The Achievement of boys at GCSE English
Aim: To identify strategies which might improve the achievement of boys at GCSE English.
The Evidence People
Literacy/English
Key Stage 4 literacy programme: is it improving written examination responses in English examinations?
Aim: The project aims to investigate whether or not a specifically designed literacy programme for Key stage 4 students was having any impact on the quality of their written responses in English examinations.
Taking your mind for a walk - Why story time is valuable
Aim: To investigate the impact of hearing high-quality stories on Year 2 childrens writing. In particular to look for literary and other echoes, examine childrens views of story times, compare the impact of stories heard in story times with those studied in Literacy sessions as big books, investigate the presentation and style of different stories to see whether these also had an impact; and examine whether story times helped children develop their vocabulary.
Narrative Writing Project
Aim: The overall aim of the first phase of the project was to raise attainment in narrative writing for children in Year 6. The second phase involved extending the project to all children in Key Stage 2. The first phase is complete and the second phase is still being evaluated.
Children writing: shaping words, shaping thoughts
Aim: To develop cursive writing from entry to support creative writing, to consider gender issues in the use of this approach and to summarise the impact of this approach.
Creative Thinking in a Community of Enquiry
Aim: The aim of this project was to investigate to what extent the thinking skills approach known as the Community of Enquiry could stimulate and support creative thinking in young children.
"Contexts of meaning": Assessing bilingual pupils' comprehension of text
Aim: To investigate how the literacy hour, as interpreted and taught within this school, effectively supports the reading development of beginner bilingual children, and in particular their comprehension of the weekly whole class shared reading text.
Raising boys' attainment in English through single gender teaching and assessment for learning strategies
Aim: The original aim of the project was to investigate ways to raise boys attainment in English. We were aware that our GCSE top sets were heavily weighted towards girls, with often less than ten boys in a group of thirty plus, and we wanted to address this imbalance. The main aim of the study was to close the attainment gap between boys and girls.
Improving writing through a creative approach
Aim: The main aim was to build and implement an approach to raising achievement using a creative strategy based on the current evidence about improving childrens motivation for writing. Specifically the objectives were:
To raise the attainment in writing of an underachieving Year Two class through a creative approach.
To improve pupils attitudes towards, and engagement with, the writing process.
To make clear links to the Primary Framework Objectives for text, sentence and word level within an integrated approach.
The teaching of reading in Years 6 & 7
Aim: To describe and evaluate methods used in the teaching of reading in a primary Year 6 Literacy Hour
and a secondary Year 7 English lesson.