Effective literacy and numeracy practices in DEIS schools Presentation to Children’s Rights Alliance Harold Hislop Chief Inspector Department of Education and Science 15 March 2010

Overview Background to the review of good practice in literacy and numeracy The themes that emerged – At whole-school level – In the teaching of literacy and numeracy

BACKGROUND TO THE REVIEW OF GOOD PRACTICE IN LITERACY AND NUMERACY

Background to the review of good practice DEIS action plan required Inspectorate to follow-up on its report Literacy and Numeracy in Disadvantaged Schools: Challenges for Teachers and Learners, (Inspectorate, 2005) The Inspectorate was asked to identify examples of best practice in literacy and numeracy development in DEIS schools This good practice study describes a range of approaches that teachers and school communities have taken to the teaching of literacy and numeracy in eight schools participating in the DEIS action plan

Schools  Eight schools included in final publication  Schools selected using a range of sources of information  Not the best eight schools but the efforts and insights of the teachers and school communities involved are stimulating and inspiring  Schools named in appendix but individual chapters to not identify schools  Large urban areas, large towns and rural settings  Boys / Girls / Mixed - All in DEIS Band 1  New style of publication  not a formal report – contains the stories of the schools, the teachers, pupils and parents  Summary chapter discussing general lessons to be learned

THEMES THAT EMERGED

School features  Strong, decisive leadership which is not confined to principals alone. There is a culture of change for improvement.  The teachers have positive expectations about levels of achievement and behaviour for all pupils.  The teachers realise that it is the school and their approaches that must adapt to meet the pupils’ learning needs rather than expecting the pupils to change to match the school’s needs….

We needed to change….. “What works for one school doesn’t always work for another. We have to start from where our pupils are at.” – Teacher “Just over two years ago….the management and teachers examined why the pupils were not achieving as well as they might in Mathematics. The teachers considered their own confidence in teaching the subject and looked at what were the areas of greatest weakness in whole-school practice. They identified that their own ability and skills in teaching Mathematics could have the greatest impact on the pupils’ learning and they determined to be better teachers of Mathematics.” – Inspector

School features  There is a commitment to strategic planning and review. Teachers make the time to plan together on a regular basis at class level, as part of special education teams or as whole-school planning teams.  Teachers cooperate in their teaching – a high degree of team teaching “Learning to work with others wasn’t that easy but it has been a real pleasure. I don’t feel so alone anymore as it has become much easier to seek help and advice from others when I need it. It’s good for pupils to see teachers learning too.” – Class teacher

Schools involving parents….  The schools are committed to involving parents in their children’s learning – focussed on how parents can improve the learning experienced by their own children….  “In this school, the teachers always plan a home-learning strand for any innovation that they develop. They believe that parents want and need guidance in order to be able to support their children’s learning at home.” - Inspector  “The children get a great kick out of showing their parents how to play these games and the parents really enjoy the experience,” remarked a teacher.  “Mammy now knows the story really well and she can help me when I do my impressions and predictions.” - Sixth class pupil

And the parents’ view  One parent told me how her daughter’s pre-school brother was copying the reading process at home from her reading stories with his older sibling. “He was already pretending to read picture books, putting his own words to the pictures and texts and guessing what will happen next,” she said.  “Some parents don’t know how to help their child,” explained one mother. “Here the teacher shows you how to do it and you get to become confident in helping your child.”

LITERACY AND NUMERACY APPROACHES  There is explicit prioritisation of literacy and/or numeracy education in each school.  They have developed or are using a range of specific programmes and teaching strategies o Reading Recovery o Literacy work station model/Intensive literacy lessons o Phonological Awareness Training (PAT) o Jolly Phonics o First Steps o Mata, Maths Recovery o The Newell Literacy Programme o Maths for Fun o Book Start o Language towards Literacy Common strengths LITERACY AND NUMERACY

 Some of these programmes have been devised by staff members; others are commercially produced and are to be found in many schools around the country  Implementation is consistent throughout the school – spearheaded by one or more teachers  Teachers are concerned with creating learning and teaching opportunities for varied groups or individuals – differentiation of lesson content, process or outcome  The teachers use a variety of teaching methods for example whole-class teaching, group-work individual teaching, paired work and co-operative learning  There are high levels of collaboration and team teaching

Common strengths LITERACY AND NUMERACY Cooperative teaching  Used to make small group work, circle-of- activities and intensive literacy intervention possible  Requires visionary leadership and a focus on learning outcomes  Requires flexibility of practice: teachers, special needs assistants

Common strengths ASSESSMENT  Teachers use assessment data to inform their planning and teaching before/during/after any new intervention programme  Teachers use a range of assessment approaches  for example anecdotal notes, checklists, retention of pupils’ completed work, summative and formative statements, photographs and video  Following any intervention programme, the final assessment data informs the next stages in teaching and learning and determines the continued viability of the intervention

OUR HOPE FOR THE PUBLICATION

From teacher to teacher…. Through the publication, one teacher says to another ……  “It’s up to us to make a difference,” one teacher told me. “We need to find a way to improve things.” – Class teacher  “We had to go back to the drawing board,” recounted one teacher, “some of these children had never even held a book before they came to school. We knew we had to do something substantial as a team to address these challenges.” – Resource teacher  “This is definitely the way forward”, one teacher told me, “these books engage the children’s imagination and they just love them.” – Class teacher

And children can say…  One pupil asked if I was the inspector and whether I would be visiting her class. When I told her that most likely I would, she responded: “That’s cool, We have some good stuff to show you.” - Pupil  One senior infant to told me confidently that she had read lots of books and was getting better at reading. - Senior infant  “I never knew that I was this good at Mathematics.” - Fifth class child  “We do a lot of reading and writing in this school. It makes us smarter.” - Pupil