Posted on: 10/10/2019
The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. – National Curriculum 2014
Once upon an Ofsted inspection, teachers were often advised to whip out a few “outstanding Ofsted lessons” that they had been keeping in their proverbial back pockets to perform for the inspectors.
These “Ofsted Lessons” that teachers may have felt they had to have at-the-ready might not necessarily have had any connection to day-to-day planning and, even if they did, inspectors rarely followed up on this. The new Ofsted Framework - published in May of this year - sets out to capture a more holistic apprehension of a school’s provision.
The most significant change is the new Quality of Education judgement. This judgement – which subsumes ‘teaching, learning and assessment’ and ‘outcomes’ - shifts the focus away from looking at a school’s data, lessons and books in isolation but rather seeing these aspects within the larger context of the school’s curriculum.
A school’s curriculum after all is the context in which all teaching and learning happens. It maps out the trajectory of learning children experience; it is the water we all swim through so to speak. But how do they intend to judge a school’s curriculum?
Inspectors will conduct a ‘deep dive’ to explore how effective the curriculum is in terms of its intent, implementation and impact. A range of conversations with school/subject leaders to establish the rationale behind the content of the curriculum will take place. They will observe lessons and conduct work scrutinies exploring how sequences of lessons are connected and how the curriculum is implemented. Questions such as these will seek to needle out this sense of connectedness:
What do you think we should know about your curriculum before we begin? What impact is this having? Can you tell me where you are pleased with your curriculum? Can you tell me why you chose this work for pupils to do? What will come next in the sequence of lessons?
Reading will be a focus for any inspection. The Inspection Handbook states that the implementation of phonics provision will be explored in detail and inspectors will want to see how any phonics programme will map out progress on a termly basis. Inspectors will also want to see that “the sequence of reading books shows a cumulative progression in phonics knowledge that is matched closely to the school’s phonics programme” – this is very specific. The school’s phonics scheme must be systematic and link to the books children are reading and taking home.
Whilst schemes of reading that follow a phonics progression are important (whichever one you may choose), it is however essential that it is not the sole provision for reading in early years and KS1. The handbook goes on to make it clear that, “stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction are chosen for reading to develop pupils’ vocabulary, language comprehension and love of reading.”
A “love of reading” will best be fostered with children being exposed to a range of real, quality literature from a range of authors. This is what is at the heart of the Literary Curriculum. Books and planning sequences have been chosen carefully and pitched appropriately for each year group.
The Literary Curriculum - Literary Leaves, Spelling Seeds and Planning Sequences -
can support teachers with the sequencing of their lessons and recognising the ‘end point’ these lessons and skills are leading to. These resources also ensure coverage of reading and writing skills and layering of learning. Tools like our Coverage Map and RATE assessment can also allow teachers to assess and track coverage.
Literature can also develop children’s resilience and stamina as readers. Phonics will unlock many words for children - but not all. And, when faced with words that do not conform to phonetic strategies, children need to be armed with alternative approaches, such as: recognising prefixes and suffixes, the shapes of words, word families and a growing awareness of etymology to name a few.
In response to the new Framework, it is vital that schools have a comprehensive English policy and curriculum and that sequences of lessons are clear and progressively build up children’s skills. The Literary Curriculum supports schools with this and aims to give teachers a view of where the learning is going. While reading schemes that support phonics are an essential part of the learning-to-read process, this has to be dovetailed with opportunities to teach reading and writing from real, quality literature from Reception to Year 6.
Posted in: Curriculum
