Ofsted

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Ofsteds subject professional development
materials English

• A training resource for teachers of English in
  secondary schools

2012
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About this training resource

• This training resource has been produced to help
  teachers in secondary schools evaluate their
  current provision for English, using the English
  report Moving English forward (2012) as a
  starting point for discussion. It is not
  mandatory.
• We suggest that heads of department wishing to
  use the resource spend some time reading through
  the materials prior to using them. Additional
  guidance on how to manage the sessions is
  provided through the accompanying notes. The
  materials cover five themes from the report
  teaching and learning writing reading for
  pleasure the Key Stage 3 curriculum and
  literacy across the curriculum.
• The materials are flexible. Schools can either
  work through each unit in turn or focus on the
  topics that are of greatest relevance to them.
  Each unit is intended to generate discussion and
  activities that should take around an hour to
  complete. The materials use questions and
  extracts from the report to stimulate discussion
  and aid action-planning.

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Some questions on EnglishHow well do you know
the performance data?
Quiz
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Questions

1. What proportion of students achieved grade C or
   above in GCSE English in 2011?
2. What proportion of students achieved grade C or
   above in GCSE English Literature in 2011?
3. What proportion of students nationally are
   entered for GCSE English Literature?
4. What was the gender gap in GCSE English last
   year?
5. How many students considered to be eligible for
   free school meals achieved grade C or above at
   GCSE in 2011 and how does this compare with those
   who were not eligible ?
6. What proportion of students achieved grade B or
   above and C or above in A-level English courses
   in 2011?
7. What proportion of students make expected
   progress between Key Stages 2 and 4?
8. What proportion of students achieved Level 4 or
   above in reading and in writing at the end of Key
   Stage 2 in 2011?

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Answers

1. What proportion of students achieved grade C or
   above in GCSE English in 2011? 72
2. What proportion of students achieved grade C or
   above in GCSE English Literature in 2011? 79
3. What proportion of students nationally are
   entered for GCSE English Literature? 72
4. What was the gender gap in GCSE English last
   year? 13
5. How many students considered to be eligible for
   free school meals achieved grade C or above at
   GCSE in 2011 and how does this compare with those
   who were not eligible? There was an 18 gap 67
   of students eligible for free school meals
   achieved C or above compared with 85 who were
   not eligible
6. What proportion of students achieved grade B and
   above or C and above in A-level English courses
   in 2011? Around half achieved grade B or above
   with nearly 80 reaching grade C or above
7. What proportion of students make expected
   progress between Key Stages 2 and 4? 83
8. What proportion of students achieved Level 4 or
   above in reading and in writing at the end of Key
   Stage 2 in 2011? 84 in reading and 75 in
   writing.

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What is the impact of teaching on students
learning in English in your school?
Issue 1
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What is effective teaching in English?
Although most teaching observed was good or
outstanding, around 30 of English lessons in the
survey were judged to be no better than
satisfactory. Remember that the survey did not
include schools in a category such as special
measures. There were also issues of variability
in the quality of teaching across departments.
This suggests that there is room for improvement
in teaching in many schools.
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The myths of good teaching in English

• Inspectors often speak about missed
  opportunities when they observe lessons. In
  these lessons, teaching is expected to be good or
  better but students learning and progress are
  often no better than satisfactory. The report
  argues that this is because too many myths have
  built up about what good teaching is or what
  teachers think that an Ofsted inspector is
  looking for.

• Discussion points
• Read paragraphs 1519 in the report. This
  includes a description of a Year 9 lesson.
  Discuss the lesson as a department and look at
  the analysis of it in the report.
• Do teachers feel that there is anything here that
  might be relevant to their own teaching? Is their
  teaching influenced by any of these myths?

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What is effective teaching in English?
Ofsteds view is that outstanding teaching
enables students to make rapid and sustained
progress. In other words, it is the outcome for
students that matters. There is no one route to
excellence. It is a myth that inspectors expect
you to teach in one particular way it is the
impact on learning that matters.
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How effective are your learning objectives?

• The report suggests that lesson objectives in
  English tend to be too long-term or focused on
  tasks rather than learning. In secondary schools,
  teachers increasingly choose the very broad
  assessment focuses as the objectives. Bear in
  mind that you should be able to evaluate the
  impact of the objective within the lesson.

• Discussion points
• Exchange lesson plans. Evaluate the clarity and
  helpfulness or otherwise of your learning
  objectives. Are they specific? Are they
  achievable in the lesson? Above all, do they
  provide clear direction to learning in the
  lesson?
• Review some learning objectives for future
  lessons and see if you are happy with them.

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A school policy statement on effectiveteaching
and learning in English

• Discuss what you have learnt from this unit about
  effective teaching in English. Are there things
  that individual teachers would now do
  differently?
• Review the range of strategies used to evaluate
  teaching in English by senior leaders and others.
  
• Identify action to be taken. This might include
  guidance on teaching in the handbook, better
  departmental evaluation or changes to the subject
  action plan to highlight improvements to
  teaching.

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How effective is the teaching of writing,
including spelling and handwriting, in your
school?
Issue 2
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Standards of writing in your school

• Inspection evidence suggests that too many
  students, especially boys, do not write well
  enough by the age of 16 (paragraph 53, page 25).

• Discussion points
• What do your schools English results tell you
  about performance in writing compared with
  reading?
• Is there any noticeable difference between the
  performance of boys and girls in writing?
• What particularly works in motivating boys to
  write? Exchange good ideas.

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How might the teaching of writing be improved?

• Moving English forward lists six main weaknesses
  in the writing curriculum (paragraph 53).
• Discuss the list as a department. How many apply
  either to your own teaching or to departmental
  policy?

• Discussion points
• Identify three approaches to teaching writing
  that you consider to be successful.
• Use these ideas to draft guidance on teaching
  writing in the department. Include how to improve
  boys writing. The ideas might also be used to
  contribute to any whole-school policy on writing.

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Writing for real, writing that matters
One issue raised in the report is the importance
of making writing real for students. Boys
especially need to see that writing matters,
that it has an important place in the real world.
This means that teachers should try, where
possible, to provide tasks that are linked to
real-world situations, have a clear purpose and
a real audience.
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Spelling and handwriting

• Moving English forward contains a section about
  the teaching of spelling and handwriting
  (paragraphs 5559). The report suggests that this
  is less systematic in secondary than in primary
  schools. Indeed, many students say that spelling
  is almost never taught explicitly. Read the
  extract, then discuss these questions

• Discussion points
• Look at a selection of students work across the
  ability range. What are their main weaknesses in
  spelling and handwriting, and do they affect
  groups of students differently, for example boys
  more than girls?
• What strategies do you use to improve spelling
  and handwriting? What more could you do?

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The role of marking in improving spelling and
handwriting

• Paragraph 59 of the report argues that marking
  prioritised the identification of broad targets
  but rarely noted individual errors in spelling
  and grammar. The result was that many students
  received no further help with poor handwriting or
  spelling.

• Discussion points
• What does your marking policy say about how
  teachers should correct misspellings in students
  work? How, if at all, are students expected to
  respond?
• Look again at the students books. Focus this
  time on marking. What do you notice? Do teachers
  ever intervene to support spelling or
  handwriting? What appears to work best?

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How do schools promote reading widely and for
pleasure?
Issue 3
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Reading widely and for pleasure
A wide range of evidence, including international
comparisons, suggests that students today read
less than in the past and with less enjoyment.
You may know that the Evening Standard has been
involved in promoting a reading campaign in
London. The Secretary of State for Education has
said that pupils as young as 11 should be
expected to read 50 books a year.
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The whole-school climate for reading
The report includes a case study which
demonstrates how a comprehensive school promoted
reading for pleasure, winning an award in the
process (paragraphs 7475). You can read a full
version of this case study at www.ofsted.gov.uk/r
esources/120126 on Ofsteds Good Practice
database, before discussing these points.
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Boys and reading
It is widely held that girls read more than boys
and that they read more fiction. Boys will often
say that they dont read when asked yet then go
on to admit that they read newspapers, special
interest magazines, non-fiction texts and
different internet texts. What can the department
do to improve boys reading?
Ofsteds Subject Professional Development
Materials English (secondary schools)
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Teaching the class novel
Inspection evidence confirms that classes study
very few complete texts together. The usual
approach at Key Stage 3 is to identify one
fiction text each year. This may mean that some
students only ever read one novel a year. Is this
acceptable? The study of class novels is both
essential and tricky, for example finding a book
that challenges all students in a class. Do we
need to consider introducing students to a wider
range of textswithout necessarily studying each
one in the same detail?
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How effective is the Key Stage 3 curriculum?
Issue 4
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Is your Key Stage 3 curriculum effective?

• Discussions with students suggest that they tend
  to prefer work in English at Key Stage 4 rather
  than at Key Stage 3. Read paragraphs 4047 of the
  report.
• Use this discussion to consider your Key Stage 3
  programme and how it might be improved.

• Discussion points
• The impact of your Key Stage 3 curriculum on
  students learning
• The guiding principles and rationale of your Key
  Stage 3 programme
• Students understanding of the programme.

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Balancing personal and analytical responses to
texts

• Moving English forward comments on schools
  over-reliance on test and examination preparation
  as components of the curriculum at Key Stage 3
  (paragraphs 2024).
• It focuses in particular on the over-use of the
  PEE approach as the main strategy in some schools
  for responding to texts at Key Stage 3.

• Discussion points
• Look at a selection of students books from Year
  7. What do the earliest pieces of work tell you
  about your priorities in English?
• Consider the balance of tasks set on texts. How
  do teachers encourage students to develop a
  personal response to what they read?

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Progression and continuity at Key Stage 3

• A coherent curriculum at Key Stage 3 will include
  effective planning for progression and
  continuity. Inspectors comment sometimes on the
  repetition of activities (features of persuasive
  writing), learning objectives and texts from year
  to year. Students who do not enjoy English tend
  to see it as lacking variety and challenge.

• Discussion points
• Look at your English units from Year 7 to Year 9.
  What does this tell you about progression and
  continuity at Key Stage 3?
• How should students develop skills, knowledge and
  understanding as they move from year to year?
• Are teachers clear about how their work builds on
  what students have previously studied?

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The overall balance of provision at Key Stage 3

• Read the full section on the Key Stage 3
  curriculum (paragraphs 4047). The report argues
  that an effective curriculum at Key Stage 3 will
  include study of some key aspects of English.
  These include wider reading, moving image work,
  poetry, practical drama, the study of the English
  language, and the explicit teaching of speaking
  and listening.

• Discussion points
• Review the elements of English listed above. Are
  they all prominent in your KS3 scheme of work? .
  Are there any elements that might need to be
  given greater emphasis?
• Is there an explicit and progressive approach to
  developing students speaking and listening
  skills or does it tend to happen incidentally?

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How can you best promote literacy across the
curriculum?
Issue 5
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Literacy across the curriculum

• The report states that, even with effective
  teaching in English lessons, progress will be
  limited if this good practice is not consolidated
  in the 26 out of 30 other lessons in a secondary
  school. What is the situation with
  cross-curricular literacy in your school?

• Discussion points
• Is literacy an issue in your school? What do
  performance data or other evidence tell you?
• Does your school have a policy on teaching
  literacy across the curriculum?
• What strategies are in place to enhance
  whole-school literacy?
• Have staff received any training on literacy?

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Whole-school action to promote literacy across
the curriculum

• Promoting literacy across the curriculum has been
  a priority for schools over many years but few
  initiatives have become permanent features. There
  are now two case studies on Ofsteds Good
  Practice database
• Don Valley (a reading focus) www.ofsted.gov.uk/res
  ources/120126
• Aston Manor (a writing focus) www.ofsted.gov.uk/re
  sources/136882
• Evaluate what your school can learn from them.

• Discussion points
• Read the two case studies
• List the different strategies or activities used
  across the two schools
• Compare what your school does and identify any
  further action that should be taken

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Teaching literacy within lessons across the
curriculum

• As stated earlier, most lessons in a secondary
  school are not taught by an English or literacy
  specialist. However, all teachers contribute to
  literacy (or oracy) and can have a positive or
  negative impact on students learning.

• Discussion points
• What should all teachers know about the most
  effective ways of promoting literacy and oracy in
  their lessons?
• How can learning in subjects be enhanced by good
  literacy practice?
• What can different departments contribute to
  literacy? What reading/writing/oral communication
  skills do the different subjects need?

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Moving literacy forward

• This unit has raised a number of issues about
  current literacy practice in the school.
• Re-read the case study on page 55 which
  demonstrates how senior leaders can help
  establish the climate for improving literacy in a
  school.
• Consider with your senior leaders how best to
  bring this about in your school.

• Discussion points
• What are the priorities now for your school?
• What role should the English department play in
  this work?

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Summary and conclusion
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Conclusion

• No matter how much of this training pack you have
  used, you should by now have identified some
  action points in English.
• You might also wish to look at the specific
  criteria we use to judge English on subject
  inspections. You can find this material on
  Ofsteds website www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/2010
  0015
• You will also find examples of good practice on
  Ofsteds website www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/good
  practice
• We welcome comments on this training resource.
  Please write to enquiries_at_ofsted.gov.uk and
  ensure that you put English professional
  development materials in the subject box of your
  email.