Articles by Kate Freeman

October 16, 2024

The Speech and Language Building Blocks of Oracy

Oracy has become a hot topic in education recently, especially with Prime Minister Keir Starmer bringing it into focus during pre-election discussion. Concern regarding the...

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March 15, 2024

How schools can use their Pupil Premium budgets to boost reading comprehension

We know that school leaders and teaching staff are passionate about providing every pupil with the support and resources they need to succeed academically and...

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February 10, 2024

Issue 28, Pages 12-14: A Vision for Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) for the UK

October 2023 saw the publishing of an important document highlighting months of work involving a key partnership of organisations. The partnership worked with adults and...

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October 2, 2023

Issue 23, Page 12-13: Talking the write way

"In England in 2015, one child in five was reported to be leaving primary school unable to read well, rising to one in three among...

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October 2, 2023

Issue 22, Page 16-17: Demystifying behaviour

"…what the pupil is communicating can be tricky. This might be frustration, anxiety, sadness, confusion, or insecurity to boundary testing." I recently watched BBC2’s series ‘Don’t...

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October 2, 2023

Issue 21, Page 16-17: Where does spoken language fit into the national curriculum?

How might you answer this question? Some may say "that’s the focus of the English department", or "we are building maths concepts here". What about the...

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October 2, 2023

Issue 20, Page 16-17: Outdoor language learning opportunities

There has been a strong movement over the last few years to encourage the use of outdoor spaces to support learning. The Forest School Association...

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October 2, 2023

Issue 19, Page 4-5: SKILLS FOR TEAMWORKING – Put on your own oxygen mask before helping others!

This article’s title relates back to the time when wearing masks was an unusual activity – unless as a surgeon or a deep-sea diver! Nowadays,...

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May 18, 2023

How does the new SEND and AP Improvement plan link with supporting speech and language in schools?

The UK government launched the SEND and AP Improvement Plan in the spring of 2023. The plan recognises that many schools struggle to support pupils’...

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March 30, 2022

Why improving speech, language and communication skills must be part of the Government’s Levelling Up agenda

The Government's education white paper Opportunity for All was released on 28th March 2022. It restated the announcement (originally made in February, as part of...

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