Research School Network: Implementing primary disciplinary literacy across LEO Academy Trust By Shareen Wilkinson Executive Director of Education at LEO Academy Trust and author of Disciplinary Literacy in Primary Schools

At LEO Academy Trust, we wanted to ensure our pupils were thinking, speaking and writing like experts (disciplinary literacy).

Drawing on the EEF’s 2024 Implementation Guidance, here is how we moved disciplinary literacy from a research-informed theory into a sustained classroom reality across our primary schools.

Explore

Effective implementation begins by exploring the practice and defining the actions. During my school improvement visits, I noticed high-quality learning across the curriculum, but the volume of writing across the curriculum was virtually non-existent or an extension of English lessons, e.g. diaries in history lessons. I also noticed that pupils were very good at knowing key facts, dates and timelines (or substantive knowledge) but the disciplinary knowledge (or subject specific knowledge) needed enhancing. Therefore, I wanted to improve these opportunities for pupils by ensuring that writing in history, geography, and science was as rigorous as it is in English.

Prepare

The Prepare phase is about moving from ​‘complexity to clarity’. We focused on defining the distinction between substantive knowledge (facts) and disciplinary knowledge (how experts investigate and communicate).
Two key resources were vital:

● Collaborating with Brookfield Primary Academy to curate ​‘Read Aloud’ book lists that build rich schemata across the curriculum. This built on the work of Mary Myatt who advocates for rich stories across the curriculum.
● Developing ​‘Speak like a…’ posters to provide scaffolds for subject-specific talk and to deepen pupils’ disciplinary knowledge.
Creating these resources took me two years because I wanted to trial them and take feedback from subject leaders, senior leaders, EYFS teachers and most importantly pupils.

Deliver

We provided central training but encouraged schools to ​‘personalise the approach’ to their individual needs.

We utilised several ​‘mechanisms of professional learning,’ including modelling techniques during training and working with individual schools.

One of the most successful elements was starting and introducing disciplinary literacy to senior leaders and curriculum leaders first. If they were on board then I knew the project would be a success. Writing training on disciplinary literacy was then delivered to every year group across the trust (Reception – Year 6) and slides were provided for senior leaders to deliver training in their staff meetings.

Today, Year 2 – 6 pupils complete extended disciplinary writing every six weeks, using digital tools for feedback and response, research and to ​‘enhance teaching and learning’ opportunities.

Sustain

To avoid ​‘short-termism,’ where projects wither as momentum fades, we have sustained the initial effort. We’ve embedded disciplinary literacy into our approaches to writing, through:
● Year group writing moderation and training sessions that specifically include writing across the curriculum. Teachers must bring English books and geography, history and science books. These sessions include teachers from schools outside of our Trust to share across the system.
● Shared planning and progression maps to ensure skills are built over time.
● Induction training for new schools joining the Trust.
We are now working on embedding these strategies for our new schools but have more established schools in the Trust that can support this implementation.