No Pens Day

Today is No Pens Day.

This is a government initiative asking schools to teach via speaking and listening only – no writing allowed

The day is part of a campaign being run by the hello campaign backed by Government and private business.

Here’s part of the press release:

More and more schools are taking part each day this month in No Pens Day  ‐ a national initiative when pupils give up their pens to focus on speaking and listening instead of writing. The event is being orchestrated by The Communication Trust as part of the Hello campaign (national year of communication).

Hundreds of schools across the country are taking part today (Wednesday 28th September 2011) in the event, which has never happened in education before. At least another 200,000 pupils at a further 400 schools are expected to outlaw pens for a day before the end of October.

Teachers at primary and secondary schools will be using lesson plans and activity templates developed by specialist teachers and speech and language therapists to conduct their lessons without pens. Classroom activities will 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.

Staff at one primary school inNewark, Nottinghamshire dressed up as aliens and invaded the school during morning assembly and stole the pens from everyone there. At another primary school in Covent Garden,London, staff built a large time machine in the school yard, and Community Support Police Officers were involved to bring the event to life. At I CAN’s Dawn House School, a specialist school in Rainworth for pupils with speech language and communication needs, pupils communicated using   Makaton sign language.

To date, 500 primary schools, 100 secondary schools and 50 special schools have registered to take part in No Pens Day. In addition to this a hospital school, pupil referral unit and even a school in Indonesia will be taking part in the inaugural initiative.

As a child, I had to go to Speech Therapy for a long time and had a lot of trouble communicating. Even now I can still hear some of the problem I had when I talk.

Is your school taking part? Let me know.

Find out more here

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