Meldreth Primary School: whole-school NPQ in Leading Literacy case study

“I have never worked in a school where writing is not an absolute priority,” said Sasha Howard, Headteacher at Meldreth Primary School. “Reading that feeds into writing was something of a priority for our school, and we needed to invest in appropriate teacher development.”

Step forward the NPQ in Leading Literacy (NPQLL), offered by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Teaching School Hub (CPTSH), which is designed for teachers and school leaders who have an interest in improving literacy across a school, year group, key stage, phase or subject. Through the programme, participants acquire the knowledge, skills and expertise to effectively develop others and lead a powerful school literacy strategy.

With Sasha having previously completed an NPQ in Executive Leadership, and colleagues benefitting from an NPQ in Senior Leadership, there was already confidence in the NPQ model. However, whilst previous NPQs with another provider produced some “common research-led practice that supports us as leaders”, there was an opportunity to do things differently and develop a whole-school NPQLL.

“In my capacity as Chair of the Cambridgeshire Primary Headteachers group, Lynne Birch (CPTSH Hub Lead) came to talk to us as a representative group about the locally-led CPTSH offer,” Sasha explained. “I would rather not send one member of staff out for training as we do not see the impact of within school, plus there is the issue of then paying cover staff; so we broker our own CPD and build it into our staff meeting provision. With our previous NPQs everything was online and we were not getting knowledge at a primary school level. It has therefore been great to work in the context of Cambridgeshire and to do that face-to-face.”

Beginning in February 2024, nine staff members undertook the NPQLL – including an apprentice – and an Early Career Teacher (ECT) who joined the programme’s in-person discussion groups only as part of their development.

NPQLL: supporting the school’s strategic plan

Meldreth Primary is a small, friendly village school near Royston, with 207 pupils supported by caring and dedicated staff. The community is united by its ‘learning together for life’ motto, and for the school that means “we are always challenging ourselves to keep improving.”

Sasha revealed: “Our curriculum focus is to improve the attainment and progress in reading and writing across the school; continuing to build writing stamina, create opportunity for innovation and maintain quality and accuracy in the composition and sentence structure. We understand the links between oracy, reading and writing and the significant connection between reading and outcomes in other curriculum areas, especially maths and science.

“As a school, we are also acutely aware of the word poverty deficit for our pupils. Our work to support disadvantaged pupils and those with low prior attainment, including those who also have special educational needs, has in the past provided good outcomes and progress for them in maths.  We believe that high-performing team cultures are built on strong relationships with colleagues, and in an environment of collaboration and knowledge-sharing which is why in order to improve outcomes for pupils in reading and writing we chose to work with CPTSH and embark on the NPQLL as a whole teaching staff team.”

New insights and practice being embedded

Designed with busy teachers in mind, the NPQLL is generally delivered using a blend of online seminars, flexible learning and face-to-face conferences. For the whole-school NPQ at Meldreth Primary School, however, in-person sessions in school have also been valuable.

“The one-hour discussion groups, led by CPTSH colleagues as part of our staff meeting provision, are just fabulous, and I am proud of how quickly we have been able to embed practice in our school,” Sasha reflected. “As a research-led school – we are currently involved in an EEF reading research project – we want to learn the same things as a team, and directly lift those and implement them. If we look at reading practices, for example, we have directly introduced whole class reading which explicitly focusses on expression; tier 1/2/3 language supporting children’s knowledge, and echo and match the teacher techniques that we have learned on the NPQLL. We have also adapted the principle of taking new risks and trying new things. For instance, ideas around broadening reading and diversity of provision, with a view to making sure that all children are represented in what they are reading.

“Conferences have also been refreshing, as they are not only from a primary viewpoint. We have not really considered what GCSE exams are looking for from English, but through secondary speakers at those conferences we now see the link to what we are doing at primary level and what is expected at the end of Year 11.”

Powerful see the whole picture of development

Working collaboratively, the school is now seeing the journey of the children throughout their time at Meldreth. Day-to-day strategies and ideas that have been discussed through the NPQLL are pushing the whole school forward.

“Leading literacy is such a huge job,” Sasha said. “We now have two English leads, one for Key Stage 1 and one for Key Stage 2, and it is important for us to have a first-hand, research-led refresh. The NPQLL is an opportunity for us to have the same information and a really good understanding of what we are practising from early years to Year 6. The whole team’s buy-in and support makes sure that as a school we are presenting a coherent and progressively challenging curriculum across all key stages.

“For our leadership team and English leads, it has been great to sit and hear staff contribute their new knowledge to the whole-school approach. There is increased dialogue in what we are doing. Colleagues are embracing the challenges, feedback is really supporting motivation, and there is increased consistency in our provision. Staff are undoubtedly going beyond that, and we can clearly see the impact of work as it happens.”

“Deepening my understanding of literacy”

Kate Smith, a Year 4 class teacher (apprentice) at Meldreth Primary School, is one of the beneficiaries of the whole-school NPQLL programme.

“Through the NPQLL I hoped to improve my understanding of the teaching of literacy and how it can be applied across the curriculum,” she said. “I think the most valuable part of the experience has been the seminars. It is really useful to discuss our learning in the context of our setting. This is particularly effective for us as we are all from the same school, which contrasts with the discussions I have for my apprenticeship, where we bring experience from a much wider range of settings, not all of which is relevant to my current situation. I find it particularly helpful being able to discuss things I have tried or how to improve my teaching with others who have already done the same reading. This has made it easier for me to get support or advice from more experienced colleagues.

“In my day-to-day practice I have been using the techniques such as echo reading and ghost reading. I have also used the leadership skills to improve the buy in from teaching assistants with the new techniques, routines or expectations that I have implemented, not just in relation to literacy. I have also been more thoughtful about how I have set up my classroom and how I can get children to use their literacy skills in other topics.

“I have introduced more variety in the techniques that I use in my reading lessons and significantly increased the oracy outside of English lessons. This has been particularly effective in my maths lessons. I find that I think about how and why we use literacy skills in the classroom more often and am now more deliberate in my practice regarding it.

“I would recommend the NPQLL to others. It has been interesting and useful to develop and deepen my understanding of literacy teaching and my confidence to try new ideas or revisit ones that did not work the first time has increased.”

Impacting on children’s education

Returning to the school’s focus on supporting all pupils on their learning journey, Sasha has identified a KPI on impacting those children who are not secure on the reading phonics check and meeting age-related expectations at Key Stage 1.

“We want to make sure our least confident pupils are as secure as they can be,” she surmised. “We have a clear expectation, and now a clear programme of support that targets particular individuals and groups of children. Once our work on oracy/reading is complete, writing is next. Our Chair of Governors shared anecdotally that she had not in the past made the connection that the impact that good reading and oracy has on children’s writing, and being secure in spelling.

“Governors need support in understanding how powerful these NPQs are – and we all have a role to play in helping governors to appreciate they are not an add-on. We have development in place for ECTs now, but what has been missing for more experienced teachers for a long time is access to the latest research and thinking on how children learn, how the brain develops, and how learning is embedded. This is where NPQs like Leading Literacy come in.”