Lessons are carefully planned, allowing teachers to ensure every pupil fully understand a topic before moving on. All infant, junior and primary schools in the Borough have chosen to be part of the Barking and Dagenham Primary English Project which began in September 1996. At that time the performance of our eleven year olds was well below the national average. All schools in the Borough follow a common English curriculum. There is a central emphasis on children reading and working with high quality literature.
Teachers work with the whole class for about two thirds of the lesson.
They place emphasis on helping children to speak clearly and confidently to the whole class choosing their vocabulary carefully. The curriculum also ensures that important skills such as handwriting, spelling and punctuation are taught and practised. A key to the success of the Primary English Project is the strong working partnership between the schools and the Community Inspection and Advisory Service. This has led to significant improvements in English in all schools and to the authority closing the gap on the national average. This news follows last month's announcement that Barking and Dagenham schools had shot to 11th place in the Government's latest league tables for secondary education in London.