The Improving literacy in key stage 2 guidance has been updated by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) based on the latest updates to its Teaching and Learning Toolkit evidence summaries.
The update includes new visual models to support practitioners in breaking down the complexity of developing children’s reading and writing skills.
It also provides further exemplification of how the seven core recommendations can be “meaningfully implemented into day-to-day teaching practice”.
The recommendations themselves remain consistent with those provided in the previous iteration, published in 2017. These encourage schools to:
- Develop pupils’ language capabilities.
- Support pupils to develop fluent reading capabilities.
- Teach reading comprehension strategies through modelling and supported practice.
- Teach writing composition strategies through modelling and supported practice.
- Develop pupils’ transcription and sentence construction skills through extensive practice.
- Target teaching and support by accurately assessing pupil needs.
- Use high-quality structured interventions to help pupils who are struggling with their literacy.
The report was produced in consultation with expert academics and practitioners and offers guidance for senior leaders, literacy leads and teachers in all primary settings.
This guidance is part of a series providing evidence-based advice for improving teaching in key areas for schools, including feedback, professional development and mathematics.
The EEF says it will be working with the sector, including through its national Research Schools Network, to build on the recommendations in the updated report with further training, resources and guidance.
- EEF: Improving literacy in key stage 2: Seven recommendations to improve literacy teaching for seven to 11-year-olds, November 2021: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/literacy-ks2