On Wednesday 28th September and over the next month, up to 250,000  pupils from over 600 UK schools will put down their pens to focus on speaking and listening instead of writing by taking part in No Pens Day Wednesday – an inaugural event for the Hello campaign (national year of communication).

No Pens Day Wednesday is a unique educational event that aims to develop and raise awareness of the importance of pupils’ spoken communication skills. It has been orchestrated by The Communication Trust, a coalition of 40 voluntary organisations with expertise in speech, language and communication, in partnership with Jean Gross, the Government’s Communication Champion.

Throughout the day, teachers at primary and secondary schools will use lesson plans and activity templates developed by specialist teachers and speech and language therapists to conduct their lessons without pens. Classroom activities are set to include podcasting, maths games, debating, vocabulary games and ‘talk’ homework, all designed to highlight the importance of language for learning to pupils, parents, carers and school staff.

No Pens Day Wednesday is inclusive and supportive of all children, including those with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) and English as an additional language (EAL). So far a total of 634 schools have registered to take part. This includes nearly 500 primary schools, 100 secondary schools, 50 special schools as well as a hospital school, a pupil referral unit and even a school participating over in Indonesia.

The initiative has also received support from education experts, including Sir Jim Rose, the former Director of Inspection for Ofsted; Professor Mick Waters, former Head of Curriculum at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority; Professor Robin Alexander, who led the influential independent Cambridge Primary Review; and Professor Andrew Pollard, member of the current National Curriculum Review expert group.

Jean Gross, the Government’s Communication Champion for children, said: “Not enough pupil talk goes on in Britain’s classrooms – most of it is teacher talk. What little research has been done on this aspect of classroom behaviour suggests that the average length of a pupil’s response to a teacher’s question is just four words . We want to see more priority being given to speaking and listening skills, because they directly underpin the ability to read and write.

“Over 1 million children and young people have some form of speech, language and communication need (SLCN). We know schools are concerned about children’s ability to communicate and 47% of employers say they cannot get recruits with the spoken communication skills needed to succeed in today’s world . With hundreds of thousands of pupils set to benefit from taking part in No Pens Day Wednesday, I applaud schools for embedding speaking and listening approaches even further into their teaching and learning. I hope No Pens Day will become a regular event for schools.”

Ofsted surveys have repeatedly highlighted that ‘a common feature of the most successful schools was the attention they gave to developing speaking and listening’  and that ‘open and challenging questions extend pupils’ reasoning and vocabulary and help them to become enthusiastic and self-motivated learners’ .

Anita Kerwin-Nye, Director of The Communication Trust, said; “For too long speech and language has existed in the shadow of reading and writing. As recent debates pose questions about what should teachers teach and children learn, we are calling on all schools to place an explicit and structured emphasis on speaking and listening approaches by taking part in No Pens Day Wednesday. Our materials, lesson plans and resources give the children’s workforce the tools and strategies needed to support speaking and listening and importantly to improve their confidence.

“A classroom filled with lots of talk can feel a challenge for teachers, but the benefits for pupils are far reaching. We recognise that teachers do not currently receive a great deal of training in this area and it is a skill set in its own right to weave speaking and listening into all aspects of a lesson. Historically, ensuring all pupils become ‘articulate’ hasn’t been a duty on schools, but the government’s new professional standards for teachers  have changed this, and we want teachers to be ready.”

Sir Jim Rose, former director of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate and author of several government curriculum reviews, said: “As well as being the bedrocks of reading and writing, the ability to listen attentively, and to speak clearly and fluently are essential life-long skills in their own right. No Pens Day is a wonderful opportunity to design exciting and worthwhile activities to foster these skills.”

Schools taking part in No Pens Day Wednesday are encouraged to give pupils opportunities to think by asking open questions, and to hold back on demonstrations or explanations until the ideas of pupils have been heard. Strategies include using the ’10 second rule’ where teachers wait ten seconds after asking a question before prompting pupils for an answer, and giving pupils opportunities to test out their ideas with a ‘talk partner’ or in a group.

Hello is the national year of communication – a campaign run by The Communication Trust and Communication Champion, Jean Gross, to make children and young people’s communication development a priority during 2011 and beyond. Hello, sponsored by BT and Pearson Assessment, provides information on typical communication development, how to spot if children are struggling and where to go for help and support

www.hello.org.uk 

For more information

For more information on No Pens Day Wednesday (including the plan for the day and backgrounder of evidence) or to arrange a interview, please contact Laura Smith, Media and Campaigns Manager, at the Communication Trust on lsmith@thecommunicationtrust.org.uk or 020 7843 2519 / 07766651366.



About No Pens Day Wednesday and the Hello campaign
•    No Pens Day Wednesday is backed by Jean Gross, the government’s Communication Champion for children, and other curriculum experts including Sir Jim Rose, Professor Andrew Pollard, Professor Robin Alexander and Professor Mick Waters.
•    No Pens Day Wednesday is an initiative for the Hello campaign to tie into the September theme of ‘Back to School’. 
•    To launch the month, The Times Educational Supplement (TES) ran a special 8 page Hello supplement with support from BT and the Communication Champion. This featured a number of schools that have developed effective strategies to develop their pupils' speech, language and communication skills.  This can be viewed here http://www.nxtbook.com/nxteu/tescreative/communicationstrust/
•    With the support of Hello sponsor Pearson Assessment, a range of Universally Speaking booklets have been developed for early years, primary (5-11) and secondary (11-18). These booklets are for anyone who works with children and young people and show where children should be with their communication skills at any given age. They help you find out if children are on track and what to do if you have concerns about any of their communication abilities. For more information, visit www.hello.org.uk/resources
•    Hello is the national year of communication – a campaign to increase understanding of how important it is for children and young people to develop good communication skills.
•    The campaign is run by The Communication Trust, a coalition of 40 leading voluntary sector organisations; in partnership with Jean Gross, the Government’s Communication Champion. Together we aim to make 2011 the year when children’s communication skills become a priority in schools and homes across the country.
•    The campaign is supported by BT and Pearson Assessment and is backed by the Department for Education and Department for Health. Please visit www.hello.org.uk for further information or to sign up for regular updates.
•    The national year was originally proposed by John Bercow MP – now Speaker of the House of Commons – in his July 2008 Review of Services for Children and Young People (0‐19) with Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN).