The Year 9 question – Part One: the changes to KS3

The changes to GCSE English (Lit and Lang) have been looming large in my mind for a while now. I’m feeling fairly on top of things with what I need to do in terms of changes for Years 7 and 8, and have started (slowly) to implement these as part of my role coordinating KS3.

However, the question of what to do with Year 9 has been hanging, sword-of-Damocles-like, over my head. Yes, I am aware that this cohort will be sitting the new, terminal-exam GCSEs. No, I don’t want to commit to anything until I am certain of what this will entail… Happily, I spent Wednesday of last week at a course in London which aimed to address just that question.

The below, and what has quickly mushroomed into what will be a short series of posts, is an attempt to sort out the jumble of notes I took from the day, and a slightly stream-of-consciousness hypothesis of how I might ‘action’ these changes.

What are the changes to the KS3 Program of Study?

I was relieved to note that there was nothing unexpected in this: having completed a detailed analysis of the changes before I joined my new school in September I felt au fait with what was presented to us: I’ve already implemented SOWs on Dickens and Edgar Allen Poe in Year 7, and was passed a fab ‘Inspirational Speeches’ SOW which I’ve slotted into Year 8. If you’re not as geeky as I am (surely not! I hear you cry) the main changes are these:

So far, so good. As it were. This isn’t the time to expound my growing conviction that a knowledge-based curriculum in English is no bad thing, and in any case, in the interests of pragmatism, I’m not going to worry about the whys or wherefores. For now.

The biggest change, however, which I don’t mind admitting I am more concerned about, is the introduction of an equally-weighted fourth strand, focussing on grammar and vocabulary.

I’m 29. This means that when I attended secondary school, I wasn’t taught discrete grammar lessons. Since qualifying in 2012 I haven’t had to teach discrete grammar lessons in such depth. This is scary! Again, thanks to my geeky obsession, I wasn’t unprepared for this change. I should interject here that having a best friend who teaches Year 6 is a fab thing, in many ways – I was, prior to my little investigation, completely unaware that the L6 SPAG paper contained such questions as

‘Rewrite a sentence in the passive voice; add a subordinate clause to a sentence; expand a noun into a noun phrase; identify abstract/common/proper/collective nouns; write a sentence using a colon and semi-colon correctly; identify the impersonal version of a sentence; tick boxes to show the type of adverb used – manner/time/place’

L6 example spelling words – recognised, wreckage, correspond, plummet, infinite, rhythmic, phenomenon

Paper 3 example (Level 6 only) – Write an article for your local paper describing something important to you that is available at no cost (eg a museum, park, good memories); write a short report arguing for or against cyberschooling

*edit: Robert Howell has got in touch to say that this indented text is from his curriculum map. Having perused my scrappy handwritten notes it certainly appears his ideas have penetrated all the way to the South Coast! All credit, etc. Further info on the KS2 SPAG tests can also be found here *

Yes, I am aware that not *every* child sits the L6 paper at KS2, but it illustrates my point. My top set Year 10s were, at the start of this year, unable to use a semi colon correctly – whether this is as a result of the dreaded ‘summer dip’ or something else, I cannot comment, as I didn’t teach them.

The issues, as I see them (for MY school) are these:

1. How do we ‘apply and extend’ the discrete teaching of SPAG from the Primary PoS?
2. What do I need to do in terms of refreshing/upskilling KS3 teachers (including myself!) to ensure that I am providing enough stretch for all learners in KS3?

Well. Weighty questions indeed. The first question, to my mind, is a case of ‘refresh and extend’. I’ve been in regular contact with Mr Hildrew with regards to a few things recently, and find his refreshingly no-nonsense approach to progress applies here. The fact is that regardless of how we, in secondary, regard our Year 7s’ ability against their reported KS2 level, they were assessed, somehow, as being at that level. There is no point mithering about it: we need to refresh their understanding of SPAG and move forwards. The fact is, students need to be at a certain proficiency by Year 9 to best ready them for the challenges of KS4. This brings to the fore my second question. Many English teachers are Literature graduates. I myself am a Classicist. A quick straw-poll of my department (and again, the point is anecdotal and will of course vary from school to school) revealed that many are not as comfortable as they would like to be in the discrete teaching of grammar. The new KS3 PoS has 27 pages of language terminology! Flicking through it, I remember (vaguely) a lecture during my GTP in which we were taught what a ‘split digraph’ is, from which I dutifully filed the notes into my standards file, and have never looked at since. To my mind, we in secondary have a great deal to learn from our primary colleagues. My first point-of-call, therefore, will be to speak to some primary practitioners and beg, borrow, or steal ideas. Secondly, and once I have a clearer idea of the direction we need to move into, I need to think about the ‘how’. At the conference I attended last week, one teacher explained how they had a ‘grammar’ department. I reacted with surprise: it seemed to be a nonsense – how can grammar *not* be interwoven within our normal teaching? I still firmly think that – as with all ‘literacy’ teaching – it shouldn’t be a bolt-on. However… I am still feeling a little woolly as to how else we can address this: ideas gratefully received!

Planned next post: an overview of the changes to KS4 and what this means for Year 9.

The Progress Premiership!

Firstly, let me be honest and admit that I didn’t think of this wonderfully alliterative title myself but instead, shamelessly purloined it from my last school (who used it as a pastoral support report).

However, having stolen the name, I have created what (I hope) will be a very focussed reporting system to help me help my most underachieving PP boys in KS3. This is in response to the rather frazzling (but extremely interesting) analysis of the first data capture of the year. My new school uses a system of MACs – monthly assessment checks – which means that every 4-5 weeks I will have a new data set to look at. This is daunting, I admit – but I am determined to see the positives in looking the progression (or lack thereof) of students this regularly.

Rationale:

PP boys are our biggest underachievers currently. I’m not entirely comfortable detailing the exact ‘gap’ on a public blog.. .but it’s NOT ok!

Introduction:

To address this I firstly need to ensure that ALL SOWs at KS3 are tailored to engaging all learners – but most particularly PP boys to enable them to make expected or better-than-expected progress. The new SOWs I have thus far implemented will be reviewed by all English staff on the new SOW feedback form, post-teaching, to better inform the changes we will make going forward into the next academic year.

However, in addition to this there needs to be a reward system specifically targeted at underachieving boys. Many (although not all) of these will be PP students. My proposal is for a ‘Progress Premiership’ which would allow for the targeted tracking and monitoring of students who have either regressed since joining our school or who are more than 3 sublevels away from their EOY targets.

Methodology:

To engage and inspire students this tracking system needs to be both positive and competitive. The ‘Progress Premiership’ should have, to my thinking, three broad strands: attendance, attainment and attitude. Students will be awarded ‘points’ for each English lesson in which the class teacher considers that they have achieved sufficiently well. Extra points can be awarded for specific attainment – for example full marks on a spelling test, attaining a higher mark in an assessed piece of work or taking part in a literacy-focussed extra-curricular activity.

In addition to this, the selected Progress Premiership students will receive additional support from myself, the HoD and possibly a PE teacher. This will take place once a fortnight and would comprise additional literacy activities, but with an emphasis on it being a ‘boys club’; something positive; not an arduous ‘extra work’ lesson. I feel that positive reinforcement is absolutely key here. It may be possible to implement some work with KS4 mentors too although the logistics of this could prove impossible.

The ‘reward’ element of the Progress Premiership would be ongoing in terms of praise letters and rewards but to my mind there should be an ‘end prize’ at the end of each half term for those who have achieve the most points; a ‘Top 20’ (dependent on the size of the cohort). This would need to be funded through PP money and should be something desirable to foster competition– this should be canvassed but ideas could be: a cinema afternoon with popcorn and drinks/ a hot chocolate morning with our HT/ a trip ice-skating/ a visit to St Mary’s stadium.

To balance this, however, it is important that those who do not ‘buy in’ to the scheme are not allowed to opt out. I propose a ‘red group’, to be on report to myself. These students would be monitored most intensely for attitude to learning. It would of course be possible to move out of this group

…so… I have obviously had a look at what some other schools are doing with regards to PP support and provision but I am more than open to hearing people’s thoughts on my ideas. I would love people to get in touch to tell me what they are doing to close that all-important gap!