Ofsted: Stoke-on-Trent report on reading - a 'must read'
Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2014 12:10 pm
Ofsted (the inspectorate in England) has gone to some lengths to highlight different approaches to teaching reading in a sample of different primary schools with an attempt to include what works well and should be provided for early literacy provision - and what does not work well and is neglectful:
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/read ... upils-read
I shall develop this thread to highlight the messages.
It was 'statistics' which appear to have triggered this Ofsted inspection - a look at the bigger picture and comparing the Stoke-on-Trent schools' results to other schools in the bigger picture. So, the Ofsted report starts off by providing information about this bigger picture.
When you start to read about the schools which were inspected, however, please note the particular style of Ofsted reporting which switches to examples at the level of looking at the 'minutiae'. By that I mean observing and describing individual children reading - how a child reads, the background of the child and school context, the child's reading habits (or reading reflex).
Thus, what we have is a great contrast ranging from the cold, hard statistics of the bigger picture to close scrutiny and description of real children at one moment of time with an accompanying explanation in order for us to get a fuller understanding of Ofsted's analysis of the situation.
This is precisely what we need when it comes to looking at the issue of reading methods and reading provision - and their effects in terms of cold, hard statistics on the one hand - and on the other hand the effects on the reading profile of actual children as individuals.
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/read ... upils-read
What clear messages does this report give us?Ready to read?
How a sample of primary schools in Stoke-on-Trent teach pupils to read
Too many children in Stoke-on-Trent do not read or write well enough by the time they leave primary school. Stoke-on-Trent is in the bottom fifth of local authorities in England for the proportion of children achieving the expected standard of Level 2 or above in reading and writing at Key Stage 1.
Of the 23,300 children attending a primary school in Stoke-on-Trent, over 7,000 go to a school that is judged inadequate or as requires improvement. Between January and March 2014, Her Majesty’s Inspectors undertook a small study of how reading is taught in a focused sample of 12 primary schools in Stoke-on-Trent and the extent to which these schools were prepared for the introduction of the new national curriculum programme of study for reading in September 2014.
The findings of this study reveal that reading was not taught well enough in seven of the 12 schools and that six were not well prepared for the requirements of the new national curriculum.
I shall develop this thread to highlight the messages.
It was 'statistics' which appear to have triggered this Ofsted inspection - a look at the bigger picture and comparing the Stoke-on-Trent schools' results to other schools in the bigger picture. So, the Ofsted report starts off by providing information about this bigger picture.
When you start to read about the schools which were inspected, however, please note the particular style of Ofsted reporting which switches to examples at the level of looking at the 'minutiae'. By that I mean observing and describing individual children reading - how a child reads, the background of the child and school context, the child's reading habits (or reading reflex).
Thus, what we have is a great contrast ranging from the cold, hard statistics of the bigger picture to close scrutiny and description of real children at one moment of time with an accompanying explanation in order for us to get a fuller understanding of Ofsted's analysis of the situation.
This is precisely what we need when it comes to looking at the issue of reading methods and reading provision - and their effects in terms of cold, hard statistics on the one hand - and on the other hand the effects on the reading profile of actual children as individuals.
To see the 'table and graph' go to the full report, link above.Introduction
There were 77 primary schools, including 22 primary academies, in Stoke-on-Trent at the end of February 2014; of these 67 had nursery provision. There has been a long history in the city of the local authority funding nursery provision; full time nursery provision continued to be funded from 1997 when Stoke-on-Trent became a unitary authority. In 2013, literacy levels at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in Stoke-on-Trent were in line with those seen in the rest of the West Midlands region and in England as a whole. This is in contrast to Key Stage 1 reading and writing results, which have lagged behind those in the rest of England for the last five years.
The table and graph below detail the gap in literacy outcomes for pupils and students at all stages of their compulsory education in Stoke-on-Trent and provide the rationale for this study. Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) wanted to understand why standards in reading in Stoke-on-Trent were so low.