How better language skills boost pupils' progress

Setting
Peacehaven Community School

Purpose
To boost language and communication skills

Funding
Secondary Talk costs about £6,000 a year. Thanks to a bursary from communication charity I Can, the school paid about £3,500 plus the cost of a specialist language teacher for one day a week.

Background
Peacehaven Community School is a mainstream secondary in East Sussex with a facility for 20 pupils with speech, language and communication needs. Staff were keen to improve pupils’ communication skills and attainment in language and literacy, so they adopted communication charity I Can’s Secondary Talk scheme. Assistant head Mandy Lewis says this “provided a framework to develop practice and look for the impact”.

Action
Schools that use Secondary Talk are supported by a specialist adviser and have access to a range of resources that help audit their performance, develop an action plan and offer practical ideas. Part of the programme at Peacehaven involved working with staff on the way they asked questions in class and in group work. “Sometimes children are more reticent and sit back and let others communicate, so this was about ensuring all students were fully involved,” explains Lewis.

The school also focused on developing vocabulary at Key Stage 4, with an emphasis on “tier-two” words or “process language” – words such as “analyse”, “describe”, “compare” and “contrast”, which are shown to be an important factor in academic success.

Professionals from the special educational needs unit also worked closely with staff across the school on how to ensure lessons, and in particular homework, were accessible to those with communication difficulties. Meanwhile, parents of children with communication needs were given advice on how best to support them at home.

Outcome
Secondary Talk has been evaluated at a national level by Sheffield University, which found it led to significant changes in classroom practice and improvements in behaviour and engagement in learning. At Peacehaven, there has been “a definite increase in awareness and understanding of language and communication across the school”, says Lewis, borne out by staff feedback and an improvement in the quality of teachers’ assessments of children’s progress.

Parents also say their understanding of language and communication has improved. Thirty-five per cent of pupils in the special facility showed improved attendance in 2011/12 compared with the previous year; 47 per cent have improved the number of points awarded for good work; and 53 per cent have reduced the number of points for behaviour issues. Half of them exceeded expected progress levels in science.

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