The ARK Schools Sustainable literacy model programme

The project aimed to test whether improving teacher subject knowledge of phonological awareness would lead to improved teaching quality and pupil attainment. This was done by building a network of outstanding teachers with deep subject knowledge, who regularly collaborated and shared best practice. The project has sought to address the disadvantage experienced by many of the Ark schools pupils. Teacher received initial phonics training and also benefitted from termly in-school reading and writing development days. These involved observation of reading and writing lessons, as well as 1:1 training to improve Reading Leaders’ subject-knowledge and establish a phonics teaching improvement plan.

Findings from the data indicate that there has been uplift in pupil outcomes, compared with previous cohorts and other similar schools. Teachers reported feeling more confident, and this has been reflected in the quality of the teaching seen since the project.