Free download of:Excellence in English - Department for Education

154. Teachers are clear that the drama work makes a significant contribution to high
standards of writing. They say that pupils show a well-developed sense of
character or atmosphere, because they explore them first through drama and
then apply this knowledge to their writing. What is significant about the
approach is that the actor works in a sustained and continual way with the
school, rather than offering an occasional workshop. This enables her to form a
good relationship with pupils. More importantly, it enables her to provide highquality
training for staff. As a result, many of the teachers are now themselves
effective teachers of drama, using the strategies within their own classrooms.
The curriculum gives a high profile to reading for pleasure in
English
155. Reading was the subject of the case study of St Thomas of Canterbury Primary
School. Provision there, and in other schools, was directed equally at building
pupils’ basic reading ability alongside broader provision that encouraged
reading for pleasure. The desire to engage and stimulate reading at George
Eliot Junior School lay behind the use of visual texts. The new programme for
encouraging wider, independent reading at Moor End Technology College has
also been described. The case study at Castle View Primary School centred on
pupils’ skills as writers. In fact, their performance was even stronger in reading
because most pupils generally achieve the higher Level 5 at the end of Key
Stage 2. This reflects the impact of a popular library, lots of reading by
teachers, and the provision of good-quality up-to-date texts to stimulate pupils.
Pupils are also keen to read to pick up ideas and hints for their own writing.
156. A similar approach was noted at Crown Woods School, based on the
department’s programme of ‘Reading for pleasure’. This provides a wide variety
of class sets that groups read alongside their units of study. Each unit has a
complete text, most often a novel, at its centre, complemented by stimulus
texts that range from poetry, through non-fiction to graphic novels and moving
image texts. In Year 9, for example, students work together on character
development, plot and style in The outsiders. They explore connections
between the novel’s setting and aspects of street life in south-east London,
drawing on news reports, interviews and pictures to extend and illustrate their
thinking. Non-fiction units such as ‘The Olympics’ focus on fostering
independent enquiry and collaborative working, with students determining how
the unit is developed. This approach successfully engages boys as well as girls,
develops students’ experience of a wide range of texts, and works well across
the wide range of ability, fostering a strong interest in literature and reading.
157. At Round Oak Special School, the subject leader identified that girls were
making slower progress than boys in reading despite the fact that their overall
attainment was higher. She decided to make reading special for girls by
providing a ‘girls only’ reading club on Friday afternoons using girls’ magazines
and periodicals. The club took off and as teacher and girls shared enjoyment of
reading, opportunities arose to introduce a range of fiction and information
texts. Girls’ reading progress picked up after this intervention.
Excellence in English: what we can learn from 12 outstanding schools
May 2011, No. 100229
53