It’s Time for a New Approach to Battling Underachievement

The following child file provides an example of taking a whole school approach to improving outcomes for pupil premium children and others at risk of underachievement. As you read through it, reflect on your own school, your practice and how you could introduce changes to improve outcomes for those at risk of underachievement in your own setting.

A primary school in an urban area of the north west of England with 350 pupils identified the need to improve attendance, parental engagement and resilience for disadvantaged pupils. The majority of pupils at the school are from White British heritage. A small minority of pupils speak English as an additional language. The percentage of pupils known to be eligible for pupil premium is 24%. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is 15%. Four of the pupils have an EHC Plan. Pupil numbers have increased in recent years and the school admits a number of pupils during the school year.

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      string(5650) "negativeoutcomes on all dimensions at age three and five than children exposed to fewerrisks… We can see a widening gap in cognitive development, hyperactivity, peerproblems and pro-social behaviours for children with exposure to two or more riskscompared to one or no risks between ages three and five.’From this perspective, the overarching influence is a student’s social context. Schoolfactors, notably the quality of teaching and learning, are significant but are subordinateto social, cultural and economic factors.For some, this leads to a very clear conclusion:‘Schools can – and should – be charged with narrowing educational inequality.However, a focus on general school improvement policies will not be sufficient to dothe job.’8■■■■■■■■■■■■■■58Vol 6.1School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comLeadershipSkillsCommunityengagementJohn West-BurnhamReassessing the role of schoolsThe school is a significant but not sufficient variable, and in some respects, the mostopen to influence and change. A change of leadership in a school can lead to verydramatic improvements in behaviour and the quality of teaching and learning.However the other key variables – poverty, social class, parenting, family life andthe quality of community engagement – can be addressed with varying degrees ofpotential impact by schools if the role of the school is radically reappraised.Another way of understanding this is to consider the implications of the verysimple fact that children spend only 15 per cent of their lives each year in school. Whilethat 15 per cent is disproportionately significant, it would be naïve in the extreme topretend that the school can function hermetically sealed from the community it serves.It is equally fallacious to argue that ‘You go to school to learn’ or ‘If you don’t behave,you will not learn’. Children and young people are never not learning.Thus, the effective school secures the 20 per cent that it directly controls byfocusing on the quality of school-related factors, but it also has to be equally engagedin issues related to the socio-economic context of the school.Fiona Millar makes the same point:‘Schools do have a part to play in breeding academic success, vital personal skillsand attributes. But money, parenting, relationships, culture and community alsomatter. Bright children can easily lose competitive advantage if they are battling withpoverty and chaotic home-lives in poor neighbourhoods.’ 9This position is reinforced in a subsequent study:‘At present, the tragedy of school change is that only about 30 per cent of theexplanation for variations in school achievement appears to be attributable to factorsin the school… Perhaps it is now time for leaders to lead their schools and exert theirinfluence far beyond the school walls.’10Edgar expounds on this, stating that ‘schools must be reconceptualised as just one partof the learning culture, and become embedded in society in new ways.’11What this means is that schools become active agents in their communities and,pivotally, key resources in securing high social capital and social change. Schoolsthus engage with literacy across the community, provide family support workers andpsychiatric nurses, and make the school a community resource in order to address thecauses of disadvantage.The underlying principle here is ‘predict and prevent’ rather than ‘find and fix’. Earlyintervention is more effective, more cost-efficient and more equitable than working toput things right.In order to secure a situation of equity so that every child and young person hasthe opportunity to achieve their potential, the variables influencing their capacity tosucceed need to look something like the diagram below. It is not enough to have anabsence of negatives – there have to be very real positives in order to optimise thepossibility of real success.There are numerous permutations available of the diagram shown on the oppositepage. Individuals will succeed with all sorts of alternative factors working in differentways. However, it is probably true to say that if you consider the young people that getthe very best from the school system then the three areas are all positive and, crucially,are mutually self-reinforcing and validating.Failure should not be an optionOne way of understanding the rethink of school improvement is to consider thestrategies used in many industrial concerns and services that focus on the movementfrom find and fix to predict and prevent.Finding and fixing is essentially waiting until something goes wrong and thenreplacing or repairing it. It does seem sometimes that each phase or stage of educationseems to spend much of its time addressing the issues that the previous stage failedto sort out. Thus, primary complains about early years, secondary complains aboutprimary, universities complain about secondary and employers complain about theentire system.Predict and prevent is fundamentally the same as ‘prevention is better than cure’59Vol 6.1School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comLeadershipSkillsCommunityengagementJohn West-Burnham– it involves moving the culture of a team or department from reaction to anticipationand intervention, crucially the willingness to intervene. There are numerous examplesof this approach from everyday life – the best way to avoid a heart attack is to getpeople to stop smoking, not to invest in more cardiac surgeons. The more important itis not to fail – e.g. the right operation on the right patient, ensuring an aircraft is"
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Leadership

Rethinking school improvement

27 Jun 2014

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      string(336) "... place to monitor andimprove it, will colour the whole Ofsted report.The WIGT (What is Good Teaching?) Toolkit ismore than just a lesson observation tool, it’s asystem for monitoring and mentoring for improvedteacher performance and can be used at classroom,department or whole school level. The WIGT hasbeen developed ..."
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      string(5648) "needs of one particular learner group more deeply.Once an area for enquiry has been identified, it is importantto decide upon the best ways to engage in the research:What type of evidence will be required?Who will I involve in the research?How can I involve those people?What are the time limitations?How can these be overcome?How will I share the findings more widely with colleagues inthe school to be able to directly impact upon whole schoolprocesses, practices and understandings?How does my area of enquiry fit in with existing whole-schoolpriority areas for development?Gathering evidenceThroughout the whole cycle of enquiry, a range of different typesof evidence will need to be gathered.To develop understanding of the issue of underachievementwithin your school context, possible starting points will includethe need to explore and examine the perceptions of learning,achievement and underachievement, with evidence from a rangeof different people within the school context, and also to examineavailable assessment data to be able to compare perceptions withthe reality of underachievement within the school.Following from this, the focus for the enquiry will be refined,leading to the identification of different types of evidence thatneed to be gathered. This may include observations of pupillearning or teaching, or it may involve the implementation of a newapproach to address the issue that has been exposed, followed byobservations, review and interviews with pupils and staff involved.nnnnnnnhttp://www.teachingtimes.comEvery Child UPDATE nwww.teachingtimes.comThismonth’sThe importance ofPractitionerresearchdiscussing and sharing findings:An important part of action research and reflective enquiry withinthe school context is the need to continually involve colleagueswithin discussions to more fully understand how issues such asunderachievement are perceived within the school context.Linked to this is also the need to plan opportunities to sharefindings as they emerge through the research process withcolleagues, in order to be able to agree new ways forward toaddress the issues that have been identified.Further opportunities to review actions introduced andimplemented as a result of the discussions then also need to beplanned to involve a range of different perspectives and voices.The templates at the end of the edition will provide furtherpractical support in planning and developing effective and usefulaction research projects.For now, we need to think carefully about how actionresearch can be embedded within school settings, or, as we willsee in Janet and Nicola’s article that follows, how it can form partof an innovative collaboration between schools, to build reliableand meaningful evidence bases about what works for pupils inyour own particular school setting.references1. Hopkins, D. (2008) A teacher’s guide to classroom research.Columbus: Open University Press.2. Altrichter, H., Feldman, A., Posch, P. and Somekh, B. (2008). Teachersinvestigate their work: An introduction to action research across theprofessions. London: Routledge. p. 147. (2nd edition) .3. Durrant, J. and Holden, G. (2006) Teachers Leading Change: DoingResearch for School Improvement. London: SAGE Publications.Why WIGT?At least 25 per cent of Ofsted’s judgement onyour school will officially be about your qualityof teaching and learning. In fact this is anunderestimate. The  inspectors’ view of teachingand learning in your school, and as importantly,what systems you have in place to monitor andimprove it, will colour the whole Ofsted report.The WIGT (What is Good Teaching?) Toolkit ismore than just a lesson observation tool, it’s asystem for monitoring and mentoring for improvedteacher performance and can be used at classroom,department or whole school level. The WIGT hasbeen developed over many years and used in schoolsand local authorities across the country.“We recommend the What is Good Teaching? Toolkitto all of our schools. It has become a key tool in helpingschools to look more closely at learning in the classroomand to identify next steps for improvement. It is arigorous and versatile framework which can be used tosupport teacher self evaluation or for leaders to identifywhole school areas to work on.”Principal Adviser for School Improvement –West BerkshireThis is precisely what  WIGT is! A unique qualitystandard for teaching and learning that modelswhat teaching will look like if it is outstanding,good or requires improvement.Uniquely however, it manages to make the implicitqualities of excellent teaching and learning explicit(what outstanding teachers do, often withoutrealising or being able to relate to others) andenables observers and the observed to recognisestrengths and areas for development. The skills ofthese teachers can then be used to inform otherteachers in the school.Used consistently it enables everyone to have aclear understanding of Ofsted’s expectations andsupport the drive towards outstanding teachingand learning for every child.What is in WIGT?The toolkit includes a series of formats which allow foreasy recording of insightful ‘judgements’ about theobserved teacher/s’ performance. The system is basedon what teachers can do rather than what they can’t doand is therefore very unthreatening. However, it makesvery clear how far they have to travel to reach the nextstandard level. In detail the Toolkit includes:■ Teaching quality standards for all Key Stagesincluding the Foundation Stage■ Formats for teacher self evaluation■ Formats to enable pupils to evaluate theirown"
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Special Needs

Understanding action research

11 Feb 2014

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      string(390) "holistic tendencies in someone’slearning style have an influence on most other style featuresin the LSA model because the strongest correlations alwaysdetermine how a learner will approach new and/or difficultinformation intake.Objection fiveMisunderstandings and misrepresentation of LS on thecontinuum: Putting LS instruments on a continuum from‘more fixed’ to ..."
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      string(5645) "holistic tendencies in someone’slearning style have an influence on most other style featuresin the LSA model because the strongest correlations alwaysdetermine how a learner will approach new and/or difficultinformation intake.Objection fiveMisunderstandings and misrepresentation of LS on thecontinuum: Putting LS instruments on a continuum from‘more fixed’ to ‘less fixed’ is a useful way of comparing theirqualities, but unfortunately a few errors have been madehere. Firstly, Gardner’s MI framework is not about learningstyles (see explanation under Objection 2) and it is certainlynot fixed because intelligence factors developed over alifetime can be nurtured and enhanced.Secondly, the first group of learning style instrumentson the continuum has been placed under ‘more fixed’,described as ‘largely constitutionally based’ which is anindication that the most important aspects of LS have beendisregarded, namely that:● Learning styles change dramatically during primaryschool years (as research on the Dunn & Dunn modelhas shown and international field studies with our LSAinstrument have revealed).● A complex learning style profile consists of biological(more fixed) style components as well as learned orconditioned style features (less fixed, changingfrequently during a lifetime).● Even biological features change later in life due to theaging process although some style components remainfairly stable over a lifetime.● Flexibilities must be considered as a vital aspect of LSbut unfortunately they are not included in the simplerLS instruments. However, they constitute an importantstrength in itself because they allow learners to adjustto different, often adverse learning situations andconditions. Such a deep knowledge of style diversity isone of the most valuable tools to enhance learning andteaching.For unknown reasons, more complexinstruments describing various aspects assub-categories of an overall learning stylewere disregarded.68www.teachthinking.comThe learning styles debateThe learning styles debateThe learning styles debateThe learning styles debateThe learning styles debateTeaching Thinking&Creativity  Summer 2004Objection sixConfusion between learning styles, intelligence factors andpersonality traits: One of the conclusions being drawn bythe research team is that ‘this field suffers from seriousconceptual confusion and a lack of accumulatedtheoretical knowledge. It’s deeply confusing even forpsychologists attempting to make sense of it.’ And herelies exactly the problem: learning styles concepts andinstruments have been created for educationalpractitioners to help them in their daily classroom work;not for psychologists to use them for probing deeper intothe human psyche, not for business people to improvemanagement strategies, and certainly not for academics,always on the lookout for disproving theoretically whatworks well in practice when it is used with common senseand genuine concern for the learner.The confusion described in the field of theoreticalknowledge has also obviously confused the research teambecause, in the selection of so called ‘learning style’ tests,an extremely wide range of different assessmentinstruments has been used, instruments which do notactually measure the same criteria and therefore cannotbe compared accurately. In some cases it seems only partsof instruments have been investigated, described andcompared, disregarding other vital components. It ispeculiar to see that a ‘Motivational Style Profiler’ has beencompared with the ‘Myers Briggs Type Indicator’ and bothare being called ‘learning style’ instruments. The reportedresults based on this confusion are now confusingeducators, many of whom are desperately looking forbetter methods to reach all students with their curriculumdeliveries. It is a pity the academic researchers have notLearning by doing: kinesthetic exercise to remember words69Teaching Thinking&Creativity  Summer 2004www.teachthinking.com The learning styles debateThe learning styles debateThe learning styles debateThe learning styles debateThe learning styles debateapplications. The danger here is that all theoretical researchand advice given by theorists most of the time does notenhance classroom practice because it is … too theoretical.SummaryWhether assessment instruments are good or bad, reliableor non-valid, it remains a fact that every human being hasa learning style which can consist of contradictorycomponents, often leading to inner confusion anduneasiness. Style mismatches between teaching andlearning, physical learning environments not conducive toinformation intake and unmet physical needs during thelearning process can lead to frustration, stress, learningproblems, underachievement, low self esteem, disciplineproblems among younger students, and dropoutism inhigh schools. Initial dislike for theoretical learning not basedon style preferences, leads ultimately to the inability ofachieving academically.Even if educators don’t accept that style diversityinfluences information intake and learning more thananything else, won’t admit that learning diversity reallyexists and are convinced, if it does,it can be disregarded, students willalways attempt to learn throughtheir preferences. Despite the factthat students often have beenheavily conditioned during theirschooling years to learn accordingto general, traditional expectationsin academic settings by listening,reading, discussing and writing,now enhanced through computertechnology, they will revert to theirpersonal preferences"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Debating Learning Styles

25 Feb 2011

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      string(5675) "poor teaching and learning. In these providers, there was a lack of professional expertise in assessment to help identify children’s needs accurately, and the expertise that did exist was often concentrated in a small number of staff. Especially where this was compounded by poor leadership, this led to poor assessment and a lack of challenge about the purpose of identification.’5“Inspectors found a lack of understanding that underachievement may be the result of poor teaching and learning.”We have to ask the question: is it really acceptable to expect practitioners to hold this responsibility and execute their duties without extra support and training to ensure they are confident in this role? With the government drive to increase free places for vulnerable and disadvantaged children, early years providers are often dealing with more children who have identified special educational needs than in the past. This is not reflected in government figures which show that there is a decrease in numbers of children with SEND (which is, in fact, correct). The new integrated review for two-year-olds is also likely to identify children with additional needs much earlier. Are SENCos getting enough support?The SENCo role itself is also an issue. It has a significant leadership element which demands extremely high organisation and communication skills—needed to ensure all staff understand the plans for children and implement them effectively. In schools, all new SENCos must hold a Master’s level qualification. This recognises the depth of knowledge and experience required to undertake the role. Currently, however, there is no requirement in the non-maintained sector for the SENCo to have a SEND qualification, and initial training is typically provided by the Area SENCo team, a service supplied by Local Authorities. The lack of in-depth training can cause anxiety to SENCos  and lead to some confusion around early identification of need, leadership of effective practice and parental engagement. To overcome this, they rely heavily on the LA Area SENCo and specialist services support, which, in many areas, is dwindling. In early years there is also a dilemma when assessing children’s needs. Normal development is wide ranging and the most commonly used resource for assessment, Development Matters6, is a  blunt measuring tool  and was never really intended to be used for assessment purposes. Practitioners are quite rightly concerned about labelling a child too soon, recognising that this can be a less than helpful approach. For example, when does delay in speech due to a lack of rich language experiences become a special need? Some special educational needs are also hard to diagnose early, as normal developmental behaviours must be taken into account. Here, the key questions that need to be asked are:Does the child have a learning difficulty—that is, a significantly greater difficulty in learning than their peers?Does the child have a disability that prevents or hinders them from making use of the facilities in the setting? Does the learning difficulty or disability call for special educational provision—that is, provision that is additional to or different from the provision normally made available?It could be argued that early identification of need is so crucial to a child’s future, and this is far more complex with very young children, that not to have a mandatory SENCo qualification in early years settings does not make sense. Are we really saying that a child’s needs only become important enough when they enter school?Do the new reforms expect too much?Time is often cited by SENCos as an issue, as there is no funding to release staff allocated to the role. SENCos report that the processes are very time consuming and are difficult to fit alongside their daily routine and workload. Managers do not have the funding to release them from their practitioner responsibilities and, as a result, many processes are seen as an increased burden on their time. These processes include: dealing with confidential paperworkmeeting statutory, non-negotiable deadlinesundertaking observations and supporting key persons with their observationsconducting parent consultations and meetingsattending Common Assessment Framework (CAF)  meetingsliaising with specialist support services. As Neil Leich from the Preschool Learning Alliance points out: ‘Early years providers do not receive a notional SEN budget and are expected to meet the additional needs of most children with SEN using their core budget, at a time when overall early years funding remains inadequate. Additionally, there remains a lack of clarity about the circumstances under which providers would not need to use this budget and what top-up funding they would be able to apply for.’7There is also the issue of parental involvement—this has a much higher profile than before. It is not enough to just report to parents on progress; now the expectation is that parents will become fully involved in planning for their child’s needs. The first thing a practitioner should do is consider the child holistically and in a wider range of contexts than just the setting. This is only possible if you are able to speak confidently with parents.  Many practitioners lack the confidence to have ‘tricky’ conversations with parents. They are worried about upsetting them and maybe labelling children too early, or even that they will remove the child, so they steer away from anything that may cause"
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Child Assessment

SEND reforms: Challenges for the early years

28 Oct 2016