2015 no pens day wednesday - thecommunicationtrust.org.uk · part in the day. it’s interesting to...

Evaluation Findings

No Pens Day Wednesday

2015

Contents

Introduction 3

NPDW in numbers 4

Who took part? 5

How schools and settings heard about NPDW 6

Schools who’d taken part before and reasons for taking part 7-8

Feedback about the NPDW resources 9-10

‘The best thing about No Pens Day Wednesday...’ 11-12

The impact of the day 13-14

No Pens Day Wednesday and changing practice 15

It’s good to share... 16

Media and web communications 17

Improvements 18

No Pens Day Wednesday 2015: Evaluation findings


Introduction

No Pens Day Wednesday (NPDW) 2015 was the fifth year of The Communication Trust’s national speaking and listening event. This year we were able to reach almost 1,200 new schools and settings, taking our total number of sign ups to over 4,800!

Following the event, we undertook an online evaluation survey with schools that had taken part in order to ascertain what people had enjoyed about the day, what could be improved in the future and the impact that the day had on building awareness of speech, language and communication. In total, almost 150 people took part in our survey. This report summarises all of the important things we’ve learned.

Over 4,800 schools and settings have signed up to NPDW since it started in 2011. The numbers have increased every year, with 792 total sign ups in 2012, 1,835 in 2013, 3,616 in 2014 and 4,810 in 2015. By our estimations, this means that No Pens Day Wednesday has reached a total of over one and a half million children and young people!

No Pens Day 2015 saw the launch of our new resource sharing function and pupil evaluation tools, both of which had been requested in previous online surveys. In addition, we also expanded our suite of early years, secondary and special school lesson plans and added new resources from Consortium members Makaton and SMIRA (Selective Mutism Information and Research Association).

94% of respondents said they’d do things differently around school as a result of their involvement in NPDW 2015. 76% said that taking part raised their awareness of speech, language and communication needs and 22% of respondents reported they had identified pupils who were struggling with spoken language that they’d not known about before.

On social media, the #nopensday hashtag was used hundreds of times by schools on tweets and pictures, the majority of which were retweeted on our twitter page. On the day before No Pens Day Wednesday, October 6th, the Communication Trust website had its most popular day ever, with a total of 9,057 page views!

The most popular reasons for schools and settings taking part were: “We wanted to improve our pupils’ understanding of the importance of speaking and listening skills” (77%), “We think it’s a fun and engaging initiative” (74%), “To support our school/setting’s focus on the spoken language elements of the curriculum” (73%) and “We wanted to improve staff understanding of the importance of speaking and listening skills” (66%).

3


NPDW in numbers

For No Pens Day Wednesday 2015, we had a total of 1,194 brand new schools and settings sign up to take part. As with No Pens Day 2014, we have ensured that our figures are as accurate as possible by manually interrogating the sign up data to ensure that no duplicate schools are present.

Our figures show that the numbers have increased significantly every year:

In terms of individual children and young people reached by the event, this figure is even more impressive – using Department for Education school and pupil numbers data, we estimate this number to be over one and a half million pupils.

This takes our total to 4,810 schools and settings signed up to take part in No Pens Day Wednesday! It is important to take into consideration that the actual figures are likely to be significantly higher as we only introduced the sign up process for No Pens Day Wednesday 2012.

792 total sign ups

1835 total sign ups

3616 total sign ups

2012

2013

2014

4

4810 total sign ups

2015


Who took part?

Although we asked a question on this in the evaluation survey, the numbers reported below are taken from the interrogation of the 2015 sign up information.

As in previous years, primary schools had the highest proportion of sign ups, and this correlates with the fact that they are also our most engaged audience across all of our programme of work. It's great to see that although there were slightly fewer early years sign ups, we have retained a similar percentage of secondary schools to last year and have seen an increase in special school sign ups.

It's also very interesting to see that there has been growth in the 'other' category, which includes pupil referral units, universities and local authorities, highlighting that the event continues to reach a diverse and varied range of settings.

NPDW sign up breakdown

Figure 1 - Types of school/settings who signed up in 2015

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Primary 62%

Early Years 14%

Secondary 14%

Special (primary and secondary) 6%

Other 3%

Childminders 1%

5


How schools and settings heard about NPDW

The table below shows how people heard about No Pens Day Wednesday this year. It is fantastic to see that 6% of respondents found out about the day through other organisations – some of those listed includeCommunication Trust Consortium members I CAN and Makaton, as well as Trust partner organisation RCSLT (Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists).

As in previous years, direct email from the Trust is the way the majority of people heard about the event, with over half of No Pens Day participants finding out about the day through this route. However, it’s pleasing to see that ‘through another school/setting’ has had a small increase from last year, as we’re always keen to see an increase in information sharing between schools. We have also seen a small increase in those learning about the day through TES - it is likely that this number was bolstered by several tweets about No Pens Day that TES sent out to their 142,000 followers.

“Through Academy Transformation Trust, at one of our SENCO forums.”

“I became a Local Champion last year and we decided No Pens Day would be a brilliant idea.”

“A new member of staff who used it in her previous school.”

We’ve included a selection of the answers from the ‘other’ response:

“TA attended a speaking and listening course, where it was mentioned.”

“Our local schools have a S&L working group - NPDW was discussed within this.”

How people heard about NPDW

Figure 2 - How did you find out about No Pens Day Wednesday this year?

Direct email from The Communication Trust

Through another organisation

TES Resources website

Through another school/setting

Through your local authority

Read about it in a news or media publication

Through social media

Other

55%

19%

4%

7%

5%

6%

6

1%3%


45% of respondents to our survey said they’d taken part before. This is a really encouraging figure, as it highlights how we’ve been able to retain a core audience from previous No Pens Day Wednesdays, but that we’re also continuing to expand our reach by attracting new schools to the event.

There were a variety of reasons that made people decide to take part in the day. It’s interesting to see that the most popular reason, with 77% of respondents selecting it, was ‘we wanted to improve our pupils’ understanding of the importance of speaking and listening skills’, as this is one of the core aims of the day.

We also saw a modest increase of 3% for ‘recommended by another school/setting’. Although it is encouraging to see that this figure is improving, ultimately we would like this figure to increase in the future; we’ve found that schools and settings really value what others say, meaning that this is an important route in securing more uptake for the day.

2015 saw an increase in schools using NPDW to ‘support them with meeting requirements around high quality teaching and inclusion as part of the SEND reforms’ - this may suggest that respondents in 2015 were more aware of their responsibilities under the reformed SEND system (on No Pens Day Wednesday 2014, the reforms had been in place for only a month). We also saw a 14% in increase in the answer ‘we have run it successfully before’, which again is a positive response, as it means that we are retaining participants from previous years who have enjoyed the day in the past.

Schools who’d taken part before and reasons for taking part

7

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Other (please specify)

We think it’s a fun and engaging intiative

We wanted to improve staff understanding of the importance of speaking and listening skills

We wanted to improve our pupils’ understanding of the importance of speaking and listening skills

To support our school/setting in engaging with elements of the SEND Reforms around inclusion and high quality teaching

To support our school/setting’s focus on the spoken language elements of the curriculum

Recommended by another school/setting

We have run it successfully before

76.98%

Figure 3 - Reasons for taking part in No Pens Day Wednesday

74.1%

73.38%

66.19%

41.01%

35.25%

9.35%

9.35%


These are a selection of reasons given for the ‘other’ category. It’s wonderful to see a varied list of reasons given, such as schools tying it to their School Development Plan and using it as part of the Talk of the Town project, a whole-school approach, originally developed by the Trust. It’s also brilliant that one of the points highlights the link between spoken language and writing skills, as this is always something that we are keen to emphasise:

“All of my students have literacy difficulties and a No Pens Day has a huge appeal. I can look at how much writing people do in the work place and get them to value their other skills.”

“Speaking and Listening is a specific focus in our School Development Plan.”

“We have a focus on active learning in our teaching & learning policy, and No Pens Day fits in with that ethos.”

“It is so motivating and engaging. It really fostered communication.”

“Our school has a high number of EAL pupils so we are raising the profile of Speaking and Listening with a view to it helping writing further down the line.”

Schools who’d taken part before and reasons for taking part

8


Feedback about the No Pens Day Wednesday resources “The lesson plans were comprehensive and provided teachers with ideas of what to focus on. The resources were very child friendly and well-received by the children.”

Some of the feedback schools provided on the resources“Excellent lesson plans. Everything you could need to run a successful day. Easy for staff to find and use.”

“All teachers were impressed with the quality of the suggested lessons plans and are keen to take part again next year.”

“Excellent ideas for lessons across all areas of the curriculum.”

“Some of the teaching staff looked through some of the lesson plans that were appropriate to their phase and used them as initial ideas but then planned activities based around their current topics or skill sets.”

“The shared plans meant that everyone was positive about the idea from the start. The staff meeting ended up in people sharing ideas rather than seeing problems. The homework sheets meant every child went home with something to share and talk about”

As with previous years, the 2015 activity pack proved to be our most downloaded resource. In the table below, resources that were brand new or updated for 2015 have been highlighted in blue.

The Trust’s new pupil evaluation tools, which were developed following feedback from the 2014 NPDW survey, received a positive response, with 100% of users stating that they were useful. In addition to this, our suite of special school and secondary lesson plans, which both received updates and additions for 2015, had 40% and 36% more schools and settings using them respectively.

9


Resources feedback

10

Answer Options Yes, we used this Yes, it was useful

2015 Activity pack 90 82%

School poster 67 76%

Primary lesson plans 58 88%

School assembly materials 33 79%

Planning for lessons using speaking and listening as a focus 33 76%

Early years lesson plans 30 83%

Early years/primary/secondary/special primary/special secondary activity ideas pack 30 80%

Parent poster 26 73%

Strategies for every classroom 20 95%

Secondary lesson plans 19 79%

Ways of recording 17 82%

Key features of a communication friendly classroom 16 69%

Pupil Evaluation Tools 14 100%

Sample staff meeting content 14 64%

Dyslexia Awareness Week Information 12 58%

Pupils with English as an additional language 11 100%

Putting children and young people at the centre of your planning 10 100%

Monitoring progress in spoken language 9 78%

Parents’ top tips 9 67%

I CAN’s ‘Chatterbox Challenge’ 8 88%

Early years carpet session 7 86%

Special school key stage 3 and 4 7 71%

Parents talk homework ideas 7 71%

Special school key stage 1 and 2 6 83%

NPDW and the SEND reforms 6 67%

Press Release 5 80%

NPDW and the Communication Commitment 4 100%

Makaton’s ‘All About My Senses - Touch’ 3 66%

SMIRA’s ‘Creating an anxiety free environment for children with selective mutism’ 3 66%

NPDW and spoken language in the new curriculum 2 100%

Working effectively with support staff on NPDW 2 100%

Student led assembly materials 2 100%

Media/eComms toolkit 2 50%

NPDW and the BCRP

1 100%NPDW and What Works

1 0%


‘The best thing about No Pens Day Wednesday...’ Respondents to our evaluation survey were also asked what the best thing about No Pens Day Wednesday was – it was great to receive such varied and positive comments about the impact of the day. Overall, schools and settings enjoyed the opportunity to be more creative in their planning, while also seeing the benefit of a focus on speaking and listening for pupils. We have included a small selection of responses here: “It encouraged teachers to ‘think outside the box’ and consider SEN children more in their planning. It allowed the SEN children to be included in the same activity as the rest of the class. It allowed teachers to identify those children with gaps in their speaking and listening skills.”

“Seeing the children take part in creative activities which allow them to show their knowledge without writing it down.”

“How much the children enjoyed it and learnt from it. Many children came up to me to tell me about the activities they had carried out during the day and what they had done.”

“The children’s reactions to being able to record their work in different ways. How creative the children were in suggesting other activities they could use to prove that they had understood their learning. The enthusiasm from both the teaching and support staff to being able to be more creative.”

“Having the opportunity to spend time talking about subjects and seeing how we can make things more clear without using the standard methods of writing.”

“In Languages lessons, one was delivered entirely in British Sign Language and in another lesson, students made massive progress in using French tenses accurately through the creative use of a ‘tense machine’. The teacher was really enthusiastic and his reflections were reported in the school newsletter.”

“The wide range of fun activities (e.g. role-play, filming, discussion) that celebrated and focused on students’ speaking and listening skills.”

11


‘The best thing about No Pens Day Wednesday...’ “The best thing was to see how creative both staff and pupils became to overcome the conventional pen recording of information. It was also lovely to see how the playing field was levelled for those who are fantastic vocally but struggle with writing.”

“The enthusiasm from the children and staff - As you walked around school there was a buzz and all children were engaged. I set a whole school task in which a spoken message had to passed around the school pupil by pupil. This had children speaking to each other from different year groups conversing with one another - something that they would not have had the opportunity to do in any other situation.”

“The children were in awe of the day. At first they couldn’t think about what they were going to do without using a pen or pencil. They all enjoyed the day and had fun. Some children had to talk who didn’t usually talk and it emphasised the importance of speaking and listening.”

“That children who often struggle in writing lessons were able to confidently participate in all activities. One child who can often be disruptive in class reported to his Mum that he had stayed in class all day and had not got into trouble during No Pens Day, as he was actively participating in all lessons throughout the day.”

12


The impact of the day

76% of survey respondents stated that taking part in No Pens Day Wednesday had raised awareness of speech, language and communication needs in their school. Furthermore, 22% of respondents stated that as a result of taking part in the day, they had identified pupils who were struggling with their speech, language and communication development that they had not previously known about.

As with last year, there were also a number of respondents who stated that in many cases, it was the higher academic achieving students in the class who were struggling with their spoken language. This is a significant piece of information, particularly given the fact that some employers now rate communication skills as their highest priority, above academic qualifications.

We have included a selection of some of the comments that we received about how NPDW has supported awareness raising and how the day has helped teachers to identify struggling pupils:

“It has helped us to understand how we can target speech, language and communication skills in lessons. It also helped us understand how much we rely on written methods of teaching and learning.”

“Numerous staff have reported that some students were able to contribute far more to lessons on the day. It changed some staff views on the ability of students in their classes.”

“Staff have become more aware of the demands put on children to write when they have not had speaking and listening experiences previously.”

“We have many pupils who are non-verbal and cannot mark make so it was good to have a really focused, reflective look at Communication within school.”

“It is a big issue in school though higher primary children have often been misidentified as having behavioural or moderate learning difficulties. This day gave the opportunity to highlight the issues to staff.”

Raising Awareness:“Staff have become more sensitive to the need for clear, concise spoken word and the need to give children the opportunity to practise speaking and listening skills, and how this impacts all areas of the curriculum.”

“We have focussed on speech and language over the last 3 years, however, NPDW allowed us to ensure all staff, including new starters this year, are now focussing on speech and language. In addition, the suggested activities are now being used across the curriculum.”

13

“It put an emphasis on the teacher to use language to explain; spoken language that was accessible to all the children in the class including SLCN and English as an additional language. Teachers said how it enabled them to talk with the children, rather than to them. Others highlighted how they realised that they needed to modify their spoken language so that SLCN children could access the tasks. Most teachers stressed how so many of the SLCN children enjoyed the day because the stress of writing was gone.”

The impact of the day

“Teachers and pupils are more aware of the importance of oral communication and the fact that writing isn’t the main form on communicating your ideas in school. Teachers were provided with food for thought about ways of recording evidence of learning using photographs and videos in ways they haven’t previously thought of.”

“It has helped children to realise how important speaking and listening is and how it needs to be focussed, also how it can help structure ideas. It has helped staff to realise that more time needs to be given to focus on speaking and listening aspects.”

Identifying Struggling Pupils:“Child A had some noticeable speech difficulties, but during the day it became clear that she also had difficulties with word retrieval - an intervention has been put in place”

“Some children who could not explain in writing were also struggling with their verbal responses. As a whole the children had more time to discuss, develop and deepen their understanding that they usually don’t get time to do before writing.”

“Some of the children who may have been viewed as normally ‘high ability’ found it more a challenge than expected to verbalise their ideas when they didn’t have a pen to rely on.”

“Some teachers were surprised by the quality of oral language by some of the less able children. Some teachers were surprised at how vocal or non vocal some children were.”

“Highlighted a child (Year 6) who struggled to listen to others in discussion tasks and didn’t seem to realise that they were not working as a group but in isolation within a group. Previous information about this child was that he consistently shouted out, I now feel that this child ignores what is going on around him and only focuses on his own needs. I will be definitely looking into this further as I am now worried about the child’s success in secondary school next year as I feel he needs support in his communicating with a group.”

“It showed that some children who were very quiet shied into the background but the activities brought them to the fore and it showed that more work needs to be done to encourage all children to speak with confidence.”


14


No Pens Day Wednesday and changing practice94% of survey respondents stated that they’d do something differently in their school or setting around speech, language and communication as a result of taking part in NPDW. This figure really emphasises the fact that not only is No Pens Day Wednesday having a real impact during the day itself, it is also having a long term effect on the way that schools approach speech, language and communication. Below is a breakdown of the answers respondents selected most.

In addition to this, a huge 64% of respondents stated that they’d be interested in finding out more about and signing up for The Communication Commitment. This shows that No Pens Day Wednesday is having a real impact on people’s awareness of speech, language and communication and the fact that the majority of respondents are looking to take their commitment to improving communication skills further is an encouraging outcome.

The most popular action that schools said they would take, was ‘running regular No Pens Day Wednesdays,’ which was selected by almost 60% of survey respondents. This is a brilliant figure as it shows the impact that teaching professionals see the day as having. There was also a strong response from schools for the action ‘Focus more on spoken language objectives in planning for all lessons’, with over half of the respondents to the online survey choosing this option. Giving speaking and listening a specific focus in all lessons is one of the key aims of the day, so it’s fantastic to see the response that this action received.

15

Figure 4 - Following on from No Pens Day Wednesday, will you do anything differently in school around speech, language and communication?

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Other (please specify) responses

Focus more on spoken language objectives in planning for all lessons

Share more information with parents about communication skills

No

Run regular No Pens Day Wednesdays

Prioritise spoken language in staff development session/plans

Work on developing a more strategic whole school approach to communication

Find out more about the work and resources of The Communication Trust

53.24%

57.55%

35.25%

46.76%

13.67%

6.4%

30.94%

25.18%


It’s good to share...

NPDW 2015 marked the debut of our No Pens Day resource sharing function. This was something that had been requested a lot in previous years’ online surveys, and it was clear that schools and settings were keen to see what others across the country were doing to support spoken language in the classroom. As a result, we created the sharing function to allow teachers to showcase their existing skills and knowledge and share them with a wider audience.

We were really keen to see how schools felt about the function and it was great to see that respondents found the user uploaded resources to be of use:

We also had a few respondents stating that they were unware of the sharing function. If you would like to find out more about it, you can do so here and can upload a resource here.

Running regular NPDWs was a future action highlighted by almost 60% of respondents. This highlights the impact professionals perceive the day as having. Encouraging schools to plan a more specific focus on speaking and listening across all lessons is one of the key objectives of NPDW, so the fact that over 50% of respondents said this would be something they will do going forward is a significant achievement.

It’s also fantastic to see that over 35% of respondents will work to develop a more strategic approach to communication in school, while 55% of respondents indicated that they’d be interested in finding out more about and signing up for The Communication Commitment. NPDW is a light touch event that we hope sparks a level of interest in the issue for schools to pursue further.

“I think the sharing function is a very good idea. It allows colleagues to share good practice and activities which you know work.”

“I think it is a fantastic way to share tried and tested lessons that can be adaptable or used as a starting point.”

“Good practice and sharing ideas is a great idea and very helpful. It will help us for when we do the event next year.”

“Excellent. It meant teachers saw it positively rather than a need for lots of “pre planning”. The ideas for every year group meant everyone went on the site and realised the importance of what we were doing.”

“Great forum for sharing ideas!”

“Valuable resources which can be used at any time.”

“I think it is a great thing especially for schools that have not taken part in it before as it will give them lots of ideas.”

16

https://thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/projects/no-pens-day-wednesday/sharing-information-page/

http://www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/projects/no-pens-day-wednesday/share-your-resources/

http://www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/projects/communication-commitment/


Media and web communications

Press Coverage It was encouraging to see that 11% of respondents received local media coverage about their day, a 4% increase from last year, which could highlight a growing interest from news outlets about the day. Amongst others, No Pens Day was featured in the Middlesbrough and Stockton Evening Gazette, East Kent Mercury, the Grimsby Telegraph and the Swindon Advertiser.

Web hits The week leading up to No Pens Day Wednesday was the busiest on our website of the year to date – the main No Pens Day Wednesday page alone received 5,464 page views, more than twice the number of views for the second most popular, our resources page, with 2,349.

Furthermore, on October 6th, the day before No Pens Day Wednesday, The Communication Trust website had its most popular day ever, with an impressive 9,057 page views!

Social media We also had our busiest and most successful social media interaction of the year on the day, with schools and settings using the #nopensday hashtag to share all of their fantastic activities with us.

The #nopensday hashtag was used hundreds of times by schools on tweets and pictures, the majority of which were retweeted on our main page.

Our No Pens Day posts were shared by both TES and Guardian Teacher Network, who have an audience of 142,000 and 110,000 respectively.

17


Improvements

We’re always looking to improve the day year after year, and the suggestions and feedback that we receive through our online evaluation is a key resource that allows us to do this. As with last year, rather than giving respondents a list of choices, we provided a free text box to ensure that answers were as varied as possible. It was great to see that 20% of responses said there was nothing we could do to improve the day, other than continuing to provide more of the same! Here are a selection of suggested improvements:

“More generic resources and tips/videos.”

“Continue with excellent lesson plans for special needs students. Perhaps these could be adapted further to incorporate lessons that are age-appropriate for secondary aged pupils but who are learning at an early years or KS1 level.”

“Homework ideas were excellent. Maybe the universally speaking booklet could be adapted to an A4 sheet for the year groups, so everyone (teachers and parents) are aware of what is expected for each age?”

“Keep on trying to be a creative as possible! Maybe try to link school into a buddy system with similar provisions? More press awareness and publicity for the campaign.”

“I think the resources are fantastic and accessible. The sharing from other schools is a fantastic idea. I think making it more known the parents i.e. advertising it on TV? Or the radio? To get more involvement from home.”

“It would be useful to be able to gain easier access to resources without each member of staff having to sign up individually, e.g. the ability to create a school code which teachers could enter.”

“Continue to provide your brilliant lesson plans- teachers were grateful for the planning available, as we scheduled our No Pens Day a little last minute. We held our No Pens Day at the end of October, so it would have been nice to be able to edit the date on the poster, as well as the school name.”

“Making the website easier to navigate.”

18

If you have any questions about No Pens Day Wednesday or this evaluation please get in touch with Jack Williams,

Project Officer at The Communication Trust on [email protected]

You can find out more about No Pens Day Wednesday, access the free materials and run your day anytime.

Visit www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/nopensdaywednesday to find out more and sign up.

No Pens Day Wednesday

2015

2015 no pens day wednesday - thecommunicationtrust.org.uk · part in the day. it’s interesting to...

Documents