No Pens Day Wednesday - The Communication Trust

10 October 

2012 

No Pens Day 

Wednesday 



Activity Pack 

Your guide to 

running the day

Welcome to your 

No Pens Day Wednesday 

activity pack 



10 October 

2012 

No Pens Day Wednesday encourages schools to put down 

their pens and pick up their language by spending one day 

focusing on learning through speaking and listening. 

Thank you for signing up and getting involved. 

Contents 

All about No Pens Day Wednesday______________ page 3 

How to make classroom talk more effective______ page 6 

Getting ready for the day______________________ page 9 

How to run your No Pens Day Wednesday_______ page 10 

Outcomes__________________________________ page 13 

Spread the word_____________________________ page 14 

Next steps __________________________________ page 16

Teachers’ Activity Pack 

All about No Pens Day Wednesday 



10 October 

2012 

No Pens Day Wednesday, 

supported by Pearson Assessment, 

is a national speaking and 

listening event organised by 

The Communication Trust. The 

Trust is a coalition of nearly 50 

voluntary organisations with 

expertise in speech, language and 

communication, who support the 

children’s workforce to develop the 

skills of the children they work with. 

Ofsted are increasingly highlighting 

the importance of speaking and 

listening for good teaching and 

attainment and as a common 

denominator in the most 

successful schools. 

In its second year, No Pens 

Day Wednesday was originally 

developed for the Hello campaign 

(national year of communication). 

Hello sought to make children’s 

communication development 

a priority in homes and schools 

across the country and had a 

special focus on identifying and 

supporting those with speech, 

language and communication 

needs (SLCN). 

‘Schools which ‘turn the dial’ on 

language and communication are 

able to ‘turn the dial’ on a number of 

key school improvement priorities, 

from raising attainment to narrowing 

the gap and improving behaviour’. 

Jean Gross, Communication 

Champion (2011) 

The aim of the day is to see a 

positive impact on all pupils and 

enable speaking and listening to 

be used as a vehicle for learning 

across the curriculum. 

Just a note... If Wednesday 10th 

October doesn’t work for your 

school, you can run your No Pens 

Day at any time and still use the 

resources on our website. 

3

Teacher’s Activity Pack 

Why run a No Pens Day Wednesday? 



10 October 

2012 

Because communication 

skills are part of national 

policy 

In the last 12 months, the 

importance of communication 

skills has been highlighted in 

a number of national policy 

documents: 

The Teachers’ Standards 

which will come into effect on 

1st September 2012, require 

teachers to ‘demonstrate an 

understanding of and take 

responsibility for promoting 

high standards of articulacy’ 

In December 2011, the 

Expert Panel for the National 

Curriculum review called 

for spoken language to be 

included in the Curriculum for 

all subjects and throughout 

compulsory education 

And importantly, for the 

first time in January 2012, 

‘communication skills’ became 

part of the Ofsted Framework 

both in quality of teaching and 

in pupil achievement 

4


Why run a No Pens Day Wednesday? 



28 September 

2011 

Because the schools who 

did it last year loved it... 

‘Children’s confidence in 

communication grew as a result 

of No Pens Day Wednesday. The 

day culminated in a debate 

where children spoke sensitively 

and respectfully, listened well 

and showed excellent all-round 

communication skills’ 

‘Thanks for the wonderful 

resource bank, lesson plans 

and assembly plans which 

made the day so much easier 

to participate in’ 

‘The buzz in the staffroom was 

such that I suspect we will be 

instituting a No Pens Day at 

least termly!’ 

‘No Pens Day Wednesday was great. 

It was particularly rewarding to see 

children who frequently struggled with 

the written word totally animated 

and engaged when forming crisp and 

concise sentences that elevated the 

level of sentence structure’ 

‘The lesson plans on the website 

were excellent springboards for 

getting teachers engaged and 

sparking their ideas to build lesson 

plans of their own’ 

5


How to make classroom talk more effective 



10 October 

2012 

Talk is at the heart of education 

- teachers use talk as the main 

tool of their trade. The amount 

and quality of talk that children 

experience in the early years is a 

good predictor of how well they’ll 

do in school. 

And we now know that teaching 

children and young people how 

to use talk to think together can 

improve their commitment to 

learning and to their educational 

attainment. Key components 

of communication, such as a 

good vocabulary, can make a big 

difference to a child’s achievement. 

No Pens Day Wednesday will enable 

teachers to give pupils opportunities 

throughout the day to develop their 

communication skills and use them 

to support their learning. 

We know from a range of research 

that pupils are more likely to get 

enthusiastically involved in their 

education, and learn best from it, 

when teachers support and enable 

effective use of speaking and 

listening to support learning. And 

don’t forget - no pens means no 

marking! 

We have therefore suggested 

the following ten key principles 

for effective use of speaking and 

listening. 

>> 

‘Spoken language is central to 

learning, culture and life, and 

is much more prominent in the 

curricula of many other countries.’ 

Cambridge Primary Review 

...‘recent research shows that 

the average length of a pupil’s 

contribution to a class discussion 

is just four words’ 

National Literacy Trust, 2011 

6


10 key principles of effective talk 



10 October 

2012 

1. Allow pupils time to think 

about information given, refine 

what they want to say, express 

their thoughts and identify their 

misunderstandings 

Use the 10 second 

rule – wait around 10 

seconds after asking a 

question before prompting 

pupils for an answer 

2. Give opportunities for pupils 

to talk to a partner or in a 

group, to encourage pupils to test 

understanding, put new knowledge 

into their own words and/or to 

clarify thoughts before they’re 

asked to produce a piece of writing 

3. Support vocabulary 

development by using strategies 

to explicitly teach the meaning and 

use of key words for learning (words 

like compare, analyse and define) 

and for subject specific vocabulary 

4. Demonstrate ways of using 

language so that children learn by 

example, use language that enables 

collaborative working, discussion, 

rational argument and negotiation. 

For example “I see your point, 

though let’s try this way too and we 

can decide which works best” 

5. Encourage thinking by asking 

open questions to explore pupils’ 

ideas, supporting pupils to elaborate 

and justify their views, for example 

‘How did you know that?’ Just 

asking ‘Why...’ can really develop 

pupils’ thinking 

6. Listen as well as talk by 

holding back demonstrations or 

explanations until the ideas of 

some students have been heard, 

by allowing pupils’ comments to 

shift the direction of a discussion 

(and even, perhaps, of a lesson!) 

7. Set the context by using whole 

class discussions to help pupils 

see where their study of a topic is 

coming from and where it’s going, 

for example, using a learning 

journey model 

8. Support independent learning 

by asking pupils to think ‘how am I 

going to remember this?’ Give them 

opportunities to practise with a 

partner 

9. Use ground rules of dialogue 

for class or group discussions to 

support thinking and learning. 

A typical set of such ground rules 

might include: 

• Discuss things together 

• Ask everyone for their opinion 

• Ask for reasons why 

• Listen to people 

• Be prepared to change your mind 

• Think before you speak 

• Respect other people’s ideas – 

don’t just use your own 

• Share all the ideas and 

information you have 

• Make sure the group agrees after 

talking 

• Research has shown that 

displaying these rules can make a 

real difference to pupils 

10. Encourage children and 

young people to say when 

they’ve not understood – 

acknowledge the importance of 

making mistakes and of seeking 

clarification when unsure 

7




10 October 

2012 

Following through with the ten 

principles overleaf may not be 

easy, so do prepare yourself for 

challenges along the way. As any 

teacher will testify, if you try asking 

open questions, or waiting for 

extended answers with a class who 

have had only a very traditional 

experience of classroom talk, you’ll 

probably only hear (at best) a 

suspicious silence. It all depends on 

the teacher establishing the right 

classroom climate for talk, and that 

takes time. 

Some teachers are naturally 

brilliant at doing this. Their 

students come to appreciate 

the educational value of talk 

themselves, and will not feel 

embarrassed to express tentative 

ideas or reasonable disagreements. 

Teachers need to be good models 

for children and young people on 

how to use talk for thinking. 

Research has shown that when 

children are helped to understand 

talk as a problem-solving and 

learning tool, and given guidance 

in developing skills in using it, the 

quality of their talk and group work 

improves and so do the individual 

learning outcomes. 

For children whose out-of-school 

lives give them little exposure to 

reasoned discussion, this can be a 

life-changing experience. 

‘Good communication is one of the 

most important skills anyone could 

have’ Chris Pike, Young Person 

with Aspergers Syndrome 

8


Getting ready for the day 



10 October 

2012 

Here’s some information to help 

you prepare for No Pens Day 

Wednesday or Monday, Tuesday, 

Thursday or Friday if another day 

suits you better! 

Staff meeting 

You may find it useful to have 

a brief staff meeting with your 

colleagues to share information 

about No Pens Day Wednesday 

and to provide an opportunity for 

staff to discuss what they see as 

the language and communication 

issues for pupils in your school. 

We’ve provided some slides to 

support this discussion, which can 

be used in its entirety or adapted for 

your own use. 

Download the content for the staff 

meeting at 

www.thecommunicationtrust.org. 

uk/nopensdaywednesday 

Lesson plans and activity 

templates 

There are a large number of lesson 

plans and activity templates for 

you to use. If you ran a No Pens 

Day Wednesday last year then 

you may recognise some of these 

materials, however we have added 

a number of new lesson plans to 

the suite of materials. 

The lesson plans and activity 

templates have been created 

by practising teachers, specialist 

teachers and speech and language 

therapists. 

Lesson plans – these were 

developed by taking example plans 

for September from one school’s 

planning as a starting point. As all 

schools will be covering different 

topics and have different ways of 

planning, the lesson plans provide 

an example for schools to adapt. 

Plans are available for Key Stage 1 

and 2, across the year groups. For 

secondary schools, lesson plans 

are available for year 7 across all 

subject areas and a number of 

plans for year 9, this is not to limit 

your No Pens Day Wednesday to 

year 7 and 9 only, but to provide an 

example across all subject areas, 

which you can use and adapt for 

different year groups. 

Activity templates – in addition to 

lesson plans, we’ve provided activity 

templates, which are more generic 

and can be adapted to any lesson. 

There are a range of activities with 

information about each, including 

how it can be implemented, 

highlighting any resources / links 

that might be useful to support that 

activity. These activities can be used 

within any element of a lesson - as a 

starter activity, main activity, plenary 

or as methods of recording learning. 

Download the plans and templates at 



9


How to run your No Pens Day Wednesday 



10 October 

2012 

Three weeks before your No Pens Day Wednesday: 

Confirm who’ll lead on plans 

for the day 

Book in a staff meeting to 

inform other teachers about 

the No Pens Day Wednesday 

Download the activity 

pack and other supporting 

documents at 

www.thecommunicationtrust. 

org.uk/nopensdaywednesday 

(Primary Lesson Plans and 

Templates if you work in a 

Primary School, Secondary 

Lesson Plans and Templates 

if you work in a Secondary 

School) 

Familiarise yourself with the 

documents and consider 

whether you want to use 

or adapt the lesson plans 

provided or plan your own 

lessons using the ideas on the 

templates 

Decide on who’ll run the 

assembly for pupils 

Consider whether you’ll have 

competitions / presentations in 

school for best activities, ways 

of recording etc 

If you would like to let your 

local media know you’re 

running a No Pens Day 

Wednesday then you can 

download press templates and 

a media advice toolkit from 



Decide if you want to invite 

press along on the day, and if 

so which part of the day will be 

best for you to accommodate 

press and photographers 

Check if you have permissions 

from parents for children 

and young people to be 

photographed. If not, plan 

this in 

Identify your ‘spokesperson’ 

for No Pens Day Wednesday. 

This is the person who’ll be 

quoted in the press releases 

and who’d speak on the day 

to any media 

Plan in reflection after the day 

to look at lessons learned, next 

steps and if you would like 

to run another No Pens Day 


10




10 October 

2012 

Two weeks before your No Pens Day Wednesday: 

One week before your No Pens Day Wednesday: 

Ensure all teachers have 

discussed with their pupils the 

plans to participate in No Pens 

Day Wednesday, including 

seeking their views on taking 

part and asking their ideas on 

how the day should be run 

Ensure all staff are aware of 

the day 

Identify ‘a budding 

photographer’ in your school 

or community who can take 

pictures of your No Pens Day 

Wednesday activity 

Send a letter to parents – use 

the template provided on 

page 16; you may decide to 

invite parents into the school 

assembly or to see what’s 

happening in the classrooms 

or the ways in which pupils 

have recorded their work 

Share with other local contacts 

your plans for No Pens Day 

Wednesday and send out 

your No Pens Day Wednesday 

photo-call to your local 

newspaper and radio 

Prepare your own certificates 

for the day (if using) 

Plan the lessons you’ll run 

using the examples provided at 


org.uk/nopensdaywednesday, 

ensure any additional 

resources you need are 

prepared 

Call / email your local 

newspaper and radio to follow 

up on your photo-call notice 

and see if they’re interested in 

covering your day. Be prepared 

to send your information over 

again 

Put information in your 

newsletter for parents and 

in the news section of your 

website 

Consider ideas and options for 

recording learning, suggestions 

are available on 



Plan where and when you’ll 

gather pupil views on the day; 

see our suggestions on how to 

do this on page 15 

11




10 October 

2012 

On the day: After the day : 

Begin with the assembly 

explaining to pupils what will 

happen on the day; you can 

download this from 



Use the materials provided 

to run a day of lessons with a 

focus on speaking and listening 

If the press are coming, have 

one person, who leads on 

liaising with local media, speak 

to them about what they 

need. For example, they may 

want to set up a specific photo 

with staff and children or talk 

to a child / teacher / parent 

about their views on the day 

Note the impact on pupils’ 

engagement and learning 

Ask pupils’ views during the 

day; discuss the benefits of 

not using pens, alternative 

activities used and places 

where it would be useful to 

write things down 

Plan a follow up assembly / 

sharing pupils’ work – you might 

chose to do this on another day 

/ invite parents etc 

We’d love to see any photos 

or videos that you take on 

the day so we can show 

others how successful your 

No Pens Day Wednesday was. 

Please send to enquiries@ 

thecommunicationtrust.org.uk 

Present results / certificates at 

end of week in an assembly or 

relevant alternative 

Use a staff meeting to 

reflect on the best and most 

challenging elements of the 

day; see our suggestions on 

how to do this on page 15 

Share pupils’ views 

Decide on what you’ll continue 

with 

Send a press release with a 

couple of the best pictures 

(if you have them) to your 

local media and any other 

important contacts. It would 

be really helpful if you could 

also send it to us at enquiries@ 

thecommunicationtrust.org.uk 

as it will help us keep track of 

the media activity 

Share your story / experiences 

/ anecdotes with us by 

uploading your story onto the 

website at 


org.uk/your-stories 

12


Outcomes 



10 October 

2012 

One of the most important parts 

of the day is the reflection it will 

prompt, from both pupils and 

teachers, about what worked for 

them and what didn’t. 

For pupils, we suggest 

opportunities are built into the day 

to ask their views about different 

lessons and activities. 

You could use the questions here 

for discussion on the day and to 

evaluate the day. 

Pupil Voice 

1. Which were the best 

activities during No Pens 

Day and why? You could use 

examples and traffic lights/ 

smiley faces to encourage 

pupils to judge which were 

best. 

2. Which were the best 

lessons...and why? 

3. Were there times when 

you wanted to write things 

down? If so when would that 

have been useful? 

4. What do you think of this 

way of learning? Would you 

like your teachers to do more 

activities like this or less? 

Thumbs up or thumbs down? 

For teaching staff, we suggest 

some time is given after the day 

to work through the following 

questions, both to evaluate 

and support positive practice 

and to determine next steps for 

supporting speaking and listening 

in school. 

Reflections on the day 

1. What were the most challenging 

elements of the day? 

2. What worked well – what 

activities, principles, lessons? 

3. What were pupils’ views on the 

day? 

4. What was the impact on 

learning? 

5. Did the day give you any new 

insights into particular pupils? 

6. Any surprises? 

Choose elements of the day you’ll 

use again, for example 

1. Try one new activity from the 

activity templates per half term 

until it’s embedded in your 

teaching 

2. Support colleagues to do the 

same 

3. Include discussion on ‘speaking 

and listening’ across the 

curriculum in staff meetings to 

maintain momentum 

13


Spread the word 



10 October 

2012 

You may wish to share with parents 

that your school is participating in 

No Pens Day Wednesday. 

If so, you can download a template 

letter to let them know what’s 

happening from 



Alternatively, you may want to 

send out a newsletter to parents 

and other local contacts. 

Dear Parent/Carer, 

[Your school name] has signed up to an exciting one day event, which schools across the country 

are getting involved in called No Pens Day Wednesday. 

So what is No Pens Day Wednesday? 

The aim of the day is to encourage the skills of speaking and listening, which is a part of your 

child’s national curriculum. 

For one day, children in the school will put down their pens and all lessons and activities will have 

a focus on speaking and listening skills rather than writing skills. Teachers will assess what children 

in their class have learnt about the lesson by listening to what they say about it. 

Why are we taking part? 

Reading and writing are very important and valuable skills but people are often not aware of how 

important speaking and listening skills are too. Schools that include speaking and listening in a 

planned and structured way for children in their lessons see improvement in their classroom 

involvement. Ofsted inspectors (who check standards in all schools in the country) are noticing 

more and more that speaking and listening is a really important factor for good teaching and child 

performance in successful schools. 

How will your child benefit? 

No Pens Day Wednesday gives your child a chance to practice their speaking and listening skills for 

a whole school day. The day will allow all pupils in your child’s class to become involved in a whole 

school event, and to contribute to class activities, getting a chance to talk. [Your school name] 

pupils will be able to use what they have learnt from this day throughout the school year. 

If you want to know more about this day, then speak to your child’s class teacher form tutor. 

Yours sincerely, 

No Pens Day Wednesday is run by The Communication Trust 

For more information please visit www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk 

14




10 October 

2012 

Read all about it 

We hope you’ll join our efforts in getting 

media interest in your No Pens Day 

Wednesday. 

A template photo-call and press release 

are available from 

www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/ 

nopensdaywednesday 

We’ll also share with you a toolkit, 

called Bring the Noise, which is about 

local media work and includes how 

to talk to journalists, tips on e-mailing 

them and how to take great pictures. 

Press release – 0X.08.2012 

PENS OUTLAWED FOR DAY ON OCTOBER 10 TH 2012 FOR PUPILS AND TEACHERS 

No Pens Day Wednesday back by popular demand with 250 schools already registered for free 

speaking and listening activities and lesson plans 

The Communication Trust, a coalition of nearly 50 voluntary organisations with expertise in 

supporting children and young people’s speech, language and communication, is calling on primary 

and secondary schools across the UK to put down pens and pick up language on October 10 th 2012. 

The Trust will be providing a portfolio of free materials including a activity pack, assembly plans and 

lesson plans for primary and secondary that reflect the increased focus on embedding speech, 

language and communication into all subjects. 

Schools will be encouraged to run No Pens Day Wednesday activities including podcasting, 

interactive story telling, maths games, debating, vocabulary games and talk homework that will 

highlight the importance of language for learning for pupils and provide a day of 'no marking' for 

school staff. 

Anne Fox, Director of The Communication Trust, said: "No Pens Day Wednesday is a fantastic 

initiative that highlights the importance of speaking and listening approaches in the classroom. 

Ofsted has emphasised that pupils need more opportunities to become articulate and research has 

shown that too often our classrooms are dominated by teacher talk. 

"We are calling on schools to run their No Pens Day on October 10th or at another time that suits 

them. Feedback from schools last year was overwhelmingly positive. No Pens Day Wednesday 

increased pupils engagement in activities, improved confidence and respect between pupils and 

helped those who struggle with the written word. Teachers reported back the benefits of lots of 

talk in the classroom, particularly on pupils vocabulary." 

No Pens Day Wednesday was originally run as a flagship event of the Hello campaign (national year 

of communication) last year. The unique event proved popular with 800 schools taking part and 

leading academics including Professor Andrew Pollard and Jean Gross, formerly Communication 

Champion, backed the whole‐day focus on speaking and listening. 

Schools and other interested professionals such as Speech and Language Therapists or Local 

Authority Leads, can register to receive the No Pens Day Wednesday materials here 

http://www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/schools/no‐pens‐day‐wednesday.aspx 

Bring the Noise 

The Communication Trust guide to media work 

15


Next steps 



10 October 

2012 

Tell us about your 

No Pens Day Wednesday! 

Thank you for taking part in No 

Pens Day Wednesday, we hope 

your pupils and colleagues enjoyed 

taking part and will plan lots more 

similar days. We’d love to hear how 

No Pens Day Wednesday worked in 

your school. 

Please send any comments, 

photos and videos to enquiries@ 

thecommunicationtrust.org.uk. 

Get further information and 

advice 

We are a Consortium of 47 

charities who provide specialist 

expert support around speech, 

language and communication. To 

find out more about the charities 

we work with go to 


uk/partners 

You can also download our 

Catalogue of products and services 

available from our Consortium 

members and search by age, stage 

and wave. Please go to 


uk/schoolscatalogue to view. 

‘…talk – at home, in school, 

among peers – is education at its 

most elemental and potent. It is 

the aspect of teaching which has 

arguably the greatest influence 

on learning’. Cambridge Primary 

Review 

16


Our other work to support you in your school 



10 October 

2012 

Want to tell the 

world about the 

great work you 

do in school to 

support children’s 

communication? The 

Shine a Light Awards 

celebrate and reward best practice 

and excellence around supporting 

children and young people’s 

communication. 

Talk Boost is a 

targeted and 

evidence-based 

intervention, which 

supports language 

delayed children to make significant 

progress with their language and 

communication skills. During the 

pilot of the project, some children 

were found to improve their 

communication by 12-18 months in 

a ten week period. 

Talk of the 

School is a 

dedicated 

website to help 

you find advice, 

strategies and 

resources to support the speech, 

language and communication 

development of the children and 

young people in your school. 

We have a wide 

range of resources 

to support you in 

school to identify 

typical language 

development and 

support those 

who are struggling. We also have 

specific resources for trainee 

teachers and NQTs, those working 

with children using alternative and 

augmentative communication 

(AAC) and those undertaking the 

phonics screening check 

We have 

worked with 

the academics 

at the Better 

Communication 

Research 

Group to develop the What Works 

database of evidenced approaches 

and programmes to help you chose 

what will work in your schools 

setting. The prototype will be 

launched in October. 

Talk of the 

Town is wholeschool, 

multi 

agency approach to supporting 

children’s speech, language and 

communication. By responding to 

the needs of the local community, 

TOTT offers an evidenced based 

approach, measuring impact in 

children’s speech, language and 

communication development against 

school criteria. This community-led 

programme includes consultation, 

workforce development, provision 

and sustainability planning. Contact 

us to discuss how this can benefit 

your school. 

We are a 

Consortium of 

nearly 50 charities 

who provide 

specialist expert 

support around 

speech, language 

and communication. Download our 

Catalogue which lists the products 

and services available from our 

Consortium. 

Find out about more at www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/schools 

17

Pearson Assessment - Your number one provider 

of assessments for children and adults with 

speech, language and communication needs 

www.pearsonclinical.co.uk 

0845 630 8888 

As the leading provider of standardised assessments for professionals working in health and education settings, 

Pearson Assessment’s extensive portfolio features a range of new, core and bestselling products including: 

• Preschool and Primary Inventory of Phonological Awareness (PIPA) 

• Phonological Abilities Test (PAT) 

• Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Fourth Edition (PPVT-4) and 

Expressive Vocabulary Test, Second Edition (EVT-2) 

• Early Repetition Battery (ERB) 

• Bracken Basic Concept Scale: Expressive (BBCS: E) and 

Bracken Basic Concept Scale - Third Edition: Receptive (BBCS-3:R) 

• Children’s Communication Checklist (CCC-2) 

• Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS). 

Pearson is proud to offer its support to the No Pens Day 

campaign. 

Now you can find PsychCorpUK on 

Facebook and Twitter!

No Pens Day Wednesday is continuing the legacy of the 2011 Hello campaign

No Pens Day Wednesday - The Communication Trust

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