Children talking through lessons is not always what we want in a busy primary school, but for the past three years this has actually been one of our priorities!
More precisely, we wanted to develop their ability in talking about their learning. One of the big motivations for this work was Ofsted’s 2019 Education Inspection Framework (EIF), which shifted the focus for schools from collecting data demonstrating progress to understanding each child in terms of where they are and where they need to go next.
Although daunting, I welcomed the changes contained within the EIF. It gave us the freedom to develop our own assessment framework and to reduce the amount of “tick box” assessment that had previously been commonplace.
For some time, I’d been uncomfortable with the amount of assessment that was “done to” children and I was keen to shift to a model of assessment that was “done with” our pupils.
Getting children to talk and reflect about their learning was an important aspect of making this shift. It was also supported by the research, which shows that supporting pupils to think about their own learning (often called metacognition) and ensuring they are active participants could increase their progress by six to seven months across the year (EEF, 2021).
Another reason to get children talking about their learning was the impact of the pandemic. We found that many of our children when they returned to school after lockdowns were struggling to talk about their learning.
Planning and developing our thinking
At the beginning of 2021, I used our INSET to explain why we needed to make changes to our assessment processes, what the research said, how it would impact on teaching and support staff, and, most importantly, how it would benefit the children. It was essential everyone in the school was on board and understood why it was important.
Overall, staff were positive but there were some concerns about workload, whether it was in line with Ofsted’s expectations, and how much it would benefit the children.
In terms of workload, we were clear that we were not expecting change to happen overnight. With regard to Ofsted, the new revised framework had been the initial motivation for the project, so this was addressed easily. Benefiting the children was central in all our work and we ensured there was protected time for staff to come together as a team to review and reflect.
Introducing pitstops
One of the first changes we introduced was the idea of a “pitstop” in the lesson. This is an opportunity for the children to review what they have been learning, to talk to each other, and for teachers to ask children to share with the class.
Sometimes known as a “mini-plenary”, in key stage 1 this was led by the teacher with children being asked to contribute. At key stage 2, the principle was to have more pupil talk than teacher talk, and pupils would recap and review their learning, and discuss with their peers. Pitstops were designed to maintain children’s interest and active learning. They also made the lessons snappier and helped to chunk children’s learning.
Using technology
We are lucky to have 30 Chromebooks in each class and we were keen to use them to help children to reflect and capture their learning. We decided to focus on video as its use had become far more prevalent during lockdowns.
Children were asked to create a video once a week talking about a particular thing they had learnt, where they felt they were, and what they wanted to do next to move forward.
The children used the Chromebooks to record themselves as they talked about their learning. We used Tapestry, an online learning journal already in use, to upload the children’s videos to their learning profile. Some interesting things emerged:
- Unlike many adults, they really liked seeing themselves on screen and producing their own videos.
- They felt comfortable being on screen and so were more creative and expressive in the language they used.
- Knowing they had an audience for their assessment of their work, i.e. their teacher, was very motivating.
Technology was certainly a draw for many children, and it made the whole project more exciting for them.
Supporting all our children
We were aware that some children were more fluent communicators and that they would find talking about their learning much easier. There are many reasons children might not be good at communication, but two came up regularly for us.
The first was with “non-talking families” where there was much less communication at home. These children struggled with their vocabulary and speaking in sentences, and had less confidence to speak up.
The second group were children who spent a lot of time with adults. They could communicate well with teachers, but when working in small groups, to talk about their learning, they would struggle because their skills in communicating with their peers were less well developed.
For both these groups we provided a range of extra support activities within class. We also used an existing strategy “scoop and boost” which provided extra out-of-class support to children within 24 hours of an issue being identified by their teacher.
Scoop and boost, which is led by a teaching assistant, was already working well and we realised that these small groups were an ideal place to also help children to talk about their learning. Our teaching assistants were already aware of our focus on getting children to talk about their learning and we provided further training about metacognition and strategies they could use.
Final thoughts
Three years on and talking about what you have learnt and what you need to learn next is something all our children accept as part of the normal school day.
For example, in RE, a subject where we have focused a lot of our work, children are better at analysing and addressing what they have learnt. This is reflected in our recent SIAMS inspection outcome, which saw our school graded as “excellent” and which noted: “Pupils articulate very clearly how RE gives them confidence to explore and challenge themselves in the choices that they make in life.”
We have found children are more motivated about their learning. The opportunity to talk about their learning and to also create videos – which they know their teacher will watch – has increased their engagement in assessment. They know they are part of the process of assessment, and this has helped them to foster a sense of responsibility for their own learning.
Getting children to talk about their learning has made a positive contribution to our wider oracy strategy as well. Children are more confident to speak in class and to external visitors, and feedback from families suggests children are more ready to speak at home about what they are learning at school.
As we start a new school year and teachers meet their new classes, it is exciting to feel pupils are more able to tell their new teacher what they have learnt in their previous class – and what they need to do next.
Andrew Simpson is headteacher at Arundel Church of England School Primary School in West Sussex.
Further information & resources
- EEF: Metacognition and self-regulation evidence summary, 2021: https://tinyurl.com/z48sryj9