Page 32 - The East Sussex Way

• Use of drama to act out speciÞ c words when needed
or as a ‘guess my word’ game to help pupils to
remember words and use them in their own writing.
• Playing Pictionary on small whiteboards to help
associate an image to a word to support memory.
• Working with a peer partner to talk and write
sentences in a correct context to provide effective
responsive assessment opportunities.
• Keeping new words in a ‘word pot’ and having
pupils randomly select words to use in a sentence
provides opportunities to review and revisit learning.
• Short interactive tasks to keep new vocabulary
prominent in pupils’ minds are built into daily routines
(lining up for assembly, sanitising hands, Þ rst thing in
the morning), including ‘Would you rather be… or… ,
what might I look like if… If I were… what might I say’.

Impact

Vocabulary teaching is integrated across the curriculum with explicit
teaching taking place throughout the day and words being regularly
reviewed and revisited. This is supporting vocabulary acquisition.
Selecting words from class texts has supported pupils in having
a clear context to aid understanding and this has helped with
engagement and motivation.

Pupils are more conÞ dent in orally constructing their own sentences
to share with peers and the teacher, and are less fearful of getting it
wrong. Their writing shows evidence of words being used accurately
and appropriately. Opportunities to use the language in their own
writing is empowering for pupils and analysis of writing outcomes has
conÞ rmed that that explicit vocabulary approaches are having a
positive impact.

Visitors to the school comment on the high level of vocabulary used
in writing across the school and how high expectations from teachers
are supporting pupils to achieve their best.

Next steps

A longer-term approach will help ensure pupils retain their
knowledge within and across the key stages. If teachers pre-plan
the words they are going to teach each term, and these words are
moved into working resources, vocabulary could be better reviewed
and referred back to, not just throughout the year, but across year

groups. This will ensure a consistent approach across the school and
provide valuable records to be shared at the point of transition to
27 secondary school.