As a small international school with a high level of English as a Second Language (over 90% ESL rate), the Literacy Tree has changed our English provision. Having spent several years following a range of off-the-shelf schemes, monotonous approaches and tired, disjointed practices, we noticed that children at our school were not only disengaging more and more with English lessons, but they were also falling out of love with stories and the magic of books.
Having met Lynn and Anthony many years ago at The Education Show in Birmingham you could feel and see the passion they had for English through their #TeachThroughAText approach; that immersion into high-quality, diverse texts where writing is done for a purpose rather than just a tick list outcome.
When the time finally came to revamp our English provision, as a school, we knew where to look. Having now used the Literacy Tree for two years, we have seen a fantastic transformation: our children are once again enjoying stories; they are excited to see what will happen next in their lessons; they are writing a range of text types for real purposes rather than just something for the teacher to mark in a book. We never would have thought we’d have our Year 5 children getting to grips with ‘The Tempest’ by William Shakespeare, writing (and acting out!) their own playscripts based on his play!
As a school we have taken the plunge and have fully rolled out the Literacy Tree for this academic year. We are already excited by the text choices for our Literary Leaves and part of the joy of the Literacy Tree is that the texts are relevant, thoughtful and sympathetic to the modern and diverse world we live in where our children are encouraged to question and challenge the norms of society, whilst celebrating and embracing diversity.
The support, CPD and materials received from the Literacy Tree are second to none and our staff feel empowered and have the confidence to deliver high quality teaching, ensuring all the needs of our learners are met, especially when English isn’t the first language for the majority of our children.
We very much look forward to continuing our Literacy Tree journey and we are excited for where this year will take us!
Bryan Preston, Head of Primary, Norwich International School, Bankok, Thailand, August 2024
