Suggestions for schools from the pilot schools and LEAs

Managing and supporting the Key Stage 3 Strategy

· Integrate the Key Stage 3 Strategy with your school development plan. Ensure that planned action in subject departments is co-ordinated with the school's overall drive to raise standards over a two to three year period.

· Clarify staff roles and responsibilities for raising standards in English and mathematics, and in literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum.

· Make as much use as possible of existing management teams or groups rather than creating new ones, e.g. many of the issues affecting Key Stage 3 are cross-curricular in nature, and can be discussed at regular heads of departments’ meetings without creating a new 'curriculum committee'. Some heads of departments may need to have, for periods of time, whole-school responsibilities, e.g. for literacy or numeracy across the curriculum.

· Encourage English and mathematics departments to start an audit of their subject as early as possible and to use it to prioritise developments and action.

· Send English and mathematics staff to see primary school lessons.

Finding staff time to attend training and plan

· Buy in exam invigilators rather than supply teachers to maximise non-contact time for departments to attend training or to plan together during the second half of the Summer term.

· Increase overall staffing to allow some internal cover.

· Timetable planning/meeting time for English and mathematics departments.

· Use INSET days flexibly, taking account of priorities.

Supporting teachers

· Provide English and mathematics departments with technician support to assist with the copying/laminating of materials, e.g. for 'starter' activities, for 'catch-up' materials.

· Encourage department members to work together to develop units of work and short-term lesson plans.

Teaching time for English and mathematics

· Consider as early as possible the teaching time requirements for English and mathematics. To do proper justice to the respective Frameworks, a minimum of 3 hours per week of teaching time is needed for each of the two subjects in each of Years 7, 8 and 9. School timetablers should aim to ensure that lessons in each subject are spread across the week, not bunched together.

· Organisational models such as four lessons of 50 minutes, or five lessons of 40 minutes, are useful. They satisfy the principle of frequency, ensuring that pupils maintain and sharpen their skills through near daily contact. Other models, such as three 70 minute lessons, or six 35 minute lessons made up of double and single periods, need to be organised carefully, particularly where fortnightly timetables operate. Seventy minutes can be too long for pupils to maintain their concentration if the teaching is to be intensive and direct; on the other hand, a single 35 minute period offers too little time for ideas to be developed and consolidated in the main part of the lesson. Neither English nor mathematics require any particular form of pupil grouping such as setting.

Supporting catch-up programmes

· Co-ordinate arrangements for catch-up programmes for English and mathematics, i.e. the Literacy Progress Units and the Springboard 7 programme.

· Give non-teaching assistants or learning support staff who may support catch-up programmes some initial training to help familiarise them with the materials and their role.

· Explore alternatives to withdrawing pupils from other subjects to undertake a catch-up programme, e.g. arrange before-school sessions linked to a breakfast club, extended registration periods or lunchtime slots, supported either by teachers or by non-teaching assistants.

· If there are significant numbers of pupils eligible for catch-up support, create a catch-up teaching group.

· Aim to provide a non-teaching assistant where a catch-up programme is taught in a mixed ability class as part of the normal timetabled provision for a subject.

· Use National Curriculum test data and teacher assessments, general advice from Year 6 teachers and summer school staff, and Year 7 teachers’ own judgements, to ensure that appropriate pupils are chosen for the catch-up programmes. These programmes are designed for pupils working at Level 3 at the beginning of Year 7.

· Adapt the catch-up materials to fit your pupils' needs – don't follow them slavishly.

· Adapt the catch-up materials to support Year 7 pupils working at Level 2 and to help meet targets in pupils' Individual Education Plans (IEPs).

· Make further use of the materials provided for literacy and numeracy summer schools as part of your catch-up provision.

· Explain and promote catch-up programmes to parents and elicit their involvement and support.