Staff meeting:

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Staff meeting Why, what and how?
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No Pens Day Wednesday

• An annual, national speaking and listening event
  run by The Communication Trust
• Taking place this year on 15th October
  nationally, though we can take part whenever
  works best for us
• Its a national event to focus all learning
  through speaking and listening and to see the
  importance of these skills- with no writing!

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Why focus on speaking and listening?
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What do we want for our students?

• Verbally able
• Knowledgeable
• Literate
• Well qualified
• Good citizen
• Engaged in learning

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And for those with additional needs?

• Closed gap
• Equality of opportunity
• Appropriate support
• The new SEND Code of Practice highlights that
  high quality teaching is essential to supporting
  all pupils, including those with additional needs

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High quality teaching that is differentiated
and personalised will meet the individual needs
of the majority of children and young people...
Special educational provision is underpinned by
high quality teaching and is compromised by
anything less.
SEND Code of Practice 2014
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How are we made accountable?

• Our data on pupils progress
• Our data on pupils attainment
• The quality of teaching and learning
• The ability of our children to communicate their
  learning
• The strength of our leadership teams

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But, we learn to talk before we go to school
dont we?

• Between birth and three years, we build the
  foundations for later conversations
• At 25 months, 82 of children use 2 4 word
  sentences (1)
• By 4 years old, the average child has between
  1500 and 1600 words (2)

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We build on communication skills throughout our
lives

• An average 6 year old has a vocabulary of 2600
  words(3), and by 17, young people have acquired
  approximately 17000 words! (3)
• As we grow up, we learn that different types of
  communication are needed in different contexts-
  what you say to your friend is probably different
  to what you say to your headteacher
• We also develop skills around adjusting our
  knowledge of verbal communication to that of
  written communication- just because we say it
  that way doesnt mean we write it that way!

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• Although children are hard wired to communicate,
  these skills dont just develop naturally, they
  have to be taught and learnt, supported and
  nurtured...

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So what?

• Schools have a vital role in teaching and
  supporting all children and young people to
  develop their communication skills.....

All the skills of language are essential to
participating fully as a member of society
pupils, therefore, who do not learn to speak,
read and write fluently and confidently are
effectively disenfranchised.
Primary National Curriculum, England, 2013
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Ofsted agrees
A child who has limited vocabulary and
difficulty communicating will not be ready for
school and will often lag behind their peers for
the rest of their time in education.
Without the ability to communicate effectively
in speech and through reading and writing,
children and young people are seriously
disadvantaged for life.
Ofsted Good Practice in School Readiness report ,
2014
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Language is the vehicle for learning
There aint no mystery Scoob
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Focusing on oral language is beneficial for
everyone...
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And particularly vital for children who
struggle...
Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN)
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Language to close the gap

• Children from low income families lag behind high
  income counterparts by sixteen months in
  vocabulary. (7)
• Studies have shown that in some areas of social
  deprivation upwards of 50 of children enter
  school with delayed language. (8)
• Children eligible for free school meals are 2.3
  times more likely to have SLCN. (9)

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The impacts of SLCN are wide- ranging.
Educational achievement Behaviour/vulnerability Mental health
Vocabulary at 5 is a powerful predictor of GCSE achievement. (15) 2/3 of 7-14 year olds with serious behaviour problems have language impairment . (16) 40 of 7 to 14 year olds referred to child psychiatric services had a language impairment that had never been identified. (17))
Employability Criminality Disadvantage Cycle
47 of employers say they cant recruit staff with the communication skills they need (18) 65 of young people in young offender institutions have communication difficulties. (19) Children from low income families lag behind high income counterparts by sixteen months in vocabulary at school entry. (20)
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What is No Pens Day Wednesday and how will it
help us?
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A national speaking and listening event...

• No Pens Day Wednesday is run by The Communication
  Trust and is now in its fourth year
• Its a national event to focus all learning
  through speaking and listening- with no writing!
• A day to see the benefits of speaking and
  listening for learning
• And remember... No writing means no marking!

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Why are we taking part?

• No Pens Day Wednesday is a fun and relatively
  easy to plan AND schools whove taken part before
  have reported that it can have a big impact...

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for developing practice

• 89 of teachers who took part in 2013 and
  responded to an evaluation survey said that
  taking part in No Pens Day Wednesday raised their
  awareness of speech, language and communication
  needs
• Crucially, 69 said theyd do things differently
  around school as a result of their involvement

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for supporting pupils

• Schools taking part in No Pens Day Wednesday
  report improvements in behaviour, attention and
  engagement and in particular for pupils who
  struggle or have SEN...

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for supporting pupils
Quotes from teachers who took part previously
A fun and different way to appreciate learning
through speaking and listening activities -
especially for SEN pupils.
The children's enjoyment... They were much
calmer, didn't feel anxious and behaviour
throughout the school was better. Everyone
participated and there was a real buzz.
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for Ofsted

• Two schools who took part in 2012 had Ofsted
  inspections at the same time. They found that the
  experience was also useful for their
  inspections...

Ofsted arrived on the morning of No Pens
Wednesday! My Nursery was filled with parents and
their children, totally engaged in
communication...it was lovely!
We had Ofsted in, which made some staff panic!
But the teaching seen on the day was better than
the previous day and really helped our feedback.
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And this yearfor the SEND reforms

• This year, the event is also providing
  information and ideas to support schools and
  settings to get to grips with the SEND Reforms
  which are in place from September 2014
• Improving our focus on speaking and listening
  (and raising awareness of pupils who are
  struggling with these skills) is essential to
  delivering high quality teaching

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for changes in the curriculum

• There is less guidance in the new curriculum for
  speaking and listening
• NPDW gives lesson plans, guidance and templates
  for embedding speaking and listening across the
  curriculum
• Activities can support English GCSE pupils with
  their certificate for speaking and listening

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No Pens Day Wednesday free resources will

• Help us plan high quality specific speaking and
  listening elements for all lessons for pupils of
  all abilities
• Provide information about working with pupils to
  set outcomes that are important to them- a key
  requirement of the SEND Reforms
• Share information about prevalence levels of SLCN
  for strategic SEN planning
• Provide information for teachers in monitoring
  and assessing progress in pupils' language and
  communication skills
• Give ideas, resources and information to increase
  parental engagement

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How to run No Pens Day Wednesday
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Preparation

• The lead member of staff for the day insert name
  here will be available to support you preparing
  your lessons for the day
• Check out the activity pack and free materials
  available on the website including lesson plans
  and activity templates, posters, take home tips
  for parents and loads more!
• The day will begin with an assembly for pupils
  run by insert name
• Discuss potential challenges and solutions what
  might we / the pupils might find hard?

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To consider

• How well measure the impact of the day and
  record what goes on
• How well let parents know and encourage them to
  get involved
• How well build in ways to get and capture the
  pupils views about activities and lessons
• What methods well use to record what happens on
  the day- photos, case studies, video recordings

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Resources

• The activity pack will give all the information
  we need about planning and running the day
• Other free resources available to support the
  event in 2014 include-
• Lesson plans and activity templates for all ages
  and settings
• Whole school assembly ideas
• Take home information for parents about
  communication
• Information and guidance on the SEND Reforms for
  staff

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All these and more can be accessed on The
Communication Trust website www.thecommunicatio
ntrust.org.uk/nopensdaywednesday
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What did we learn?some competition ideas
The pen police have a crack team of pen police who do spot checks on classrooms, teachers and pupils - they can create a top 3 winners of the day presentations for gold, silver and bronze could be given in assembly. Use a wooden spoon booby prize for the bottom 3 who were caught pen handed!
Each class can share their thoughts on their most creative lesson/teacher on NPDW and why prize given for creativity in assembly
Each class/group can decide on their favourite word and upload a video to the school site saying what it is and why everyone can vote for the most convincing argument or have a debate in class . The winning group might get to choose the next activity...
Prepare a ballot box in school make two boxes, one giving NPDW the thumbs up and one the thumbs down. Get the kids to post a card in the box that represents how they felt about NPDW. Once youve counted up and got the results, you could have a school , class or group debate about what they thought of the day and why they chose the thumbs up or down box...
Run a word quiz throughout the day place clues on the corridors/classrooms for pupils to follow to work out 10 key words. They report back which words theyve worked out to the class teachers if they get all 10 words right, they win a reward! This idea could be differentiated for different groups
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• The Communication Trust runs No Pens Day
  Wednesday.
• The Trust is a coalition of almost 50
  not-for-profit organisations. Working together we
  support everyone who works with children and
  young people in England to support their speech,
  language and communication.
• To find out more please go to www.thecommunication
  trust.org.uk

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Thank you and good luck!