Teaching of the literacy and English curriculum

Across all sectors, practitioners and teachers have a firm understanding of the literacy and English experiences and outcomes. They plan engaging lessons and activities that support the development of literacy skills. Children and young people enjoy literacy and English lessons and activities.  

What is working well  

Practitioners, primary teachers and some English teachers are developing children and young people’s love of reading well. Children and young people are encouraged to engage with a wide variety of texts. Practitioners and teachers plan well-considered lessons and activities to develop children and young people’s skills in decoding different types of texts.  

Across all sectors, lessons and activities focus on developing children and young people’s literacy skills. In most primary schools, there are clear progression frameworks that teachers use well to plan learning and teaching that support children to develop increasingly complex literacy skills. In secondary settings, English teachers have created positive environments for learning and teaching. In the strongest departments, young people are asked which types of learning activities they enjoy most. This is leading to young people feeling more engaged and interested in their learning.  

Practitioners and teachers are making increasingly effective use of digital learning resources to support children and young people’s literacy development. In almost all settings and schools, digital tools such as phonics apps, interactive storytelling platforms and speech-to-text software support children and young people to develop reading fluency, comprehension and writing confidence. Teachers are becoming more confident in using learning applications and are developing their knowledge and skills of how digital tools can support literacy progression. Across all sectors, there is a clear understanding of the need to balance the use of digital and non-digital resources. 

High-quality questioning has been identified as a priority for improvement in several settings and schools. As a result of this, practitioners and teachers are making good use of questioning to check for understanding. Through this, they extend children and young people’s vocabulary and encourage engagement with texts. In the strongest examples, questioning is used to prompt inference and personal responses. This encourages children and young people to be reflective and to think more deeply about their learning. 

Challenges to address 

In early settings, practitioners should consider how they can support children to make connections with what they are learning and the wider world. Children should be supported to identify where they can apply their developing literacy skills to real-life contexts for learning, life and work. 

In primary schools, teachers should work with children to help them identify ways in which they can be successful in their learning. Involving children in discussions focusing on what successful learning looks like should ensure that they understand each step in the learning process. By identifying the steps to success at the outset, children have ownership of their learning and clear criteria to support self-assessment and identify their next steps. 

In secondary schools, some teachers, other than English teachers, need to have a stronger understanding of how to support and develop young people’s literacy skills in their curricular areas. Teachers need to have a greater understanding of how young people’s literacy attainment impacts their ability to access texts and resources. This, in turn, limits some young people’s engagement in their learning and can negatively impact on their progress across the curriculum.