  
|
Posted By Professor Stephanie West,
02 February 2026
Updated: 02 February 2026
|
Professor Stephanie West MA Ed, Head of School, Faculty of Business and Innovation, Arden University
“I think it is important to challenge every child because otherwise they're not fulfilling their potential. If you think about it as well, we are always talking about competing on a global scale. Aren't we? Like how do our schools compete with others? And if we want to have people who are world class scientists and the top people in their fields, I'm not sure holding them back just to make teaching a little bit easier now is the right answer long term.” Emily
I recently conducted a study into how primary school teachers experience teaching those pupils working at ‘greater depth’ standards (West, 2025 in Education 3-13, Taylor & Francis). The overall aim of my research was to establish a theoretical basis directly from teachers’ perspectives, to support future teaching enhancement and school development. Where primary schools operate under similar parameters and face similar challenges to one another, the approach I used for this study aligns with the structure and regulation of primary education and supports the potential for theory to come out of local studies.
This area of education appears to be periodically raised in empirical academic research but is not pursued or given sufficient focus to make meaningful change for improvement. My study seeks to initiate a basis for exploration, focusing attention on an area of primary education that is overlooked. The resulting broad framework can be taken up by leadership teams, education developers, and those seeking to enhance learning for those with high potential.
The scope of my study extends to exploring teachers’ experiences in planning, preparing, executing, and evaluating their teaching practice for the most able children. It intends to capture a window of experience from the teachers’ reality in the classroom.
“They like the attention and the fact, ‘oh, we are outside in this group because we might be a bit clever’. And they like that. And I think there is nothing wrong with that.” Sara
The resulting strategic suggestion for school, teaching, and learning enhancement is a model of strong leadership and creativity.
Through exploration and analysis of the research interviews, the bases of ‘leadership’, ‘creativity’, and ‘confidence’ were established. It was clearly apparent through the participants’ experiences that leadership teams are looked to for establishing awareness and positive attitudes in continuously developing and stimulating the clever pupils and showcasing their successes. Leadership teams are also in the best position to ensure this is applicable across all subjects and is supportive of children’s high potential in different areas rather than confining existence of ‘greater depth’, and GDS assessment and measures to only the core areas of English and mathematics.
“I think it is equally important to push all children, but really it depends on the head, the school, the school’s priorities.” Emily
“Schools vary and leadership will be trying to get children to expected levels. If children get better than that, great, but that's not what they worry about.” Grace
The data showed that teachers seek permission from their leaders to trial creative initiatives and to be brave in their ideas.
Where leaders recognise individuals’ innovation and can support difference or change from the usual systems, it can have a positive impact for both staff and children.
With the advances of modern technology, there is scope to utilise artificial intelligence tools for the benefit of idea generation and time saving. Schools trialling such work can share experiences and pilots for the benefit of wider application and impact. There are many creative solutions to achieving the greatest potential from the most able children.
“AI is absolutely changing the face of planning, but especially for differentiation adaptation.” Emily
The most effective teachers of greater depth standard children use a variety of strategies and approaches, alongside praise and encouragement.
Resources contribute to ongoing efficiencies and staff wellbeing.
“If the pupils are going above and beyond what you expected and then some, how can I push them next? I think that the main challenge is having a solution 'in the moment'.” Francesca
Having resources in place that provide solutions for both preparing teaching and immediate classroom application also bolsters confidence. Resources contribute to organisation and management of the classroom that breeds ongoing efficiencies and staff wellbeing.
One clear difference found in the practice spoken about by the participants was use of the concept of ‘scaffolding to excellence’. Shifting the basis of lesson planning and expectations of ability can immediately cater for the greater depth standards across all subjects.
“How we teach and plan our lessons is that we are always aiming at the top. Then your aspiration is to get the whole class up to that. Most people sort of plan from the middle and then they plan work up and work down for ability groups. Our theory is, actually let’s aim for the top. And then we plan how we scaffold up to that for everyone.” Elizabeth
This concept was brought to the research interviews by participants who were NACE members and/or holders of the NACE Challenge Award. This concept was immediately recognised by me in co-construction of the resulting framework, as it is the usual approach in higher education teaching, learning and assessment.
The experiences of teachers demonstrate that they want to support the best stimulation and challenge for their high potential pupils. Contemporary priorities and pressures on schools create barriers to this.
Overall, an enhanced approach and drive from school leadership values and perspectives, that appreciates and respects the most able pupils’ intelligence and feeds their hunger for more learning, will create positive experience for the children, wider class learning, and the teaching teams.
The full study on which this blog post is based is available here: How do primary school teachers experience teaching for those pupils who are working ‘at greater depth’?
---
 Professor Stephanie West completed her MA Education, Teaching, and Learning at the University of Sheffield in May 2025. She has an established career in higher education academic leadership and professional practice, and is currently Head of School in the Faculty of Business and Innovation at Arden University, a widening participation university with an ethos for accessibility and lifelong learning. Professor West is interested in all forms of educational development but especially in laying the foundations at primary level, a critical stage in every child’s education. She is committed to the support and enrichment of the most able pupils from the earliest possible opportunity and supporting every child to reach their full potential.
Tags:
confidence
creativity
leadership
teachers
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
|
Posted By Saskia Roobaert,
06 January 2026
Updated: 07 January 2026
|
Saskia Roobaert, who led on the NACE Challenge Award accreditation at Walton Priory Middle School, reflects on the role of leadership in creating a “high-challenge culture” in which all learners can thrive.
More able provision isn’t built in classrooms; it’s built in cultures. Schools that consistently stretch high-potential learners don’t rely on isolated strategies or pockets of great practice; they create an aligned system where leadership behaviours, governance oversight and classroom routines all work in the same direction.
In this blog post I will explore three leadership levers that drive high-quality challenge:
- Culture: how predictable norms, routines and expectations create the conditions for deep thinking.
- Curriculum & pedagogy: how leaders model and embed challenge as a non-negotiable, not an add-on.
- Governance: how governing bodies can ask the right questions and monitor the right signals to sustain more able provision over time.
… aiming to give school leaders, governors and trust executives a clear, practical framework for embedding sustained challenge, positioning more able learners at the heart of whole-school improvement.
When we talk about improving outcomes for more able learners, the conversation often jumps straight to the classroom: targeted tasks, adapted resources, stretch questions, challenge strategies. All this matters, but none of it lands consistently without something deeper and more powerful behind it.
Challenge isn’t a technique. It’s a culture. And culture is a leadership responsibility.
Schools that offer sustained stretch for more able pupils do not rely on enthusiastic individuals, new initiatives or curriculum tweaks. They build a shared operating system where high expectation, deep thinking and intellectual curiosity are part of the school’s DNA. That system is designed, safeguarded and modelled by leaders and held accountable through governance.
In an era of widening attainment gaps, acute teacher recruitment challenges and increased complexity of need, the leadership lens on more able education has never been more important.
1. Culture: the invisible architecture behind challenge
The most consistent differentiator between schools that stretch their more able learners and those that struggle is the predictability of culture. In high-performing environments, routines are stable, expectations are transparent and behavioural norms are shared. Pupils know what learning feels like. Teachers know what challenge looks like. Leaders know what they will see when they walk into a classroom.
More able learners thrive when the school climate:
- Sets “challenge for all” as a cultural non-negotiable
High expectations aren’t reserved for identified pupils; they’re embedded as a default. This avoids the common pitfall of designing exclusive provision for a small cohort and instead creates an ecosystem where stretch is a daily entitlement.
- Reduces cognitive noise for teachers and pupils
When routines, transitions and behaviour expectations are consistent, teachers have more bandwidth to plan for depth and thinking rather than survival. More able pupils benefit first from this stability.
- Rewards curiosity and intellectual risk
In the most successful cultures, leaders normalise productive struggle. Pupils are encouraged to attempt difficult work, articulate their thinking and persevere when they reach cognitive friction. This psychological safety is foundational to high challenge.
Culture is intangible, but its impact is unmistakable. Leaders shape it intentionally – through modelling, messaging and relentless clarity.
2. Curriculum & pedagogy: from patchwork to coherence
While individual teachers can deliver pockets of excellence, sustained more able provision requires a coherent, sequenced and evidence-informed approach to curriculum and pedagogy. This coherence is impossible without leadership.
Effective leaders do three things exceptionally well:
- Define what challenge means in their school
Challenge cannot be left to interpretation. Some see it as harder worksheets. Others as independent projects. Others as open-ended discussion. When definitions vary, provision becomes inconsistent. Leaders who crystalise what “challenge” looks like, sounds like and feels like create alignment across classrooms.
- Build teaching systems rather than initiatives
Too many schools rely on intermittent CPD sessions to improve challenge. What works is an operating system: modelling, coaching, feedback loops, shared planning practices, and curriculum routines that make challenge the default, not the exception.
- Use curriculum design to secure depth, not pace
High ability learners don’t need to race ahead; they need to go deeper. Leaders who prioritise conceptual understanding, metacognitive routines and deliberate practice create the conditions for genuine mastery.
Curriculum and pedagogy are leadership levers. When leaders make challenge coherent, teachers deliver it with confidence – and more able learners experience it daily.
3. Governance: the oversight that sustains challenge over time
In many schools, the more able agenda fluctuates with staffing changes, inspection cycles or competing priorities. Governance is the stabiliser. Governors provide continuity, strategic accountability and a lens that transcends immediate pressures.
Effective governance for more able provision typically includes:
a) Strategic questioning
Governors ask:
- How do we know our more able pupils are experiencing consistent stretch?
- What evidence, beyond attainment data, demonstrates deep learning?
- How are we monitoring the quality of challenge in mixed-ability settings?
These questions elevate the conversation from compliance to culture.
b) Monitoring meaningful signals
Rather than relying solely on exam outcomes, governors track leading indicators:
- Lesson walk quality
- Pupil voice on challenge
- Engagement of more able pupils in wider opportunities
- Staff confidence and training in high-challenge pedagogy
This balance of qualitative and quantitative monitoring protects depth over superficial acceleration.
c) Resourcing leadership capacity
Governors ensure leaders have the time, structure and professional learning needed to maintain high-challenge systems – especially during periods of reduced budgets or staffing turbulence.
When governance is aligned with leadership intent, challenge becomes embedded, not episodic.
High-challenge cultures benefit all learners
One of the most powerful insights from the NACE Challenge Development Programme is that provision for more able pupils isn’t about exclusivity, it’s a catalyst for whole-school improvement. When leaders design systems for depth, curiosity and independence, the gains cascade downwards
High-challenge cultures improve:
- Teacher clarity – expectations and routines tighten.
- Curriculum coherence – sequencing strengthens.
- Behaviour climate – classrooms become more purposeful.
- Pupil thinking – metacognition develops across cohorts.
- Equity – disadvantaged more able learners are less likely to be overlooked.
In short, when leaders raise the ceiling, the floor rises with it.
A call to leadership: challenge as a strategic priority
More able provision cannot be an add-on, nor can it sit solely with individual teachers or one enthusiastic lead. It must be woven through leadership, curriculum and governance. That requires courage, clarity and a relentless focus on simplicity, reducing the noise so teachers can deliver what works.
As schools navigate unprecedented complexity, from staffing shortages to SEND pressures, the temptation can be to narrow the curriculum and play it safe. But the opposite is needed. More able pupils require more than safety; they require intellectual ambition. And ambitious cultures are built by leaders.
Challenge doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by design.
To learn more about what this high-challenge culture looks like at Walton Priory Middle School, register now for:
• Member Spotlight with Walton Priory Middle School: 13th January 2026 (free online event, exclusively for NACE members)
• Challenge Award Experience event at Walton Priory Middle School: 29th January 2026 (in-person event; open to all; member discount)
Tags:
challenge
leadership
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
|
Posted By Cwmclydach Primary School,
25 April 2022
Updated: 22 April 2022
|
Janet Edwards, MAT Coordinator at Cwmclydach Primary School since 2009, shares three key factors in developing – and sustaining – excellent provision for more able and talented (MAT) learners, and for all children at the school.
Cwmclydach Primary School is in the village of Clydach Vale near Tonypandy in Rhondda Cynon Taff local education authority. There are currently 210 pupils on role, aged between 3 and 11, and the school also houses one of the local authority’s Foundation Phase nurture classes. Nearly all pupils are of white British origin and English is the first language for nearly all pupils. FSM stands at 42%, which is currently much higher than the local and national averages.
The school has recently achieved NACE Challenge Award accreditation for the third time – the third school in Wales to achieve this and the 25th overall – recognising sustained commitment to and excellence in meeting the needs of MAT learners, within a whole-school context of challenge for all.
Below are three key factors that have helped us to achieve and sustain this, and that remain central to our ongoing development as we prepare for the new Curriculum for Wales.
1. Engaging the whole school community
Good communication and working in partnership with our whole school community are essential to our success at Cwmclydach.
Governors have been involved in planning for the new Curriculum for Wales, and in deciding the range of experiences our children should have throughout their years in school, alongside the visions shared by our Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLE) leads.
Parents are regularly informed about provision for more able and talented (MAT) pupils within our setting and are given guidance on how to support MAT pupils at home. Regular use of questionnaires for staff, pupils and parents, has ensured that each child in our care is challenged to fulfil their potential in all aspects of life. Results of the questionnaires are analysed and planning for children is adjusted accordingly.
Pupil voice is central to our development. Learners are encouraged to believe in themselves and are given a variety of opportunities where they can become good role models and develop a sense of ownership. Pupil groups have been set up that reflect the new curriculum, and pupil voice plays an extremely active role in engaging our parents and other stakeholders; we find that parental engagement is far higher when children are leading their learning.
We provide opportunities for children to lead the learning through enquiry and research. For example, children are given four “missions” per fortnight; they choose which to complete, how, and what tools they need. These are completed independently whilst the teacher works with a focused group. We use focus questioning to home in deeper on a particular topic so we can draw the information out, either individually or in groups depending on the topic. This has helped us to direct children and further develop their critical thinking and leadership skills.
2. Identifying – and providing for – a broad range of abilities
Each member of staff is responsible for developing the child as a whole – not only in academic subjects, but also nurturing talent in the fields of music, art, ICT, Welsh and other curriculum areas.
We have found it particularly useful to send out a yearly questionnaire seeking the views of parents and carers to help us identify MAT pupils, particularly in areas beyond traditional academic subjects. In previous years, some of our quieter children were not so forthcoming about their talents, so we have found this an effective way to discover otherwise “hidden” abilities.
The key point is to ensure that – once identified – we then provide opportunities in school to enhance and develop these abilities, providing a wide range of activities to ensure all talents and abilities can be catered for, alongside enrichment days and visitors to the school. We have also held twilight sessions with teachers and support staff to ensure everyone is aware of early identification criteria and how they can develop the children’s skills.
3. Regularly revisiting our audit of provision
We have used the standards in the NACE Curriculum Audit to discuss the various ways children can be taught at Cwmclydach, within the context of the new Curriculum for Wales. We focus on both independent and collaborative learning, with the needs of each child taken into consideration.
As a whole staff at Cwmclydach, we have found the NACE Curriculum Audit an extremely effective way to plan for the new Curriculum for Wales, and to engage all stakeholders in our school community. During recent Covid times, meeting in person has been extremely difficult, but we have overcome this by sharing ideas through frequent virtual meetings and regularly looking at our self-evaluation – using the NACE Curriculum Audit – to see how we are able to move our children forward. By examining the audit together, we make sure this is a whole staff responsibility.
We are continually updating our audit and we believe the key to using this successfully is through a whole school approach with all stakeholders’ opinions valued. We will continue to use the audit when planning for the new curriculum, as we feel it is highly beneficial to meet the needs of not just our MAT pupils, but every pupil in our care. It is a framework that we have found most beneficial as a working document to meet the needs of all our learners.
About the NACE Curriculum Audit©
Available free for NACE members (£250 +VAT for non-members), the NACE Curriculum Audit provides a comprehensive tool to support curriculum review at whole-school, subject or departmental level, with a focus on ensuring high-quality provision for more able learners and challenge for all. It is designed for use across all phases and contexts, with two versions available: one for schools in England/overseas (aligned to key aspects of curriculum considered by Ofsted), and one for schools in Wales (aligned to the new Curriculum for Wales and available in both English- and Welsh-medium). Learn more.
Tags:
Challenge Award
Challenge Framework
curriculum
identification
leadership
parents and carers
school improvement
student voice
sustained excellence
Wales
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
|
Posted By Christabel Shepherd,
29 March 2022
Updated: 25 March 2022
|
Christabel Shepherd, NACE Challenge and Curriculum Development Director, introduces the new NACE Essentials guide on this topic.
There is strong evidence that an educational equity gap exists across all phases of the English educational system and that the effects of disadvantage are cumulative, so that the gap tends to increase as children grow older, especially during secondary schooling.
Concerns about disadvantaged pupils have never been as acute as they are currently, nor felt as keenly following the coronavirus pandemic and related lockdowns. According to studies collated by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) in its online collection Best evidence on impact of Covid-19 on pupil attainment, primary pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds have experienced 0.5 months more learning loss in reading and 0.7 months more in mathematics compared to their non-disadvantaged peers. Secondary pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds experienced two months more learning loss in reading than their non-disadvantaged peers.
Information from the Education Policy Institute’s Annual Report (2020) points to the fact that the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers has stopped closing for the first time in a decade. Disadvantaged pupils in England are 18.1 months of learning behind their peers by the time they finish their GCSEs – the same gap as five years ago. The gap at primary school increased for the first time since 2007 – which may signal that the gap is set to widen in the future.
The stalling of the gap occurred even before the Covid-19 pandemic had impacted the education system – as shown in reports commissioned for the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission (2014), briefings published by the DfE for school leaders (2015), and research from the Sutton Trust (2015 and 2018).
Despite this worrying picture over many years, the plight of disadvantaged more able pupils continues to have been largely overlooked by schools. This may be based on an assumption that disadvantaged more able pupils will “be fine” and the misconception that, compared to less academically able learners, their needs are not as important or urgent.
However, evidence shows that academically able pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are most at risk of under-performing (Sutton Trust, 2018).
The DfE’s most recent guidance for school leaders on the use of the pupil premium (November 2021) demonstrates increased expectations in terms of the identification of the specific challenges facing disadvantaged learners, and the planning of focused, evidence-based approaches to address those challenges effectively. Although reference to more able disadvantaged learners has been made in previous iterations of the pupil premium guidance for schools, it is now far more explicit: these pupils should receive just as much focus as less academically able pupils.
This is a welcome change, which should help to narrow the widening gap between these learners and their non-disadvantaged peers, and address the “levelling up” agenda. Like any group of pupils, more able disadvantaged leaners have a right to have their needs met and it is our moral responsibility as educators to ensure that this is happening so that these young people have the same life chances as their peers.
This month NACE has published a new NACE Essentials guide on the topic “Pupil premium and the more able”. Based on an in-depth review of education research evidence and literature, the guide provides support for school leaders to ensure that their school’s pupil premium funding can be used to maximise the opportunities for, and the achievement of, disadvantaged more able pupils. The key factors in developing a culture which will support the development and implementation of an effective pupil premium strategy are explored, and a range of specific evidence-based approaches aimed at meeting the needs of more able disadvantaged learners are exemplified.
The guide is available free for all NACE member schools, along with the full NACE Essentials collection. Read now (login required).
Not yet a member? Join our mailing list to access our free sample resources.
Tags:
access
aspirations
disadvantage
enrichment
leadership
policy
pupil premium
school improvement
transition
underachievement
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
|
Posted By Nettlesworth Primary School,
29 March 2022
Updated: 24 March 2022
|
Donna Lee, Headteacher and Inclusion Coordinator at NACE member and Challenge Award-accredited school Nettlesworth Primary shares the school’s approach to ensuring the pupil premium is used to full effect.
At Nettlesworth Primary, we are committed to ensuring the teaching and learning opportunities we provide meet the needs of all pupils, including those of our most disadvantaged pupils.
We ensure appropriate provision is made for pupils who belong to vulnerable groups, focusing on adequately assessing and addressing their needs. These pupils benefit from individualised programmes based on an accurate understanding of what support best suits each pupil. Through this we aim to accelerate progress and overcome barriers to learning so that these pupils achieve similar outcomes to their peers, and to diminish the difference between those entitled to pupil premium (PP) funding and those who are not.
We focus on high-quality teaching and effective deployment of staff to support disadvantaged children. Following the national lockdown prompted by Covid-19, it is even more imperative that pupils are supported within school to ensure that any gaps in their knowledge can be addressed quickly and effectively, ensuring they have all the tools necessary to make progress.
All staff in school have contributed to the evaluation of the strategy. This has allowed a whole-school overview to be created, and has focused the attention of staff on the needs of the pupil premium children in their classes, those with the lowest levels of engagement during the pandemic, and those with the greatest recovery needs when returning to school.
Here are 10 approaches that have been key to ensuring effective use of pupil premium funding for all learners in our school, including more able disadvantaged learners:
1. Maximising staff performance and development
Systems and processes such as performance management and coaching are utilised to maximise employee performance. Through tackling underperformance, this secures defined and measurable outcomes through best use of time and efficacy. Performance management is integral to school improvement planning. Staff actively participate in the objective setting and review process, receiving effective feedback to progress priorities by tackling underperformance, celebrating success and developing human resource capacity through distributive leadership of priorities such as pupil premium, sport premium, special educational needs, and more able provision.
We emphasise the importance of ‘quality teaching first’ and aim to provide a consistently high standard through monitoring performance and tailoring teaching. External evidence is used alongside knowledge of our pupils to support our pupil premium strategy.
2. Investing in developing all staff members
We believe that using PP funding for CPD to ensure staff have the skills and training to take on more specialist roles brings the biggest impact. Investing in the development of staff such as teaching assistants and early career teachers leads to a higher level of expertise within the organisation. The creative use of human resources, in partnership with networking schools on a reciprocal basis, enables the development of a culture of mutual reliance and collective buy-in between the More Able Leads – learning from and with each other for mutual benefit for more able learners. This results in improvements in leadership knowledge, skills and behaviours, and improved attainment at greater depth against national comparatives.
3. Regular reports at governor meetings
Regular reports and attendance at governor meetings to update on progress helps to secure this focus within the organisation. Designated pupil premium governors and school leaders continually monitor the progress of the pupil premium strategy, adapting approaches when appropriate.
4. Committing to inclusive, flexible provision for all
We seek to be an inclusive school in which the curriculum is sufficiently flexible to fully match the individual learning needs of all children. Adopting an inclusive environment for all areas of our curriculum is essential to develop the needs of all our children. Our staff ensure that appropriate provision is made for all groups of children who belong to vulnerable groups. Our school has a whole-school ethos of attainment for all and views each pupil as an individual.
5. Pupil premium strategy shared with all staff members
The headteacher, in liaison with the Pupil Premium Lead, compiled and wrote the pupil premium strategy and shared it with the whole staff. Members of staff offered appropriate amendments to ensure all areas of the desired outcomes were met. The pupil premium lead then wrote an action plan to ensure the desired outcomes are achieved. This was then shared with all staff during a staff meeting. The strategy is reviewed each term.
6. Regularly updated pupil premium records
All teachers have a pupil premium file that clearly highlights all appropriate information regarding disadvantaged children, including more able learners, within their class. All staff are responsible for collating evidence for each child and continuously updating their files. The Pupil Premium Lead and Inclusion Coordinator monitor the files half-termly. These are very much working documents and staff utilise them to ensure an inclusive provision for our pupil premium children. The Pupil Premium Lead and Inclusion Coordinator track the progress of each disadvantaged child and create a termly overview for each file.
7. Planning for maximum progress in an inclusive environment
Teachers strategically plan, pitch, differentiate and deliver all lessons to ensure maximum progress is achieved in an inclusive environment. First-hand experiences are offered during each topic where the children can develop knowledge and skills. When developing our pupil premium strategy we take into account teachers’ feedback on pupils’ levels of engagement and participation, and their understanding of any challenges that disadvantaged pupils are facing.
8. Appropriate use of intervention groups
The Pupil Premium Lead liaises with the Inclusion Lead to devise appropriate intervention groups to ensure progression to diminish the gap in learning. Intervention groups include: Phonics, Reading, Maths, Lego Therapy, Breakfast Club, Tuition, Coordination Programmes and Nurturing. Each teaching assistant maintains an intervention file as a working document. These files are monitored every two weeks, and the progress of the children discussed with development points offered. The Pupil Premium Lead and Inclusion Coordinator monitor the progress of the disadvantaged children within these intervention groups. The Pupil Premium Lead, in collaboration with the Intervention Lead, delivered CPD to teaching assistants who deliver interventions to pupil premium groups, concentrating on activities, methods of recording, and introduction of a website page dedicated to pupil premium.
9. Mental health first aid
We have a member of staff who continues to develop her role within school of mental health first aider for any children who may be feeling vulnerable or have any worries or emotional issues which need support and intervention. We also have a group of children who are trained as mental health peers to support other children in the school. Many of these trained children are our more able disadvantaged learners. Staff have participated in training on highlighting strengths in pupils’ work and providing opportunities to raise their self-esteem within the classroom.
10. Increasing participation in enrichment activities
We seek to enable pupils to engage in school life fully, including support on healthy lifestyles and resources to access learning. We want children to be involved in enrichment within school, including accessing after-school clubs, visits and overnight residential trips. It is important to make decisions based on an understanding of individual pupils’ needs. Pupil premium funding is used to supplement and/or enhance educational visits and experiences across year groups, and to further target wider identified curriculum resources for pupil premium children across a variety of curriculum areas in order to aid children’s understanding, knowledge and key skills of development.
Read more:
Tags:
access
aspirations
disadvantage
enrichment
leadership
policy
pupil premium
school improvement
underachievement
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
|
Posted By Chris Yapp,
08 September 2021
|
NACE patron Dr Chris Yapp explains why he believes real change is needed to the assessment system, with potential benefits for learners at all stages of life and development.
Given the significant focus on assessment in education that has followed the two years of the pandemic so far, the question for me when thinking about the future is: “How radical a change is needed?”
Whether it’s abolishing GCSEs or changing grades from A-Z to 1-9, the real issue at the heart of the future system is whether the new system reflects the individual’s efforts, aspirations and capabilities better than the system I grew up with, still largely intact. Importantly, can the system be more inclusive and less stressful to teachers and students alike?
So, what do I want to replace 10 GCSEs and four A-levels with?
For reasons I won’t bore you with, my wife and I have used the pandemic to learn Portuguese on Duolingo. We now have a 304-day streak, unbroken. We have around 55,000 points and now we achieve 300 points a day from a slow start.
I don’t want to talk about the pedagogy behind Duolingo. I have some criticisms there, but I think there are some really interesting lessons on assessment and, above all, feedback.
The lessons are structured in levels around topics. There are tips for each section. A typical lesson takes around 10-15 minutes. At the end of each session points are given. After a number of topics, stories are opened. There are also timed lessons. Today we reached 74% of the course. We have found some topics harder than others. Each question has a discuss button and people can raise concerns and ask questions. Some phrases are ambiguous, or the English translation is tortuous. There are examples where there are multiple correct answers that generate debate. We find some of the discussions around Brazilian Portuguese particularly fascinating. There are leagues with relegation and promotion.
For children raised with gaming, the idea of levels and points comes naturally. Retrying a level until you get it right is part of the experience, not evidence of failure. So, instead of a Grade C, why not produce a system with 100,000 points available in 10 levels, with the ability to see areas of strength and weakness?
Importantly, the scoring follows stage, not age. Many parents are quite happy when their offspring are doing Grade 4 piano and Grade 2 violin at the same time. It is not evidence of failure that different skills develop at different paces for different children.
Why shouldn’t a child leave school with, say, five million points scattered across a wide-ranging curriculum?
Let me illustrate with some examples of how the assessment system could be adapted to support more personalised learning built around a child’s interest and capability.
Khalid is 12. His hobby is photography. He wants to understand colour better. He wants to do that now. Unfortunately, the physics curriculum covers that when he’s 13 and the art curriculum at 11. Here, his interests outside school could motivate his development across multiple subjects at a pace and direction of his choosing.
Amanda is 13. Her mother is Italian and they speak Italian at home. The school does not have an Italian teacher. If they did, she might get an “A”, but instead will get a “C” in French. Here her A grade may reflect less on the school than a C grade does. The school “fails” if she gets a C, but “succeeds” if she gets an A. Here, the rigidity of the curriculum and assessment models reflect neither the individual nor her teachers.
Hazel is 8 and a bookworm. She devours books and loves to talk about them, be they stories, science, geography or history. How does assessing her reading against a narrow range of books tied to specific topics demonstrate her strengths and interests? She is fascinated by space and is reading teenage books on the subject.
Every teacher I’ve met could tell me similar stories about the children they have taught.
I think it’s important also to think about what this might say about professional development of teachers.
Geoff teaches French. He speaks a little Spanish and has picked up some Greek on holidays. Using my Duolingo example above, why would it not be possible for him to develop language skills in other languages as part of his own development? It could be built around his personal responsibilities for family and leisure activities – again stage, not age. For the school, the ability to widen its language portfolio could be a valuable asset.
Similar models might help a chemistry teacher improve his understanding of, say, biology. Imagine a personal development plan where teachers agreed to 5,000 points a year of personal development, rather than 10 days, which may be difficult to manage and pressure of time may make ineffective.
None of this would be easy, or quick. But building assessment into the learning, rather than a bolt-on much later, could free teacher time to better use.
So many children are let down, in my opinion, by the current system that I will be disappointed if all we end up doing is replacing one set of exams by another with a rigid exam system and season. I’ve known children affected by divorce, hay fever, asthma and death of a parent, as just a few examples, whose grades did not reflect either their abilities or effort, or the ability and commitment of their teachers. Even worse, the month a child is born still has effects on grades at secondary school.
So, the real challenge is whether this would be more inclusive or not.
Here I can sit on both sides of that argument and remain undecided on how to optimise the system. My one observation is that from a young age, gaming is part of children’s lives across a wider social spectrum than is current societal expectation of schools. When a child gets stuck at Level 7, their friends will often help or share ideas. There is both competition and collaboration at work. Both are valuable adult skills.
Finally, the rich data from this approach could enhance the role of teachers as researchers and create a stronger culture of action research within education at school and college level. For me, this allows the creation of a record of achievement that allows for “partial” subjects, not just a few. A school visit to a museum, for instance, could have a quiz that is incorporated into the child’s records. After-school activities might also benefit from this approach. I visited a school some years ago that had an astronomy group. They were sharing topics and materials with other schools. That collaborative learning between teachers and schools was interesting to observe. Yet, there was limited recognition within the current system for that personal development.
A new year begins after two of the most difficult times any of us have experienced in our adult lives. Thank you all, for your effort and commitment.
Change is coming: let’s make it work for all learners, be they teachers or students.
Read more:
Tags:
access
assessment
collaboration
CPD
disadvantage
independent learning
leadership
lockdown
policy
school improvement
technology
underachievement
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
|
Posted By Sandy Paley,
08 September 2021
|
Sandy Paley, NACE Associate and Executive Headteacher of Toot Hill School, shares key lessons learned from the teacher assessed grades (TAG) experience of summer 2021.
The teacher assessed grades (TAG) experience initiated deep curriculum dialogue and work scrutiny in our school, which turned into a valuable learning experience for all. Unsurprisingly perhaps, it highlighted staff and students’ long-standing overreliance on specifications and mark schemes – often limiting the development of wider knowledge and understanding, and its confident flexible use in a range of situations, not just in specification-driven assessment tasks and examinations. The impact of such focused professional dialogue clearly showed that school leaders should seek to hold more explicit curriculum and pedagogical conversations with subject leaders, particularly focused on true cognitive challenge within a transformative curriculum, as a vehicle to ongoing teacher development.
Key lessons learned from the TAG experience:
- Greater empowerment and training of teachers to be confident owners and enactors of their curriculum, rather than implementors of a specification, is required. Left underdeveloped, this is so limiting for all, particularly the most able at KS5, before embarking on more expert undergraduate study. Brave decisions should be encouraged around what is considered ‘important knowledge and understanding’ in a subject curriculum, with teachers improving their clarity on what should then be assessed and why.
- More able students benefit greatly from frequent learning checks beyond that of surface, recall knowledge, including application and depth of understanding, often well beyond an examination mark scheme.
- Flexible thinking and cognitive resilience should be deliberately developed, through the skilful selection of deeper learning opportunities for the most able students. This must move beyond ‘more of the same’ and additional ‘surface knowledge’, to deeper understanding of and diverse application of knowledge through wider lenses and study beyond set content; and should subsequently be assessed as such, not narrowed in its assessment by adhering to examination board mark schemes. Best practice involved assessment opportunities with a truly enriched focus on ‘doing so much more with less’. This was particularly evidenced with the most able at KS5.
- Increased levels of home/school contact, particularly focused on subject-specific information, wider opportunities and support, should be maintained and further considered. This will continue to improve parental awareness of their children’s ability and the unique challenges encountered by the most able students, as well as the opportunities available to them.
The perfectionist attribute that we see in many of our more able students did lead to additional worry during this period. Common concerns included:
- Periods of uncertainty about the nature of the exam season and evidence-gathering opportunities, fuelled noticeably by over-analysis of online speculation and over-scrutiny of exam board materials when released, revealing a real fear if teachers appeared to veer away from this.
- Course content that was perceived as ‘missed’ or not taught live in school, and the impact that would have not just on final grades but on student ability to be successful in further study.
- Grade inflation and the potential impact on university offers and the perceived validity of grades this year, and in the future.
This does highlight the need for us to focus on explicitly developing more able students’ self-awareness, regulation and confidence, and workload and wellbeing management, through our more able programmes.
Read more:
Tags:
CPD
curriculum
higher education
leadership
lockdown
parents and carers
resilience
wellbeing
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
|
Posted By Claire Robinson,
08 September 2021
|
Claire Robinson, NACE Associate and Challenge Award Assessor, and Headteacher of Holme Grange School, calls for recognition and celebration of the achievements of young people completing GCSEs or other qualifications in 2021.
As GCSE and A-Level results were released this year, it was inevitable that there would be publicity and opinion around them. Criticism often came from those outside the sector, passing judgement on a system which they have never experienced themselves, as educator or student.
Schools all over the country were put through possibly a more rigorous process of testing and evidence gathering this year, because it was inevitable that the validity would be questioned. Evidence required to justify grades was collected and the random inspection by examination boards that schools were subject to, meant that there was no place for complacency.
We should not underestimate young people. They know if they deserve their results and they also take responsibility for the efforts they put in. If they have been given a grade, it is because they deserved to be awarded it. Allow them to celebrate and let’s recognise the time and energy that teachers gave to make sure the results awarded were fair and beyond reproach.
A year like no other… yet much the same
A student’s success at GCSE is not reflected solely in their grades. GCSEs open the door to the next stage of a young person’s educational journey. If grades awarded result in gaining access to courses which would not otherwise have been accessible, a student will not succeed. No school is going to set their students up for future failure.
Pupils may not have sat official public examinations this year, but were arguably put through a more rigorous ‘testing’ system, and teachers continued to do what they always do: challenge and support their pupils to allow them to achieve the best they possibly can and meet their potential. Had visits been permitted to schools, many would have possibly wondered whether the examinations were in fact still being held, as we continued to provide an environment that allowed students to experience the examination system for which they had all been prepared, and would benefit from in the future.
In previous years, where ‘mock’ examinations are usually held just before or just after the Christmas break, students have made considerable progress as the time between mock examinations and the ‘real thing’ provides opportunity to work with focus and deep analysis of what is required to improve. This continued this academic year, yet was sometimes questioned as being unfair as teachers guided, challenged and supported students – as was ever thus.
Teachers are professionals and this year their professionalism was recognised as their judgments were valued and under intense scrutiny. Switching between online and onsite teaching and quite often a hybrid of both, teachers continued to ensure their students’ needs were met – academically, socially and emotionally.
Opportunities to thrive – not just survive
Teachers know their students well and good teachers always know at what level their student is achieving and what they need to do to improve. Ongoing monitoring and evaluation also provide students with an opportunity to take greater ownership of their learning and apply metacognitive skills, nurturing self-awareness and developing skills for life.
Learners construct knowledge using cognitive strategies, and they guide, regulate, and evaluate their learning using metacognitive strategies, which is where real learning occurs. Students have applied a wider range of independent learning skills over the past 18 months and ‘thought about their thinking’ in a way which possibly they may not have done in ‘ordinary’ times. The pandemic opened opportunities in our schools for students to become more skilled at using metacognitive strategies; many gained confidence and become more independent as learners. Our able learners strengthened and when the correct pastoral support was given, academic success followed.
Let us also not forget, our young people are far more than a set of grades and we should not be defining them by these anyway. It is simply just one step along the journey they make. Let us take time to say well done for a group of people, who, if we allow them, could be the healthiest, the safest, and potentially the most resilient of any generation in modern history. Pupils have learnt how to manage life’s uncertainties and we should give them credit for that.
The world of education is one which has always, and is likely to always be, one which is open to others' opinions and ideas on how to make it better – from within the sector and from outside of it. We may have all been to school but not many have experienced school in a global pandemic! Most schools grew stronger; pupils did not simply 'survive' – many thrived because they were taught within communities that care, where professionals worked beyond all expectations to ensure children in their care continued to grow during these most testing of times.
“Just waiting to get out there and take our place in the world”
Yes, results are different this year, but let's not devalue the efforts our young people have made or that their teachers have given in order to support them. Teaching is a profession filled with people of integrity and it is also a great vocation. We have all come through one of the most challenging times in educational history; we have done so with great resilience, perseverance, professionalism and humour.
And has anyone asked the students about their thoughts and how they value their GCSEs? I finish with a quote from our head of school, a Y11 pupil in his final address to the school:
“We have been nurtured into citizens who are rounded and grounded, eager to make a positive contribution to the outside world… Not even a global pandemic can dampen our spirits, as a community we pulled together. The hours of live Zoom lessons, emails and Google Classroom notifications enabled us to continue our education in the comfort of our own homes.
“We are so much more than an educational establishment with a focus purely on academics – we are a laboratory filled with budding scientists, the next generation of ‘Michelin Star Chefs’, we are the ‘Steve Jobs’, ‘Shakespeares’, ‘Flemings’ and ‘Monets’ just waiting to get our there and take our place in the world.”
I think this is one example where expectations continued to be high, pupils continued to be challenged and to aim high, to be aspirational in their goals and supported and challenged to achieve them – as I have no doubt was echoed in schools across the country. Again, let’s celebrate what has been achieved, instead of picking fault in the young people and devaluing their efforts. This year’s GCSE students should be truly independent learners for life, as their future success will undoubtedly show.
Tags:
assessment
CEIAG
CPD
independent learning
leadership
lockdown
personal development
resilience
student voice
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
|
Posted By Ann Dwulit,
08 July 2021
|
In July 2021 St Luke’s CE Primary School in Islington, London, attained the NACE Challenge Award for the first time. Executive Headteacher Ann Dwulit explains why the school continued to work towards this accreditation throughout the trials and tribulations of the past 18 months, and what attaining the Award means for the school.
St Luke's has been working with the NACE Challenge Development Programme since early 2019. We decided to pursue the Challenge Award accreditation because there was a lack of consistency in children achieving greater depth at the end of KS2. The NACE process helped us to get to the root causes and develop and implement an action plan to address these – even throughout the pandemic.
Our NACE consultant worked alongside us, even during lockdown, and this support was invaluable. Together we identified that children and the staff team gained valuable skills through home learning, such as independence and improved IT skills. Like many schools, we now have a lot more devices available for children to flexibly use in the classroom. We realised that some children's education did not suffer as much as we thought it would during lockdowns. Some children caught up faster than others too.
It was the improved independence that we saw amongst more able children, as well as others who had/have the capacity to be more able, that we hooked onto when the children returned to school each time from the lockdowns. We had to fill the gaps in children's knowledge, understanding and skills, so the staff team agreed to pitch learning higher and to be more enquiry-led so that more able children could fly, enabling us to do catch-up interventions and work with those who needed it. The NACE process also enabled us to develop the role of subject leaders to a deeper and broader level as we un-picked how to catch-up learning in different subjects.
The NACE Challenge programme – the Challenge Framework, the website, the resources, the lesson observation format, doing the case studies, and following through on our action plan – kept us focused and support was always there from our consultant. It was a whole-school commitment.
No school has stood still in the last 18 months and our setting a higher bar has had an impact upon all learners. More able children are now leading learning more, being great role models even within their individual bubbles, and they are more able to articulate their views, their feelings and their aspirations to each other and to anyone who asks. Talented children and those who have the capacity to be talented have opportunities to develop their talents. We use existing staff to facilitate this; we are not paying for additional specialist teachers and tutors to come in, we are just using the team we have more efficiently. In many respects, Covid has made us stronger, more resilient and more determined to ensure every child really does achieve their potential.
By the time the NACE final accreditation came around, working differently was well embedded as we had achieved the goals we set out to achieve since 2019 – one of which was to improve reading across the school. We have also raised the profile of subjects that had been more dormant during lockdown and we know we need to see through curriculum development. Our end of KS2 teacher assessment showed a marked improvement in scores for more able children and even though this does not count as statutory testing, it counts to the children and it counts to us. This is something we will strive to maintain. I do not think this would have happened without our NACE consultant and without us going through the process of working towards the Challenge Award. Even if we had not achieved the Award this time round, I would still have said the process was worth doing and would just have re-applied to achieve the Award itself.
Hearing that we had achieved the Award and had gained this external verification means the world to the team. Being told this by our consultant who we all know has really high expectations of us and for us – that what we are doing is working – means so much. The process will go on as we have our reviews, and all of this sits well alongside the Ofsted framework. Our work is never finished in schools, but it helps to know that what we have set up is working and is having a positive impact on outcomes for children and making a difference to their lives.
Read more:
Tags:
Challenge Award
Challenge Framework
independent learning
lockdown
remote learning
resilience
school improvement
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
|
Posted By Christabel Shepherd,
25 March 2021
|
Christabel Shepherd, NACE Vice-Chair and Curriculum Development Director
Following her live webinar for those leading on policy and provision for more able learners (full recording now available), NACE Vice-Chair and Curriculum Development Director Christabel Shepherd shares her own experience of seeing how a focus on more able can drive sustainable whole-school improvement, and the importance of embedding this understanding across the school.
In my recent live webinar for those leading on more able, I outlined the importance of developing a whole-school approach – sharing examples of what it might look in practice and guidance on how to develop, coordinate and embed such an approach.
There is often a misconception that supporting more able learners is solely the responsibility of the more able lead/coordinator. This is not the case. Whilst the more able lead will advocate for the more able, oversee policy and monitor and evaluate provision, this doesn’t happen in isolation. Everyone in school has a role to play in championing more able learners and in developing a clear vision for them. Fundamentally all should have an agreed understanding of the “who and why”, which in turn leads to professional dialogue and planning around the “what and how”. Delivering that vision is therefore everyone’s responsibility. This is why it is so important for the more able coordinator to have a clear understanding of his/her role and clarity around where others will support. A good starting point for this is NACE’s “ leading on more able” resource collection.
With this in mind, what would a truly whole-school approach entail for each staff member?
Roles and responsibilities
- Headteacher/SLT: more able leadership must come from the top; key curriculum and pedagogy principles for more able learners should be embedded in school policies, planning, monitoring and evaluation cycles; appropriate support, resourcing and CPD should be in place.
- More able lead: the more able lead coordinates the approach across the school, working alongside colleagues at all levels to ensure the needs of more able learners are understood and met. This may include mentoring other staff members, forging relationships with external partners, sharing relevant research, best practice and CPD opportunities, and coordinating school-wide audit and evaluation of more able provision.
- Subject leaders: subject leaders should ensure there is a clear and shared understanding of high ability and high-quality challenge in their subject, including guidance on identification and tracking of more able learners (including underachieving/potentially more able) in the subject, and ensuring appropriate provision is in place.
- Teaching and support staff: all teaching and support staff should be aware of the school’s policy for more able learners, understand the importance of high-quality provision for the more able and its wider impact, and be equipped and supported to deliver high-quality provision for the more able within a school culture of challenge for all. Teachers should also be clear about the need and mechanisms for assessing the achievement of more able learners and how to feed such assessment information back into teaching.
The wider impact of a focus on more able
During the webinar I also shared my own experience of seeing how a focus on improving provision for the more able has a much wider impact. At Copthorne Primary School, of which I am currently Executive Headteacher (formerly Headteacher), the school has had outcomes well above the national average, despite being in an area of high deprivation and with a vast majority of learners speaking English as an additional language. I believe this is because of our continuing commitment to and focus on improving provision the more able.
When you focus on the more able and you teach to the top, it raises standards and aspirations for all. It makes both students and staff look at things completely differently. This approach has the power to transform the whole school culture: energising, empowering, and embedding a commitment to research-informed, quality-first teaching for all. I have seen this transformation first-hand.
This whole-school approach permeates all of NACE’s resources and support for schools, including the NACE Challenge Framework©, NACE Curriculum Audit© and the newly developed NACE Assessment Audit©. All offer a lens through which to ensure the needs of the more able are understood and addressed at whole-school and departmental levels, while raising standards across the board.
With over 30 years’ experience of teaching in both primary and secondary settings, Christabel Shepherd is currently Executive Headteacher of Bradford’s Copthorne Primary and Holybrook Primary Schools. As a member of NACE’s senior team, she plays a leading role in the development and delivery of training for those leading on more able policy and practice.
Additional resources and support
- Resource collection: Leading on more able – explore our full collection of resources for those leading on more able – including updated guidance and resources to support review and development of school policy in this area.
- Recorded webinar: Leading more able policy and provision in your school – the full recording of Christabel Shepherd’s recent webinar is available to purchase for just £100, exploring the themes covered in this blog post in greater detail.
- On-demand modular courses – flexible recorded CPD modules to support those leading on more able, and for use in wider training across the school; including a focus on the role of the more able lead, identification, curriculum audit, planning for challenge and more.
Tags:
collaboration
CPD
leadership
myths and misconceptions
policy
school improvement
Permalink
| Comments (2)
|
|
Blog Home
All Blogs
Print Page
RSS