1. Standens Barn Primary School in partnership with Leap
Erasmus Project to develop language acquisition and in turn Reading outcomes.
Standens Barn Primary School in partnership with Leap

2. The problem Context Context . How we used the Erasmus+ programme:
Staff undertook training in Finland, Spain, Iceland and Sweden.
These courses were picked because they were seen as being able to have an impact on children’s vocabulary development and in turn to have an impact of reading outcomes.
The elements that were deemed suitable from the training were then incorporated into changes at the school and then the impact measured.
The reason for this project is because of the changing demographic of the school. Many children do not have English as their first language and as a result we are having to use visual work and signing and use ICT technology to translate languages. We have achieved well for children with English as an additional language over time, but we want to build on the practices we have in place already. We find that inclusive teaching, in which the children are in the classroom for the majority of the time, rather than withdrawn from lessons is very effective. However, through some play training that we had on our September training day, we recognise that this is an area that we could utilize more in our teaching to further develop the learning of children who have English as an additional language at an earlier age e.g. from Reception through to Year 6. We recognise that play is a universal learning skill, that cuts across spoken language, but also develops language and thinking at the same time.
Context .

3. Challenge 1 September 2017 3 participants: Headteacher
Chair of Governors
Year 1 teacher.
6 day course that involved training presentations - visiting schools and learning institutions.
Time to reflect on practice.
Challenge 1

4. Challenge 1 Elements that necessitated contemplation:
Learning through play is the key methodology from age
Independence is promoted from the earliest ages as well as risk taking.
Children wear slippers in school and remove shoes as this is seen to support a calm working environment.
Staff room is seen as a relaxing place for staff
Homework is used as the starting point for learning and is not a bolt on or separate from the lesson.
Children are encouraged to use ICT to support independent learning.
Teacher training is undertaken in groups and within school settings.
Testing is for the purposes of planning learning and not for league table purposes or to compare schools - no national testing system until 15 years old.
Challenge 1

5. Challenge 1 As a result we have implemented:
Using homework as a starting point for the basis of the lesson. Children are given work to do at home that links directly with the work they are going to do in class. This builds upon the flipped learning that we introduced previously and reinforced the notion that this was a powerful learning method.
In Finland the children often do this for maths and use a workbook to complete the work and then go through it in the lesson.
We have done this in many lessons. We have also had presentations for parents too on Flipped Homework and the impact that it can have over the traditional methods.
In Year 5 & 6 the ICT coordinator set up Google classroom and used this to share learning with the children
Challenge 1
Impact:
Reading out comes in Y6 went up by 16% last year and maths results by 18%

6. Challenge 1 As a result we implemented:
Slipper Friday in Year 1 and 2 - the children get to wear their slippers in school on a Friday. While we cannot link this to outcomes we can link it to the children really enjoying it and telling us that they look forward to ‘Slipper Friday’.
Challenge 1

7. As a result we further developed the use of outdoor learning and discovery time. This was also linked to in the moment planning from the London project. Here the children’s interests are used as the basis for the learning, while the teachers plan the knowledge and skills that will be developed from the children’s ideas.
Challenge 1
Impact: The main impact we were looking to have was on language and understanding of the English language and in turn looking for a 15% gain in the PRIME areas of learning because these are the key areas that underpin learning.
Over the 2 years of the project the speaking outcomes in Reception have risen by 24% - this is as a result of adapting the curriculum in the Reception classroom. This has been through developing a greater way of linking the children’s learning to the areas of learning that they wish to pursue and has allowed the teachers to focus on the knowledge and the skills. .

8. For EAL learners the rise has been by 9% in speaking and understanding and for reading it has been 21%; we were aiming for 20%. Therefore there has been a direct link between the training, implementation and the impact.
Furthermore, we were involved in a spoken language trial that was separate from the work we were doing – the children in the trial group – 60%.
Challenge 1

9. February 2018
2 participants:
Year 2 teacher
Year 1/2 Teacher (part time)
6 day course that involved training presentations - visiting schools and learning institutions.
Time to reflect on practice.

10. Elements that necessitated contemplation:
Use of images for discussion
Use of ICT software to support spoken language skills.
Throughout 2018 and we introduced a tracking system for vocabulary understanding from a system called PIXL.This focused on Year 1.
The children were assessed for defining, using and linking language - at the start of the year the confidence average for define it was 72% - at the end of the year it was 88%. For using language it started as 82% and ended as 87% and for linking language it started as 75% and ended as 93%.
The use of visual literacy has proven to be a good starting point for language development and this aspect has supported the improvements in language acquisition.

11. April 2018
2 participants:
Reception Teacher
SENDCO
5 day course that involved training presentations - visiting schools and learning institutions.
Time to reflect on practice.

12. April 2018
2 participants:
Reception Teacher
SENDCO
5 day course that involved training presentations - visiting schools and learning institutions.
Time to reflect on practice.

13. Challenge 1 Elements that necessitated contemplation:
There was already much that we were doing in terms of supporting SEND children with language development such as schedules to support structure and understanding of the day and the linking of pictures to words, however as in Finland there was an emphasis on not wearing shoes in school and also on developing language through tactile experiences.
Challenge 1

14. As a result we have implemented:
The slipper Friday in to Year 1 and 2.
Reception children have been developing their learning outdoors. This very much linked into the visit to Finland and also the visit to Sweden - the outcome of all 3 training sessions was that learning through discovery and didactic teaching was a key element of success in each of these countries curriculums.
Impact:
SEND children in Reception in 2018/19 all made twice the rate of progress as other children from their starting points in speaking.
In communication and language 75% made twice the rate of progress as other children.
We are now exploring how this style of learning can be continued in to Year 1 for these children in 2019/20

15. May 2018
3 participants:
2 Reception Teachers
1 Governor
5 day course that involved training presentations - visiting schools and learning institutions.
Time to reflect on practice.

16. As a result we have implemented:
A focus on developing storytelling language through an outdoor learning project with support of TAs in the Foundation Stage.
The project focused on a small group of children identified through observations, language assessments and Chatterway. Implemented a Woodland Tales workshop with the children and parents every Friday afternoon for 5 weeks, up until Easter.
Impact:
95% of the children make more than the expected progress within the domain of communication and language.
Evaluation forms given out and were very positive - possibly to continue next year, each course to go on for a longer period of time and encourage story reading more alongside activities.
Children involved were very keen - getting ready half an hour before, talking to their friends.We observed changes in some children in their confidence and interest in reading and general happiness.

18. Standens Barn Primary School in partnership with Leap
Erasmus Project to develop language acquisition and in turn Reading outcomes.
Standens Barn Primary School in partnership with Leap
Next steps:
Now that we have run the strategies for a full academic year we will then be sharing these outcomes with our Academy through this presentation. This is because is has taken a whole year to see the impact of the initiatives that we have introduced. We now have a full years worth of data to see the impact of what has worked and what has not worked.
To develop the online community aspect - staying in touch with the other participants on the course has more difficult and the intention to create links between schools has not been developed yet and we have focused much more on just our school at this stage.
Additionally, there were aspects from the training that were not linked to the outcomes that we wanted to develop. This new learning, such as the slippers being worn, or the way that they trained teachers in Finland opened up new thinking, but was harder to measure the impact against the outcomes we were looking for. Or in the case of teacher training was much larger than something that could be done in school.