Page 31 - The East Sussex Way

Case Study 1: Explicit Teaching of Vocabulary

• Manor Primary School in UckÞ eld has 350 pupils on roll.
• The number of pupils on the SEND register is
approximately 31%.
• The number of pupils eligible for Pupil Premium is
lower than the national average, at 19%.
• A high percentage of pupils access speech and
language support and a large proportion of pupils
across the key stages have limited vocabulary.

The context

Quality texts are at the core of Manor Primary School’s integrated
English curriculum and this has proved to have a positive impact
on pupils’ writing outcomes. However, vocabulary remains a high
priority and is considered central to academic progress. The large
proportion of pupils with limited vocabulary, especially in the wake
of school closures during the pandemic, means this has become
central to the school development plan.

Action taken

Staff training events, including the Word Aware approach to
vocabulary teaching (Branagan & Parsons, 2017), led to the
integration of a range of strategies across key stages aimed at
growing pupils’ vocabulary knowledge. This includes: encouraging
reading for pleasure; developing purposeful talking activities;
word banks and working walls to support pupils with embedding
knowledge; and using new vocabulary in their writing.

Quality Þ rst teaching remains a priority, ensuring vocabulary tasks
are provided for all the pupils, not limited to intervention groups. This
is complemented by explicit teaching of vocabulary from the class
text and short, active tasks throughout the day. Teachers select a
range of words to integrate into their teaching. These are recorded
on working walls, referred to during the day and used for ‘short burst’
activities to help pupils embed their understanding.

Activities include:

• Developing child-friendly deÞ nitions, some of which
have been written collaboratively with the pupils.
These are displayed and used on the working walls
and included within word banks.
• Child-friendly RAG-rating of new vocabulary at
the beginning and end of a topic to support pupils
in recognising the progress they have made in
language acquisition. 26