Having submitted their Signature Work Inquiry Proposals, students have been investigating their topics in their weekly timetabled English reading lesson, which links to the key whole-school academic target of learning from reading. Purposeful use of the Investigative Journal ensures that the reading is relevant and thoughtful. It also underscores that thoughtful reading takes time, and that students actually are given very little time to learn to do so effectively. Next year we will more purposefully explore a range of notetaking approaches (see relevant Investigate skill set below).

One of the outcomes of the Year 9 Signature Work Inquiry will be the compulsory GCSE English Language endorsement for Spoken Language, which in our case is administered by AQA.

For the endorsement, students must deliver a prepared spoken presentation on a specific topic, for which the key requirements are:

• A prepared spoken presentation of up to 5 minutes plus up to 5 minutes Q&A
• Must be on an agreed topic
• Must be formal
• Must be planned and organised (i.e., prepared)
• May use cue cards, PowerPoint, etc.
• Must listen to and respond appropriately to feedback

The assessment criteria for the endorsement are:

• General Criteria
  • Audible
  • Intelligible using appropriately formal language
• Specific Criteria for Distinction
  • Express sophisticated ideas/ information/ feelings using a sophisticated repertoire of vocabulary
  • Organise and structure presentation using an effective range of strategies to engage audience
  • Achieve purpose of presentation
  • Listen to questions/ feedback and respond perceptively, and if appropriate elaborate with further ideas and information

With this in mind, students were recently given an opportunity to prepare and deliver an elevator pitch – a short presentation of up to 1 minute – that is designed to generate interest in and support for an idea. For their elevator pitch, students needed to:

• Introduce themselves
• Introduce their topic, which required them to decide how much to explain about their topic for it to make sense to the audience
• Explain why their topic mattered to them
• Explain why their topic might matter to other people

In addition to giving students an early opportunity to talk briefly about their topic, which was surprisingly daunting for some, the elevator pitch also highlighted the importance and value of their investigative reading. Towards the end of this half-term, we will shift from the Investigate skills sets to the Construct skill sets, with a view to shifting to the Express skill sets early next term (which will more directly involve the English teacher as we begin to prepare for the assessed formal presentation).

I will reflect on this further in relation to relevant and appropriate priority skills in due course.