Language development in the spotlight 

A small task and finish group, made up of primary head teachers on the Education Performance and Achievement sub-group and the LA Lead Early Years Adviser, met in May 2020 to focus on early speech, language and communication development and transition work for children moving from pre-school settings to reception class.  Their work will feed into the work of the whole sub-group, which is working on reducing the language deficit as a way of reducing the impact of disadvantage.  This complements the work of the Reading for Pleasure task and finish group, which is concentrating on ways to support parents, carers and staff to instil a love of reading; in time there will also be a group focusing on language development in year 7.