Best Practice

Pupils' language: Are we missing a trick in primary assessment?

Profiling pupils’ language levels in your school can yield crucial information that can help to improve outcomes across the board, both academically and socially. Jean Gross advises
Image: Adobe Stock

What gets measured tends to get done. In primary schools this means a curriculum driven largely by English and maths. But perhaps assessment needs to help us look below the surface of these headline measures. Why? Consider these research findings:

Evidence from intervention studies suggests that the relationship between spoken language and attainment is causal rather than simply one of association – and that it is possible, therefore, for schools to improve children’s reading, writing and maths as a result of a focus on spoken language.

For example, a rigorous study for the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) found a significant uplift to attainment in English, maths and science after teachers introduced dialogic techniques in their classrooms (Jay et al, 2017).

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