Biscuits or Banquets?

Maureen Hunt examines the quality of the reading ‘diet’ children are getting and how important it is for those children from more disadvantaged backgrounds to have rich reading experiences in school. She explores why solely using a phonic based approach is not enough and gives some top tips for teachers to make the reading experience into a metaphorical banquet for children.

Teacher showing phonic cards to students

Becoming a lifetime reader is dependent on developing a love of reading¹ and few would argue against the fact that the ability and motivation to read impacts on the life chances of all children.

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      string(5705) "Building Core StrengthIt is important to determine where teachers, leaders, parents and carers might begin. Over the last five years it has become increasingly apparent among the 100,000 targeted children and young people engaged in Achievement for All programmes that the common starting point for the majority is the need to build core strength.Core strength can be described in this context as the confidence and ability to learn, develop and participate in society. Children and young people experiencing disadvantage and underachievement lack confidence, find learning challenging, develop differently and have limited participation in society. Underlying factors, or needs, may be cognitive, physical, emotional or social; each manifest in a fundamental lack of progress of the child or young person when compared to their peers.Causality is often misinterpreted as a diagnosis rooted in a deficit model i.e. children and young people defined by ‘they can’t do this because they have a problem’, which leads to labelling, low expectations, and a rhetoric of failure. Yet Achievement for All has demonstrably proven in many different contexts and settings that ‘they can succeed’.  Meaningful change in society will only occur if we invest in all children and young people. 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Through the provision of training, tools, information and knowledge we enable, facilitate, encourage and support; we provide the architecture to build core strength in every child and young person.Evidence informs professional practice, measures our impact, and formulates our strategies to guide our growth from schools to colleges, early years settings and now, young offenders. The technical learning, empirical knowledge and understanding and personal skills of our team have led to improved outcomes for at least 100,000 direct beneficiaries to date. This has been measured by academic progress in reading, writing and maths, and by social developments of each child and young person reflected in behaviour and attendance.Building core strength and illuminating good practice amongst professionals whilst valuing every parent and carer as a partner in their child’s growth and learning is key. It is about demonstrating and modelling that all children and young people can learn regardless of background, challenge or need. Social Mobility and the role of the teacherThe current rationale for inclusion is social mobility – but what is it? For many it’s the ability of individuals to move from one class group to another class group, or one income group to another.  What we do know is that social mobility is related to long term capacity to build the knowledge, skills and understanding of individuals and families so that they can sustain and support themselves – that’s as individuals and as families. We know that social mobility is inter-generational – that generations of the same family, often from low-income groups, can get caught in the poverty trap, unable to change their situation. We also need to be aware that, as in a game of snakes and ladders, social mobility can go down as well as up!  We know that low-income families often start behind other families in our communities. 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Leadership

Are children ever too young for technology?

26 Sep 2017

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      string(5753) "Educational inequality is a complex issue to solve… ‘that is precisely why the Fair Education Alliance exists’ says Sam Butters, CEO of the Fair Education Alliance. ‘We are a coalition of almost 100 businesses, education institutions, social enterprises and unions. All our members have one thing in common: in their own work they are committed to tackling educational inequality but we also recognise that alone we will not be able to drive the change needed’. We are in the midst of a social mobility crisis. Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds start their education eight months behind their wealthier peers and only fall further behind as they progress through each stage of their education. They are also more likely to suffer from ill mental health and are four times as likely to be permanently excluded. Not only do we have a moral imperative to rectify this, there is also an economic imperative. If we carry on down this road, the UK will cease to be competitive on a global stage.This is not a new story and it is one that many practitioners and policymakers have been for many years working hard to address, and they continue to do so. We have increasing amounts of research and evidence about solutions that work and increasing amounts of examples where this is being put into practice to enable young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to beat the odds and fulfil their potential. Indeed, the Social Mobility Commission’s latest State of the Nation report (2017) highlights the success of many recent initiatives:“local policies adopted by local authorities and employers can positively influence outcomes for disadvantaged residents. Two decades ago, London’s state schools were routinely described as the worst in the country. Now they are the best. The education attainment of disadvantaged children has dramatically improved thanks to initiatives like London Challenge and the combined efforts of local councils, teachers and governors. Similarly, until recently, the North East had some of the worst careers advice in the country. Today, it is leading the way on good-quality careers advice – a consequence of collaborative efforts to improve performance.”This raises two key messages. Firstly, the positive: this is not a bleak situation. Educational inequality is not an inevitability and we can create the conditions for young people from all backgrounds to live happy, healthy, thriving lives. Secondly, the slightly harder message – educational inequality is a complex issue. Too complex for one organisation, institution or even one government to solve in isolation. Yes, we can solve it, but we need to unite, act intentionally and strategically and most importantly, together to drive the changes needed.Our members collectively own five Fair Education Impact Goals: to close the gap in literacy and numeracy, in GCSE attainment, in careers and post-16 education, in University access and in social and emotional skills and wellbeing – all areas where the gap between the most disadvantaged young people and their wealthier peers is damagingly wide. We pool our collective talent, resources and efforts to set out our shared recommendations on what needs to happen to improve young people’s lives and then act collaboratively to make this happen. Across our members we have a breadth of experience – from teachers in classrooms and practitioners specialising in literacy, numeracy or employability skills, to businesses recruiting young people into the labour market and think tank and research organisations looking at the evidence base. This richness of experience and different perspectives enables us to come together to set out a collective strategy and plan for how we can make the changes happen – each of us playing a different, critical role to change the lives of young people. The following case study shows how one of our member organisations is doing this:. Skills Builder: The Fair Education Alliance in action It has never been more important to invest in building a set of essential skills in our children and young people: the ability to creatively solve problems, to manage themselves, to communicate effectively, or to work well with others. The demand for these skills from employers is well-documented, but colleges and universities are just as strident about the importance of these skills for young people to thrive. Increasingly, too, teachers are adamant that their students need these skills – 97% responded to a Sutton Trust survey that these skills were at least as important as academic achievements for their children and young people to thrive.The Fair Education Alliance is seeking to address the attainment gap between disadvantaged young people and their wealthier peers, but equally important, we want to close the gap in wellbeing, post-16 education outcomes and progression after school. Addressing this skills gap will be essential to do this.Enabling Enterprise is a Fair Education Alliance member and has undertaken almost a decade’s work with 3 to 18 year olds. Through this, they found that it is perfectly possible for every child to build a high level of competency in these skills. But to do so requires these skills to be taught explicitly – we cannot presume that they are innate or that they are just ‘rub off’ on students after enough opportunities or experiences. They found that the fundamental shift in mind set must be towards thinking about these essential skills with just the same rigour as two skills we feel very comfortable about teaching: literacy"
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Inclusion

Tackling Inequality in the System

10 Sep 2018

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      string(5677) "socio-economic disadvantage. However, research investigating the impact oftechnology on reading and supporting children, especially for children growing up insocio-economic disadvantage, is limited.There are some interesting studies however, which share some light. One thesestudies is that led by Flewitt et al. in 2014. In this study researchers introduced iPads to aprimary school reception centre, a children’s centre and a special school and suggestedthat technology has the potential to support different mediums used to supportliteracy such as stories and importantly personalization. iPads had a positive impact onliteracy development and provided an array of opportunities for children and teachersto speak and listen to each other.Currently, a collaboration between The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),Tufts and Georgia State Universities is trying to understand the impact that technology(tablets in particular) might have in supporting reading preparedness of childrenbetween four and eleven years old in under-resourced educational settings in Africa,67Vol 8.2School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileEarlyyearstechnologythe United States and slums in India. Findings are promising, showing that a platformto deliver reading content can benefit students across diverse under-resourcededucational settings. Despite challenges faced by each study population (i.e., no accessto schools; or schools with 50-100:1 student-teacher ratios in developing countries; orlow socio-economic at-risk communities in developed countries), three independentliteracy and vocabulary pilot assessments suggest better student performance overall.This includes better letter and word recognition, when compared to similar gradestudents who did not have access to the tablets (Breazeal et al, 2016, p.19). In the samerealm, a study of pre-schoolers in Australia who had greater access to touch screenswere found to have higher letter and sound knowledge and name writing skills thanthose without (Nuemann, 2014).Furthermore, a study exploring the attentiveness, impulsivity, learning andemotional effects of touch screen environments on children aged four to seven showedthat the introduction of digital devices resulted in no difference in the concentrationspans and problem-solving capabilities of children compared to the use of traditionaltoys, such as drawing or playing with building blocks (Kilman, 2015). As regards thearray of arguments put forward by a number research studies that technology distractsfrom physical play and social interaction, according to research by Plowan et all in 2012,these are not necessarily valid.ConclusionInvestment in technology seems to offer solutions for inclusion and equity of access,particularly for children from socio-economically disadvantaged families. Given theconclusions of scientific research that suggest supporting learning in early childhoodprovides greater returns in later life, we might conclude that the earlier the integrationof technology and learning happens the better. Despite the potential, aspiration andhope for technology’s contribution to tangibly raise the achievement of basic skillssuch as reading, this has not been matched by initiatives to explore possibilities andtest outcomes in Early Years settings.The use of technology in classrooms can have a positive impact if it is usedeffectively; to a large extent this will be dependent on the quality of teaching. Effectiveschools will be able to use technology more effectively, less effective schools will notnecessarily be able to fulfil its full potential.Technology can act as a catalyst for powerful change. Progress is about focusingon how we can bring that change about and how it can be practically delivered. Siraj-68Vol 8.2School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileEarlyyearstechnologyBlatchford and Siraj-Blatchford (2000) and the research by the Education EndowmentFoundation (2012) offer the following useful directions, which can provide a frameworkfor implementing and developing technology in the early years setting:1. Ensure an educational purpose – Uses of technology can be as simple as theuse of a telephone to promote imaginary play, the benefits of which are welldocumented. Applications should promote children in a range of different areas,including creativity, self-expression and language. Siraj-Blatchford and Siraj-Blatchford refer to the Millie’s ‘Make a bug’ application and particularly emphasisethe benefits of its free-play mode. They raise concerns however, about applicationswhich are designed with narrow educational aims such as use of language and drill-and-practice programmes which, they say are too teacher directed and appeal tochildren’s’ extrinsic motivation, i.e. praise by an adult or a smile, etc.2. Promote collaborative use – Technology can inspire communication not restrict it.Children using an application together requires their joint attention and sharing. Itoffers the opportunity for children to use argumentation and resolve any potentialconflict; for younger children the intervention of an adult will ensure effective use.3. Integrate with other aspects of the curriculum to enhance learning – The useof technology should be part of other learning activities and play rather thana separate activity completed in a separate room full of computers. Integratingtechnology can also provide a greater range of visual and audio artefacts than anursery might usually hold. Siraj-Blatchford and Siraj-Blatchford provide a powerfulexample of a child in a nursery"
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Special Needs

Are children ever too young for technology

16 Apr 2018

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