Heads of English network meeting, Summer 2013 Richard Durant, Babcock LDP English Adviser

Ofsted’s subject professional development materials: English A training resource for teachers of English in secondary schools Ofsted’s Subject Professional Development Materials: English (secondary schools)

The three key responsibilities of subject leaders… 1.judging standards 2.evaluating teaching and learning 3.securing improvement

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. About this training resource Ofsted’s Subject Professional Development Materials: English (secondary schools)

Some questions on English: How well do you know the performance data? Quiz

1.What proportion of students achieved grade C or above in GCSE English/Lang 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? Questions Ofsted’s Subject Professional Development Materials: English (secondary schools)

1.What proportion of students achieved grade C or above in GCSE English/Lang 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. Answers Ofsted’s Subject Professional Development Materials: English (secondary schools)

What is the impact of teaching on students’ learning in English in your school? Issue 1

Moving English Forward: 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. Discussion points 1.In pairs, agree a one-sentence definition of outstanding teaching in English. 2.Share and discuss the ideas. 3.How consistent is teaching in English across the department and how do you know? Ofsted’s Subject Professional Development Materials: English (secondary schools)

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. Moving English Forward: The ‘myths’ of good teaching in English Discussion points 1.Read paragraphs 15–19 in the report. This includes a description of a Year 9 lesson. Discuss the lesson and the analysis of it in the report. 2.Might teachers feel that there is anything here that might be relevant to their own teaching? Is their teaching influenced by any of these ‘myths’?

What is effective teaching in English? Ofsted’s 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. Discussion points 1.Should all English lessons be taught in the same way? 2.Are there any common elements (‘non-negotiables’) that you would expect to see in all lessons, or not? 3.Exchange ideas about effective ways of teaching - for example - a love of reading; story writing; differences between dialects; a Shakespeare play. Ofsted’s Subject Professional Development Materials: English (secondary schools)

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. How effective are your learning objectives? Discussion points 1.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? 2.Review some learning objectives for future lessons and see if you are happy with them. Ofsted’s Subject Professional Development Materials: English (secondary schools)

Discuss what you have learnt from this unit about effective teaching in English. Are there things that some teachers need to do differently? Review the range of strategies you use to evaluate teaching in English. Identify action to be taken. E.g. This might include guidance on teaching in the handbook, better departmental evaluation or changes to the subject action plan to highlight improvements to teaching. A school policy statement on effective teaching and learning in English Ofsted’s Subject Professional Development Materials: English (secondary schools)

You should by now have identified some action points in English. You might also wish to look at the specific criteria Ofsted uses to judge English on subject inspections. You can find this material on Ofsted’s website: You will also find examples of good practice on Ofsted’s website: Conclusion Ofsted’s Subject Professional Development Materials: English (secondary schools)

An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, 1768, Joseph Wright ‘of Derby’ baby laughing baby laughing What sort of curriculum, what model of learning is implied by this painting?

To introduce the proposed English curriculum and assessment changes and their implications for us and for our students Aims of this session…

“…for too long we've pretended that students’ results are getting better when all that's been happening is the exams have been getting easier and it's been a race to the bottom…” (Michael Gove) Starting point

No single exam board for subjects No Ebac qualification No current intention to change the name of GCSE “ I have decided not to make the best the enemy of the good.” (Michael Gove) What won’t happen

linear, with all assessments normally taken at the end of the course fewer bite-sized, structured questions; more essays Tiering undesirable, perhaps extension papers (depending on subject)…. “but I want to take a pragmatic approach” (Gove); Ofqual proposes tiering for maths and science (June 2013 review) “At the moment too much time is spent on exam technique and not enough on mastering the content” or learning (Michael Gove) Essential principles for the new GCSEs

Grading by numbers 1 to 8 (top) rather than by the current letters A*-G No more modular courses: full exams taken at the end of two years Exam to favour essay-based system rather than shorter questions Grade boundaries to be raised Key changes from September 2015….

Review of Controlled Assessment in GCSEs, Ofqual, June 2013…… “…concerns from schools about the manageability of controlled assessment.” (+ reliability and validity) “we have seen that the accountability pressures in the system mean that, in some subjects, this sort of controlled assessment can become distorted and, therefore, less valid.” No controlled assessment in English, except speaking and listening Controlled assessments….

By end of June 2013: consultation on subject content [of GCSEs]… “and that should be agreed, I hope, by the autumn” By Sept 2015 new GCSEs for English language and literature, maths, physics, chemistry, biology, combined science, history and geography.. This “implementation timetable seems to me to be the best thing.” Timetable

“it will be difficult to secure system-level improvements in exam results, which you have said you want to see. And we know that many in the education sector are concerned about this.” “One consequence of this approach is that it can make it harder for any genuine increases in the performance of students to be fully reflected in the results.” Letter from Glenys Stacey to Michael Gove Comparable outcomes…

1.Points score indicator based on pupils’ achievements (not C+, but average) in eight qualifications (English, maths, 3 other ebac, 3 other 'approved')* * Thus: English, maths, 3 of.. science (two of 4), history, geography, language 2. A ‘threshold measure’ based on the proportion of C+ in English and maths. However, “there is a case for English and maths to have a greater weighting in the ‘best 8’ ” (Gove). 3. Pisa-style sampling tests for key stage 4 pupils as a way of tracking national standards in education. School accountability measures

National Curriculum for the 21st century which embodies high expectations in every subject all of the current National Curriculum subjects will be retained at both primary and secondary levels – with the important addition of foreign languages, to be taught in Key Stage 2 National Curriculum should form only part of the school curriculum, not its entirety Statutory application only to LA maintained schools programmes of study - other than primary English, mathematics and science – significantly slimmed down New National Curriculum

….. the essential knowledge and skills which every child should master “it is through the development of factual knowledge and memorisation that you go on to develop creative and critical thinking skills. I do not think you should separate the need to develop a body of knowledge from the fact that you should then deploy that knowledge in a creative way.” The new national curriculum

maths - stronger emphasis on arithmetic and more demanding content in fractions, decimals and percentages to build solid foundations for algebra. sciences - rigorous detail on the key scientific processes from evolution to energy. English - more clarity on spelling, punctuation and grammar as well as a new emphasis on the great works of the literary canon foreign languages - new stress on learning proper grammatical structures and practising translation. Subject content emphases…

Further draft of the new NC available for comment in July Significant changes (from the earlier draft) to history and D&T can be expected. “I hope that the new draft [of D&T] will be better.” “Some people have argued that, in history overall, there is too much detail in the [draft] curriculum. I think that it is there for a reason, but we are considering how we can change it to meet fair-minded criticisms.” Timetable

1. What are the threats and opportunities posed by reforms at KS4? 2. How well placed are we to meet the threats and opportunities? Threats and opportunities