Becky Mckay
Student Number 1602218

This essay will look at three strategies that support the delivery of effective teaching and learning in a classroom environment. The writer will use examples from their own setting. The setting used is a nursery class in a Primary school in Swansea West, where the writer is currently working in the Nursery class. This year’s nursery cohort is extremely weighted in favour of boys with almost 87% of the class being male. This has had an impact on the short term and medium-term teacher planning, teaching and delivery of much of the lessons and activities throughout each day. However, a report on Gender and Education published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families discusses that it is a myth that changing or designing the curriculum to be ‘boy friendly’ will aid their achievement. The reality has shown that this does not improve boy’s achievement.  The class consists of two groups of children, the Frogs, those children who will be moving onto Reception next year and the rising three’s known as the Tadpoles.
The three strategies this essay will look at in detail are: Outdoor play, Pie Corbett and Read Write Inc. Much of the planning for the nursery class is based on learning through play and learning appropriate social, emotional and behavioural skills.  SEAL- CYMRU states that ‘Children learn about social, emotional and behavioural skills across the whole day’ 
Outdoor play: School A has two concrete playgrounds for its pupils and a large field which is used for outdoor play, activities and lessons when weather permits or when appropriate wet weather clothing is worn. There is also a village and a beach within easy walking distance of the school. 
The beach is used several times a year for various outdoor activities. Outdoor provision for the nursery class in School A includes sand and water areas, a mud kitchen, bikes and a reading and writing shed. In addition to the planned curriculum based outdoor lessons these areas will give the nursery children a chance to learn the skills involved in decision making, how to evaluate risks and work with their peers in sharing and turn taking. Palmer (2006, p.60) stated that ‘The loss of opportunities for outdoor loosely supervised play is likely to have long term effects on children’s social development’ She also discusses in more detail that outdoor play involves learning how to make friends, learning how to play as part of a group and learning how resolve conflicts without too much adult interaction. The Welsh Government Foundation Phase frame work revised edition published in 2015 covers Seven Areas of Learning. Outdoor play can be accommodated in many of these seven areas. Primarily into Personal and Social Development where children are expected to take part in a range of activities in an indoor and outdoor environment. Physical Development also naturally lends itself to outdoor play, where children are expected to explore and investigate their indoor and outdoor learning environment. 
Theorist Leo Vygotsky stressed the importance of play in his final lecture, Play and the Physiological Development of the Child before his death in 1934. “When involved in play, children’s concentration and application to the task are much greater than in academically directed activities contrived by the teacher” (Vygotsky, 1934)
The Foundation Phase Framework is based on children learning through play and an important part of this learning journey is outdoor play whether it is free play, continuous or enhanced provision. 

Since January 2017, school A has used the Read Write Inc scheme as its Foundation Phase phonic programme. Read Write Inc replaced the previous scheme of Jolly Phonics. Prior to starting the scheme eight members of staff including the writer attended a two-day intensive training programme. Many of the strategies used in School A’s daily Read Write Inc Sessions have been adopted throughout the school day for use during lesson time, enhanced and continuous provision, during playtimes and during lunchtimes. Most of the strategies are aimed towards whole class involvement and not just individual learning. These strategies help those children who would normally be too shy or reluctant to volunteer information or get involved on their own. In a ‘hands up’ classroom only a few children will raise their hands when asked a question, those who don’t raise their hands are unlikely to be paying attention. Turn to Your Partner strategy enhances whole class involvement as the children pay attention because they know they will have to answer and direct questions to their partner and share their responses with the rest of the class. Teacher modelling is an important part of the Read Write Inc programme, known as My Turn, Your Turn. Choral work is used when the Teacher or Teaching Assistant wants to children to copy what they have said. Silent hand signals used regularly through the Read Write Inc sessions have become a consistent part of the morning Nursery routine. Team stop is the most common used. The Teacher or Teaching Assistant’s hand is raised in the air with a flat palm, no talking, singing or clapping, aiming to keep noise levels to a minimum. As each child sees the Team Stop hand signal, they do the same and remain silent until all the class has followed suit. This method combats the needs for clapping, raised voices, songs or rhymes and maintains a quieter and calmer classroom environment in which the children can learn.
Teachers and staff in School A are encouraged to praise effort not the outcome. Bosanquet, Radford and Webster (2016, p.111) state that after a task has been completed ‘praise effort and perseverance’ not just the task itself as there will more than likely be children who have been unable to complete the task but whose effort has been much greater than other children. One of the five principles of Read Write Inc, Miskin (2016, p.12) quotes ‘praise effort and progress, not ability’.
The final strategy is Pie Corbett. During the previous academic year, the writer was based in a Reception class with cohort of 26 mixed ability children between the ages of four and five. The Pie Corbett strategies were used throughout the year to stimulate writing within the class, its premise is if they cannot say it, do not expect them to write it. Pie Corbett involves three main areas of learning, first the children imitate the story, usually something well known such as The Little Red Hen or Goldilocks and the Three Bears, there is whole class interaction and all children are starting from the same point. Frequent repetition and support from pictures and story maps aid the children in learning the recite the story independently. 
Next the children innovate the story in some way either by story mapping or verbally by giving their own version. Finally, the children independently write their own version of the story. This strategy of teaching is proven. (Talk4Writing, 2014) states that ‘at the beginning of the academic year only 2% of the sample class could re-tell a whole story, by the end of the year 76% retold a whole tale in fluent standard English’. This strategy of teaching gives most children the confidence in their own writing ability.
 A publication from the Department for Education discusses the Gender Gap between boys and girls and their attainment levels in reading throughout Primary school. At the end of Key Stage 2 the gap is 9% in favour of girls for Reading. The report also highlights the boys interviewed for the report, state that, teacher modelling, guided group work, partner talk and planning have helped them with their writing.
The writer has seen the Pie Corbett strategy ‘Talk for writing’ used for the past two academic years in the Reception class of school A and believes that it suits all levels of ability and believes that the children have become independent writers because of the strategy.
In conclusion the three strategies discussed have greatly supported the delivery, teaching and learning in the classroom. However, some may argue that schemes such as Pie Corbett and Read Write Inc come at a financial cost to schools and therefore are under pressure to work. Pie Corbett and Read Write Inc were initially supported by staff training days and continue to be delivered by high quality teaching and support staff. The writer however sees the teachings and success of these strategies daily and firmly believes they work in an educational environment. There would be few, if any educational specialist who would argue the benefits of learning in an outdoor environment, they are strategies that have been proven work in an educational environment and continue to work in School A. 



References
Bosanquet,P.,Radford,J. and Webster,R. (2016) The Teaching Assistant’s Guide to Effective Interaction. Oxon: Routledge.
Corbett,P. (2014) http://www.talk4writing.co.uk/about (Accessed: 14 October 2017). 
Department for Children, Schools and Families, (2008) Gender and Education: ‘Gapbusters’. Nottingham. 
Miskin,R. (2016) Read Write Inc Handbook 1, phonics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
Palmer,S. (2009) 21st Century Boys. London: Orion Books Ltd.
Wales: Department for Education and Skills, (2015) Foundation Phase Framework. Cardiff : Welsh Government.
Wales : Department for Education and Skills, (2010) Social and emotional aspects of learning- Cymru. Cardiff : Welsh Assembly Government.
Vygotsky,L. (1934) Play and the Physiological Development of the Child.