How to Get London Reading

Clare Constant, Head of English and Literacy at Thames Christian College and best-selling author of Key Stage 3 & 4 English materials published by Pearson, Heinemann and Longman, Edexcel and NEAB (AQA) comments on how Thames Christian College has become a school at the forefront of literacy

There is enormous potential for something really stimulating, enriching and empowering to be developed through Londoners coming together through the Evening Standard’s initiative to overcome the life limiting problem of illiteracy and give every child the hope and opportunity they deserve.

At Thames, we are delighted that Ofsted have pledged to renew their focus on literacy levels in schools. Developing innovative ways of improving literacy is something we are aready doing Thames Christian College and its working. As a school catering for 11 - 16 year olds at Thames we find we regularly take in children from any point from Year 7 to 10 who still really struggle with reading whether due to dyslexia, previous poor teaching, or lack of opportunity. Our well thought out literacy programme identifies children who need additional support from the start. We support these children with small group work and individual tuition. We also promote the right attitudes and motivation for learning in our pupils so that they really see the value of literacy in their lives and believe in themselves. However, we don't just support the weakest students with their literacy we look to improve every students literacy levels by providing everyone with access to support.

In these times of economic pressure we understand how hard it is for schools to make improvements. What we have done at Thames to keep the costs down is to develop an innovative but simple literacy resource pack which is available in every lesson to every student and designed to support and improve literacy in every lesson across every subject. It works."

Ofsted, last year, said our literacy provision was outstanding -

'There is a renewed focus on a consistent whole-school approach to teaching and learning. This is exemplified by outstanding provision for literacy development which is now embedded in teaching across the curriculum' – Ofsted May 2010'

Dealing with Literacy - Building a Strong Foundation For Life

Clare Constant, Head of English and Literacy at Thames Christian College and best-selling author of Key Stage 3 & 4 English materials published by Pearson, Heinemann and Longman, Edexcel and NEAB (AQA): comments on how the National Curriculum could be improved for English.

This half term the Evening Standard are running a week’s series on illiteracy in London. If you aren’t a teacher on the front line it makes shocking reading – but only if you are literate enough to read the article as you commute across the capital. While the London centric nature of the report makes it easy to forget that literacy levels are a massive concern across the whole of this country, I don’t think there are many people who would disagree with what was inherent in it yesterday: that the English curriculum’s content should prepare students for adult life. The next generation need to be able to achieve well in their chosen work, contribute to society more widely, engage culturally and be enriched by their appreciation of English heritage.

Surely that is what is being planned for as you read this during the lull between the Call For Evidence and the launch of the New National Curriculum? I’m sure there are lots of sensible discussions going on - with luck they’ll have included all my ideas, but just in case they got lost amidst the deluge of files, Mr Gove, this is what I think you should do.

Make sure that the vital elements of Speaking and Listening is at the forefront of our new National Curriculum: with everyone learning to speak in Standard English; becoming skilled in preparing and delivering formal presentations and debates, and taking part in informal and formal group discussions. This is essential if you are to improve literacy because if a child cannot clearly express an idea verbally, they are never going to be able to write it down coherently. In addition, developing effective verbal skills (and non-verbal) prepares students for a successful and happy adulthood not only because of the challenges they will meet in work, but also because these are the skills which empower every one of us to contribute to our communities, own our futures and enjoy life.

Keep your target of children reading 50 books in a year, but find ways to make sure it doesn’t become yet another hoop for kids to jump through and a teacher’s tick box nightmare. Instead, help teachers to embrace the idealism within it because actually we do all want children to develop the enriching habit of avid reading. But to succeed it has to be resourced properly so that schools can ensure all children have a broad and deep reading experience during their school years. Despite the current economic climate, we need to spend on this if nothing else: pro-actively transforming children’s childhoods and futures rather than committing ourselves to yet more decades of dealing with the economic and human consequences of lives thwarted and frustrated by illiteracy.

When you revise the ‘Reading’ section your aim should still be to enable all students to have access to and engage with our English Literary Heritage. However, while you are having fun drawing up The Canon, please could you go further and seize the opportunity for students to link Literature with History and the Arts. Why? Because this will help students understand how ideas develop over time and how Society and the Arts relate. Being able to think about the ‘big picture’ of how society changes and develops would empower change-makers of the future from all fields of learning to understand each other’s contributions. That’s vital if this generation is to work collectively to find the desperately-needed creative solutions to the globally complex problems we face.

You should find the new curriculum for Writing looks a lot like the old when you have finished with it. It still has to include learning to express oneself effectively in Standard English by ensuring grammar, punctuation and spelling are explicitly taught and students must have the opportunity to become skilled in writing to suit different audiences, purposes and in a variety of forms. There is one more tweak I’d like you to consider though. At Thames Christian College, since I joined 18 months ago, we have been developing and refining the kind of English curriculum I’m describing. Although as a department, we are delighted with the progress our mixed ability pupils make and they tell us they really enjoy the stimulating variety of our lessons, we have also worked hard with colleagues to find effective ways to ensure the skills pupils learn with us are used in every lesson across all subjects. Printing sets of literacy support packs for every classroom and ensuring effective use of them is planned into lessons (and delivered!). This has been a simple, inexpensive innovation yet its success is borne out in the following comment:

There is a renewed focus on a consistent whole-school approach to teaching and learning. This is exemplified by outstanding provision for literacy development which is now embedded in teaching across the curriculum – Ofsted May 2010

I hope thinking beyond subject boundaries to address core learning issues is a significant part of your planning too.

Having said all this, it is really vital that as well as including sensible aims and objectives you make sure that my English lessons can still be vibrant, relevant and loved by my students. So, I still need the freedom to choose texts that inspire my class, use audiences and purposes relevant to my children, and give my students tasks and opportunities that raise their current and future aspirations while enriching their experience. This is why a 21^st Century National Curriculum for English must still encourage creative and innovative approaches by professionals who use their expertise to tailor their lessons to maximise their students’ progress.

Perhaps optimistically, as a school, we are looking forward to what the changes to the National Curriculum could bring. There is enormous potential for something really stimulating, enriching and empowering to be developed. I hope it happens.

The National Curriculum Balancing Act

David Adkins, Deputy Head at Thames Christian College comments on how he thinks the government should balance the critical subjects of Maths and English with personal growth subjects and the broader curriculum.

Following the Education Secretary, Michael Gove MP’s launch of a review of England’s National Curriculum, a consultation of parents and teachers on what should be taught in schools is underway. As the debate heats up I’d like to contribute the following thoughts on how the National Curriculum could be improved for 11-16 year olds.

I think that rather than reducing the number of subjects taught it would be better to consolidate the National Curriculum by slimming down the content of individual subjects. By reducing the volume of material children have to learn, teachers will have more time to concentrate on teaching in engaging and creative styles to ensure the essentials are deeply learned - yet students remain stimulated. They will also be able to spend more time on tasks which require students to work in teams; learning skills essential for the workplace and to make a positive contribution to society.

The re-shaped National Curriculum should ensure more time is available for the core subjects, English and Maths. Every child should have the opportunity to leave school with ‘better than the basics’: this is a realistic goal. If literacy and numeracy were taught every day through Key Stages 1-3, there would be enough time to teach students in more interesting, fun and effective ways and ensure learning is applied to real-life scenarios. At present too many students’ success relies on parents filling in the gaps with practice at home and additional tutoring. This sets many students at a disadvantage because they don’t have sufficient support at home.

In order to address these issues, within the constraints of the current National Curriculum, at Thames we introduced a whole school approach to literacy so none of our students leave without this crucial skill. We expect to see this bear fruit in our forthcoming GCSE exams. We will also be implementing this approach for numeracy next year. In addition, we have introduced iGCSE in some subjects as its reduced content enables skills to be taught in more depth which we believe gives a much better preparation for A-levels by reducing the current leap from GCSE. Currently too many students who are successful at GCSE’s find it hard to reproduce their success at A-Level because they have become good at learning content but lack the critical thinking skills to succeed at the higher levels.

To ensure pupils still receive a well rounded education the government could consider introducing more cross curricular days or even weeks for pupils. At Thames we have found cross curriculum weeks provide an ideal opportunity to present pupils with new challenges and real life business projects, designed to widen their skills and knowledge beyond the day to day timetable.

Cross curricular weeks are really well-received by pupils and not just because it’s a change from the normal routine. The children appreciate the opportunity to develop group work, leadership, problem solving and presentation skills.

Whatever else it does, I think it is so important that the National Curriculum leaves time for wider learning so that schools don’t just 'teach to test'. We need to focus on building the pupils' real life skills and widening their experiences to best prepare them for life in the real world.

Should Computers be used by everyone in school exams?

As we are living in a technological society with young people most familiar with working online, should school exams including GCSEs be taken online? Stephen Holsgrove, Executive Head of Thames Christian College argues this could be a big mistake. 
 

“As an IT teacher, I can see the value of the use of computers in the classroom and think it is important that all pupils are highly IT literate, but when it comes to taking exams online it can be detrimental to students success.  Often pupils who take tests online achieve grades lower than expected and I think this is for a number of reasons…
  

When using pen and paper pupils have to think through carefully what they are going to write and how they are going to get their point across before they start writing.  Online there is too much temptation to rush in and start typing knowing the text can be reviewed and corrected later.  I think this interrupts the flow of analytical thinking and results in work that lacks depth.  When you write it out by hand, you have to make sure you get it right first time!
  

Also when presented with lines of text to fill in a hard copy test, pupils will usually fill in all of the lines provided but online they are more likely to draft shorter answers which do not fulfil the requirement.  

Resources can also be a problem in schools where it is not possible for all pupils to sit an exam online at the same time due to lack of computers.  In addition, computers in schools are often not reliable enough at the moment for such an important task.  Computers are a tool and tools can go wrong, you should always have a back up. 

Using computers to write and mark papers has created the perception that this will be a more accurate system. However, the recent revelation that online marking of essay scripts has caused problems shows that human’s writing and reading are not so bad after all. AQA revealed that mistakes cost 13 students their first choice places at university last Summer. 
 

Although, Functional Skills exams becoming available to sit online ensures that they can be sat when candidates are ready, rather than only at fixed times of year, there are still numerous opportunities for traditional pen and paper sittings with the advantages outlined above.

I think we also need to remember that basic skills like writing are still required in our daily life and in many modern workplaces.  Pupils still need to be able to write clearly and efficiently by the time they leave school. 
 

That is not to say that using computers in exams is not beneficial in certain cases. Some students, particularly those with dyslexia find it much easier to touch type than to write and if a pupil’s writing is indecipherable it could let them down. However, I think in the majority of cases the advantages of using pen and paper far outweigh technology. 
 

For now the pen is mightier than the computer.

Schools free from government control do best

The most successful schools ignore government advice and set their own standards for effective teaching, according to a thinktank report published by Reform (the think tank committed to public service modernisation) last week.  It says the best schools have an “open culture” and pro-active heads who regularly pop into classrooms and are actively involved in managing the school’s finances and staff.

This is certainly true of our approach at Thames Christian College.  The school is fortunate to be run by a ‘hands on’ Head, Stephen Holsgrove, who has 9 years teaching experience and another 15 years business experience in industry, training people and coordinating teams.  Stephen inspires staff and has instilled a culture of perpetual improvement to teaching methods, to ensure the best outcomes for students.

Reform’s report, titled, “Every Teacher Matters”, argues: “Schools that make a success of teachers’ continuous professional development (CPD) take the training of staff as seriously as organisations in any sector. They have created their own systems of performance management rather than relying on the government’s.”

It states that the research suggests schools should focus on creating a ‘better workforce not a bigger one’. Therefore the thinktank report proposes reducing the number of teaching assistants (TAs) because they have negligible effects on educational outcomes.  It argues they add little value in classrooms and have not decreased the administrative burden for teachers.  In part this is seen to be due to the poor standard of education achieved by most TAs in the state sector.

At Thames this is not the case as our TAs are graduates, and post-graduates, who are articulate, intelligent and well qualified. They are more than capable of being used appropriately and effectively in lessons.  Our TAs also work longer hours than the average Teacher Assistant to provide administrative support, and run and homework clubs - offering advice, where needed and ensuring a settled atmosphere in which students can achieve.

The report suggests that teacher quality, not reduced class size, is the single biggest influence on pupils’ educational progress.  It argues that reducing class sizes from 23 to 15 pupils makes little difference to the average student’s performance.  This may be the case in classes of this size if students are well behaved and motivated, but the reality is that many schools in England have class sizes of between 30 and 35 pupils containing some disruptive pupils unwilling to learn.

The thinktank also argues that in other countries larger class sizes do not lead to lower performance, citing Korea and Japan as countries who have bigger class sizes but do better in Maths than England.  However, cultural differences in attitudes to education and learning styles are the most likely reason.  John Hattie, Professor of Education and Director of the Visible Learning Labs, who suggested reduced class sizes has little effect on student learning observes:  “For classes of 80 or more students, it is probably necessary to assume that individual students are already self-regulated to learn …. When classes move to the 30-80 size, the concept of excellent teaching is the close following of scripts and chalk or whiteboard lessons, no toleration of deviant behavior in the class...copying and high amounts of rote learning…all walking through lessons at the same pace.”

Hattie argues the more important question is “Why are the effects on learning from reducing class size so small?” and suggests one reason for the small effect relates to teachers of smaller classes adopting the same teaching methods as they were using in larger classes and thus not optimising the opportunities presented by having fewer students.

At Thames, class sizes are kept relatively small between 15 and 24 for good reason.  In this size class teachers are able to get to know pupils individually. This allows more differentiation between pupils so that they can go at their own pace and select subjects more tailored to their individual interests and strengths. For example, Thames is able to enter students for a wide variety of examination types: IGCSEs in some subjects, GCSEs in others, LAMDA awards, Trinity Music Exams, ECDL and Functional Skills. We also use a full variety of teaching methods suited to individual students learning styles. This is only possible because of our well behaved, smaller sized groups of students, and it allows our students to achieve highly. In addition as Thames is a school selective on behaviour and attitudes to learning, ensuring that we are able to spend more time teaching than disciplining.
The thinktank Reform explains that in English schools “good practice occurs despite the system, not because of it.  Teachers are subject to an array of regulations, pressures and restrictions that impact on their freedom to teach.”

Free from the bureaucracy and legalities in the state system, staff at Thames are regularly observed by the leadership team and head teacher.  As part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring excellent practise in the classroom, the school has invested in a highly qualified Director of Teaching and Learning, Clare Constant, (best-selling author of Key Stage 3 and 4 English curriculum materials published by Pearson Education, Heinemann and Longman, and exam materials for Edexcel and NEAB (AQA).) Clare is particularly enthusiastic about empowering pupils to develop learning and thinking skills, which enable them to achieve their full potential both academically and in their personal life. 

Thames also takes full advantage of the CPD programmes offered by external providers. This ensures teachers know how to take advantage of smaller class sizes and differentiate, so that every class taught improves learning in each student.

In fact the school’s latest Ofsted report described the schools CPD as outstanding.  It says: “There is careful monitoring of the quality of teaching and learning which is supported by an outstanding programme of in-house and externally-run professional development so that teachers are fully aware of the latest GCSE specifications and of current best practice.”
The thinktank report also argues that the best schools foster an expectation and culture of perpetual improvement. This is very much the ethos of Thames Christian College, driven by Stephen Holsgrove who inspires his staff to be the best and improve outcomes for students.
The report says that school management in English schools is weak with poor financial management and accountability for spending.  It also argues the most successful leaders take personal responsibility for leading and managing schools creatively.

At Thames the Head’s prior industry experience means he can effectively lead the school and knows from a business model perspective that the school can’t stand still, it must continue to grow and improve.  The Head of Thames is not just an experienced teacher, he knows how to strategically plan finances for the future, based on years of contextual training in managing a business.  All spending at Thames is carefully monitored to ensure it delivers real benefits to pupils.  This accounts for why Thames is one of the few independent schools that has continued to grow and thrive during a recession.

Thames is proof that schools that ‘go it alone do best’.

On the subject of gender specific qualifications...

This week the TES leads with the story that the exam board AQA have announced that they are going to produce gender-specific qualifications that are designed to ‘play to perceived male and female strengths.’  Although across England the broad statistical evidence is that boys do better with exams and girls with coursework, at Thames our small class sizes and personal knowledge of our students means that we can avoid some of the more worrying implications of the AQA ‘one size fits all’ approach and continue to cater for individuals. Our subject specialists have already responded to the required 2010 GCSE changes and are now teaching Year 9 either the new GCSE or IGCSE specifications according to individual needs, to enable every student to achieve their full potential. Many of the specifications we offer can have optional coursework so we can tailor to individual not gender needs.

Other students will not be so lucky if gender specific GCSE’s routes are introduced and results-hungry head teachers insist on setting classes by gender. Imagine the immense peer pressure to conform to the stereotype.  It will take a lot of courage for any boy to insist on doing coursework with the girls – even if that would lead to him gaining an A* rather than a C.  And vice versa for any girl whose learning style bucks the statistical trend.

And what else could be lost? (Apart from the battle against sexism and gender stereotyping?) Acquiring the self-discipline of coursework production: planning, researching, drafting, re-drafting, and motivating yourself to make sustained effort and application for a period of time,are vital skills needed to succeed on post 16 courses and in business life – whether you are a boy or girl.  Allowing boys ‘off the hook’ now, doesn’t help them develop the skills they need to succeed later in life. In the same way, neither will offering 100 % coursework-only options really benefit girls who want to progress to A Levels and on to University which have end of course examinations assessment.  Battling through the potential volume of coursework for 10 of the new AQA GCSE’s is likely to de-motivate them from wanting to study further.

Proponents of single sex education will be delighted but only because so many schools have failed to address successfully the core issue of why boys and girls may ‘distract each other and underachieve’.  Thames’ successful ‘no dating’ policy ensures that our students’ focus and interest while at school is firmly on their learning.  They are free to benefit from differing approaches to learning, gain broader views and perspectives, and develop respect and understanding for each other’s gender-driven differences. Our students learn to form appropriate and healthy friendships across genders and are ready for life in 21st Century Britain whilst achieving their full academic potential.

Why Thames Christian College is switching to IGCSE in some subjects

It’s been a time of change in education recently with the new government announcing that, from September, secondary schools can introduce the tougher International GCSEs (IGCSEs) in core subjects including English Literature, Maths and the three sciences. The curriculum will be more content focused and the rigour of the assessment is likened to that of O Levels. Other changes in qualifications for the over 15s include abandoning the next stage of the Academic Diploma which was designed to replace GCSEs and A Levels with a more vocational alternative.

At Thames Christian College we welcome changes which will enable pupils to reach their full potential. As an independent school, we had already been preparing to switch over to IGCES in some subjects in preference to the less rigorous but overloaded specifications required by some of the new GCSEs. We have become increasingly concerned by the changes to the GCSE curriculum over the past few years and the removal of some of the more complex material in favour of increased low level content. This reduces the opportunity and time to teach the key thinking skills that children need to move on to the next level of their education.

Whilst the IGCSEs are more challenging, we know that as we equip students with the fundamental skills of numeracy, literacy and thinking skills, they will be able to cope with whatever curriculum changes affect them. That is why we explicitly teach students Lorin Anderson’s Higher Order Thinking Skills (explained in the pyramid model below) because it continues to underpin the UK exam system. Being trained to recognise which thinking skills are needed to respond to an exam question and having well-practised strategies to employ, gives our students the confidence to do well whatever the exam question or scenario - unlike students who are taught solely to the exam and who, to do well, have to rely on their teachers best guessing the questions that will appear. Our high quality, flexible teaching methods develop every pupil’s broader understanding of their subjects, while encouraging them to become independent and enquiring learners, ready for the challenge of sixth form and beyond.

As increasing numbers of independent and state schools take IGCSEs, Thames is as committed as ever to providing students with the best qualifications and life skills to improve their chances whether they are competing for university places or the top jobs. To find out more about Thames Christian College and the education we offer please visit our website.