eighties.

Time is (it) on your side (?): making space to read, think and write – this speaks for itself;  time will always be our enemy so forging connections across various modes of literacy instruction will support us in maximising the learning gains from our time/effort input.

Different voices; different lives – here we will consider how we can develop voice and register drawing upon concepts, models and practices that are currently perhaps not as well-known as they should be.

Cohesion - wherever (and whenever) we go - here we will look at the central importance of cohesion, and how a well-developed grasp of chronological writing supports not only clarity in writing, but the ability to reshape, reform and - where appropriate, and where we dare - bend and distort our writing for particular effect.  I will no doubt mention verbs at some point. Graves will get a look in once more.  As will Barrs and Cork's The Reader in the Writer.  They're all rather handy.

Schools “shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality“.

Schools shall not "promote the teaching… of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship“.

How do those statements make you feel? Do you think that is reasonable?

In 1967, homosexuality was legalized in England and Wales. To me, this is shocking in itself – that homosexuality wasn’t legal until well after both of my parents had been born. You’d have thought this would be a turning point in history. In some respects it was, but progress is never straight-forward.

In 1988, Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government enacted Section 28 (also sometimes referred to as Clause 28) to ‘prohibit the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities’. The statements at the beginning of this blog come from that piece of legislation. This meant that by law, teachers were not allowed to teach or talk about homosexual relationships.

At the time, Margaret Thatcher said: "Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay. All of those children are being cheated of a sound start in life."

I would argue, that for those children who did grow up to be gay, this piece of legislation is what cheated them out of a sound start in life.

Shockingly, this legislation remained law until 2003. For me, and thousands like me, who went to school during this time and were gay, it meant that we could never be ourselves. We weren’t valid in society. We were second-class citizens. Although I didn’t really know I was gay until my mid-teens (because I didn’t have the vocabulary or knowledge to be able to articulate who I was due to lack of education), I always knew I was different somehow and I was ashamed. I spent the majority of my childhood feeling different from everyone else and feeling ashamed of who I was. I remember wishing that I could just be ‘normal’. Throughout my school life, I was bullied at various times and by the time I reached secondary school, I figured it was easier to keep quiet and keep my head down. To try not to stand out and to try and stay away from the majority of my peers who I perceived as threats at the time. I was still met with jeers and taunts regularly. Being called ‘gay’ as an insult was commonplace and it was accepted. This was life. This was normal. I wasn’t.

Even after Section 28 had been repealed, it left a legacy. In my second year of teaching, I remember being summoned to the Head’s office. He had been informed – by anxious parents – that there were rumours in the playground that I was gay. He stated that he had no problem with this at all, but advised me, very firmly, to keep my private life and my professional life separate. This issue was then never spoken of again. This was 2011 – eight years after section 28 had finally been repealed.

In retrospect, I’m angry. I’m livid. Throughout my life I was made to feel as if I were an embarrassment. I was made to feel like I was abnormal and, worst of all, I felt alone. However, I was also lucky: I had and still have a very loving and supportive family. I had good friends at school – without whom life could have been far worse. In fact, I probably owe far more to my friends and family then I could ever know. But what happened to the children who were not as lucky as me? I am sure that there were thousands of children during those years who were totally alienated from society, who felt abnormal, who felt ashamed and who felt alone. All this – in large part - from one piece of legislation which, in my opinion, caused more destruction than we can possibly imagine.

So you may be wondering, why raise this now? This is in the past – shouldn’t we focus on the future?

Well, yes, but the impact of Section 28, I would argue, still lives on. According to the Stonewall School Report of 2017:

• 45% of LGB students are bullied at school, including 64% of trans students
• 61% of LGBT+ young people have self-harmed
• 45% of young trans people have attempted to take their own life
• 53% of LGBT+ students say there isn’t an adult at school they feel they can talk to

Read the full report: The experiences of lesbian, gay, bi and trans young people in Britain’s schools in 2017

Although, undoubtedly, things are improving since the dark days of the 1980’s and 1990’s, it is clear that bullying is still commonplace and there is still far more we need to do – as educators – to support our young people. That may be an obvious statement to make and one which – I hope – the majority of people would agree with. However, we mustn’t underestimate the impact of section 28 on those who are now educators and identify as LGBTQ+ – people like me. We are the people who suffered its effects both during and beyond this time, and perhaps, for many of us, it left a greater mark than we would like to acknowledge.

Although, in many schools now (though not all), teachers are encouraged to be open and to be role-models, that is still a big step to take. When I was working in my last school, I was open with staff but I never came out to the children. I had a rule with myself for some time that if I was ever asked by a child directly, I would be honest, but no-one ever did. When I think back, that’s hardly surprising really – I’m not sure many primary aged children would ever ask their teacher outright whether they were gay. I often had children ask me whether I was married or whether I had a girlfriend and I never used that as an opportunity to open that discussion. Why? Because I was afraid. I wasn’t particularly afraid of what the children would say – I find most of them to be very open minded and accepting. Mostly I was afraid of parental reaction – they can be more of an unknown quantity. Do you remember the protests that originated in Birmingham in 2019 because of the No Outsiders project started by Andrew Moffat?

Read more about the Birmingham LGBT teaching row: How did it unfold?

To me, this shows that we still have work to do. If nothing else, this made me think that I have to get out of my comfort zone, stand up and be counted. There seems to be a much bigger swing towards the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people within the curriculum now from Early Years right the way through the education system. There are many more books which depict LGBT characters and the government have made it a requirement to teach about same-sex relationships in the new RSE curriculum. Finally, nearly 20 years since section 28 has been repealed, we are beginning to actively teach about LGBT+ people and validate the contribution they have made to society for generations. My hope is that with this increased visibility, more educators – like me – will feel able to stand up, be visible and become those role-models which we never had when we were at school. We now have the chance to usualise LGBTQ+ people and if we do that, surely we will have a much more tolerant and respectful society in the future. Books like ‘Big gay adventures in education’, edited by Daniel Tomlinson-Gray are of such huge help and comfort to people like myself – to know that we aren’t alone. However, as Daniel says in his chapter, ‘we need heterosexual allies if we are ever to reach a place where all LGBT+ young people can feel safe and included in their school communities’.

Section 28 has left an indelible mark on education. A shameful stain which has cost lives. However, things are changing and we all need to be brave. We need to bring about this change faster so that all young people feel safe and validated. No child should feel alone or abnormal because of who they are.