I sometimes feel sorry for those colleagues who were not teaching during the time of ‘The National Strategies’.  Although we went through the most bizarre rituals of ever-changing versions of the Literacy Hour, from 15 minute bell timers to hats to show we must not be disturbed, we had invaluable, free CPD on a regular basis and were given lots of resources that supported and developed our pedagogy.

One of the approaches I have found the most useful, when supporting staff in planning English, is the ‘Phased Approach’.  It gives teachers the basic scaffold on which to effectively plan any unit of English work.   Without it, teaching can sometimes become a series of unrelated activities that lead nowhere, especially for those with less experience.  For me the phases are a map that lead to my destination – the written outcome.  All my activities are therefore learning focused.

I have put together a guided that I use in my CPD to support staff in the process of planning English – here I have attached the first three pages, which are based on a variety of different materials from The National Strategies.

If people would like copies of these pages please join ‘The Literacy Leaders’ closed group on Facebook as I will share them in the files on there.  Again, these are not my original ideas, but are based on the teaching approaches from The National Strategies, which I have found to be extremely effective.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/833011956907703/

Also, here are some links to the most useful Nat Strats documents too – enjoy!

Grammar for Writing –

Click to access nls_gfw010702intro_Redacted.pdf

Excellence and Enjoyment: Learning and teaching for bilingual children in the primary years. Teaching units to support guided sessions for writing in English as an additional language –

Click to access EAL%20guided%20writing%20file.pdf