1. Prioritise ‘disciplinary literacy’ across the curriculum

   • Literacy is key to learning across all subjects in secondary school and a strong predictor of outcomes in later life.

   • Disciplinary literacy is an approach to improving literacy across the curriculum that emphasises the importance of subject specific support.

   • All teachers should be supported to understand how to teach students to read, write and communicate effectively in their subjects.

   • School leaders can help teachers by ensuring training related to literacy prioritises subject specificity over general approaches.

2. Provide targeted vocabulary instruction in every subject

   • Teachers in every subject should provide explicit vocabulary instruction to help students access and use academic language.

   • Effective approaches, including those related to etymology and morphology, will help students remember new words and make connections between words.

   • Teachers should prioritise teaching Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary, which students are unlikely to encounter in everyday speech.

   • Teachers and subject leaders should consider which words and phrases to teach as part of curriculum planning.

3. Develop students’ ability to read complex academic texts

   • Training focused on teaching reading is likely to help secondary school teachers teach their subject more effectively.

   • To comprehend complex texts, students need to actively engage with what they are reading and use their existing subject knowledge.

   • Reading strategies, such as activating prior knowledge, prediction and questioning can improve students’ comprehension.

   • Strategies can be introduced through modelling and group work, before support is gradually removed to promote independence.

4. Break down complex writing tasks

   • Writing is challenging and students in every subject will benefit from explicit instruction in how to improve.

   • Teachers can break writing down into planning, monitoring and evaluation, and can support students by modelling each step.

   • Targeted support should be provided to students who struggle to write fluently, as this may affect writing quality.

   • Teachers can use a variety of approaches, including collaborative and paired writing, to motivate students to write.

5. Combine writing instruction with reading in every subject

   • Combining reading activities and writing instruction is likely to improve students’ skills in both, compared to a less balanced approach.

   • Reading helps students gain knowledge, which leads to better writing, whilst writing can deepen students’ understanding of ideas.

   • Students should be taught to recognise features, aims and conventions of good writing within each subject.

   • Teaching spelling, grammar and punctuation explicitly can improve students’ writing, particularly when focused on meaning.

6. Provide opportunities for structured talk

   • Talk matters: both in its own right and because of its impact on other aspects of learning.

   • High-quality talk is typically well-structured and guided by teachers.

   • 'Accountable talk' is a useful framework to ensure talk is high quality, and emphasises how talk can be subject specific.

   • Teachers can support students by modelling high-quality talk, for example including key vocabulary and metacognitive reflection.

7. Provide high-quality literacy interventions for struggling students

   • Schools should expect and proactively plan to support students with the weakest levels of literacy, particularly in Year 7.

   • Developing a model of tiered support, which increases in intensity in line with need is a promising approach.

   • Assessment should be used to match students to appropriate types of intervention, and to monitor the impact of interventions.

   • Creating a coordinated system of support is a significant challenge requiring both specialist input and whole-school leadership.

• Extended writing: using essay writing skills including, finding clear examples, analysing text and images, locating key facts, developing a point of view and structing a clear response.

• Historical context : utilising social historical and intellectual context of different time periods to provide an understanding of time and place.

• Literacy: using correct vocabulary and SPAG understanding language from different time periods, and using a dictionary to consolidate the meaning of a range of terminology.

• Scan and skim reading: Locating key dates and information from challenging texts, finding useful quotations and identifying key points.

• speaking and listening: Presenting projects on key time frames or historical figures, responding to questions and speaking to inform.

• Primary and Secondary sources: understanding and interpreting a variety of sources including those that are written and pictorial.

Citizenship

Both subjects develop students understanding of power, rights and participation in society.

together they:

• Show how rights are gained, restricted and defended over time.

• Help pupils understand democracy governance, and the rule of law.

• Encourage critical thinking about authority protest, and citizenship.

• Support students in becoming informed, active members of society.

PSHE

Science

• Looking at scientific discoveries- These include Newton, Curie, Darwin and Pasteur.

• History of medicine- these include how we got over the black death, vaccines, antibiotics and pandemics that we have faced throughout the years.

• Technology in War and Policing- Radar, atomic bombs and the devastation they caused, finger print technology in catching criminals etc.

  
  

Maths:

• Timelines: Ordering events chronologically, using Roman numerals, and understanding historical periods.

• Data Analysis: Analysing historical data, such as population figures or economic trends.

Art

• Visual Timelines - Create historical artwork or reimagining events through illustration.

• Artefact study- Drawing historical or recreating historical objects and symbols.

• Themes and context- explore ideas from different time periods in visual forms.