The context: WE’s Words For All
In the light of a national concern and a key local imperative around the progress of significant groups of students; Bolton set out to raise the awareness of the vocabulary and language gap – barriers that many students face upon entering the educational system. With a shared aim of improving vocabulary and language acquisition for all; Bolton set about to share best practice and strategies, now and sustaining this over the medium and long term future -an ambitious 10+ year plan.
The Bolton team committed to addressing areas of curriculum, pastoral, as well as classroom, practice to improve the quality of education and raise the achievement of all students who attend secondary schools in Bolton. Ultimately, this project will provide students with the ability to develop and apply lifelong skills whilst simultaneously improving self-confidence through articulacy and therefore resilience in the world around them.
In order to work towards achieving this, each school, each year will select a specific identified target group with which to pilot strategies, where strategies can be delivered, monitored and the impact evaluated within set criteria to be subsequently evaluated and then taken to scale. This will culminate in a yearly presentation to stakeholders to highlight the collaborative approach in closing the language gap in Bolton and to further cascade measurable and impactful approaches to all schools.
Read more about Words for All in the introductory blog by WE Secondaries Director Lisa Ling.
