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Good-quality oral work, including well-planned group work, engages
reluctant pupils and yields benefits in all areas of English work
150. This was a key theme that ran through several of the earlier case studies,
including the case study of St Thomas of Canterbury Primary School, with its
focus on role play and developing pupils’ speaking and listening skills. The
importance of a rich and well-planned curriculum for talk in the Early Years
Foundation Stage was highlighted in the case studies of Jump Primary School
and St Thomas’s Primary School. The use of structured group work and debates
enhances the quality of teaching at St Paul’s Academy. Carefully planned group
work that enables pupils to take a lead in learning was also described in the
case study of George Eliot Junior School.
151. The English at the crossroads report identified some of the issues with speaking
and listening in English lessons. Because a lot of talk occurs naturally in English
classrooms, too little attention is often given to planning a progressive
curriculum in speaking and listening for pupils that develops skills systematically
from year to year. The importance of planned group work, where all pupils are
given clear roles so that none becomes a passenger, has already been stressed
in this report. Good-quality use of drama was also a feature of several of the
most effective schools included in this survey.
152. Like many others, Castle View Primary School recognises that its pupils enter
school lacking confidence in speaking. The headteacher has a firm belief in the
important contribution to be made by subject specialists and regularly employs
artists and musicians to work with children. The initial approach with drama
was through the idea of ‘a play in a day’ where an actor worked with a group of
pupils to produce a play to be performed at the end of the day. This approach
has been extended. The school now employs a local actor to work with pupils
for around 20 days a year. She spends several days working with all of the Key
Stage 2 classes, sourcing Shakespeare texts or familiar stories such as Robin
Hood. She also works with some of the younger children and often writes short
plays specifically for them. She plays drama games and develops other skills
such as improvisation, mime and movement. At the end of the year, the school
puts on a formal production for parents making use of her work throughout the
year and giving key roles to the older pupils.
153. The school believes that this drama work makes a significant difference to its
pupils’ self-confidence and oral abilities. Pupils do a great deal of collaborative
work but are also expected to learn their lines and perform before a wider
audience. Other theatre skills, such as lighting and costume-making, are also
employed to support the production and generate high-quality outcomes. The
drama work is also fully integrated within other English work in the school. For
example, teachers introduce pupils to the texts before they are to work with the
actor. As a result, they have already discussed aspects of characterisation and
context before the drama session.
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Excellence in English: what we can learn from 12 outstanding schools
May 2011, No. 100229