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Posted By Christabel Shepherd,
03 September 2018
Updated: 23 December 2020
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The NACE Challenge Framework offers an established tool for school self-review and improvement in more able provision, within the context of challenge for all. Supporting whole-school improvement and continuous development, the Framework can lead to formal accreditation through the NACE Challenge Award.
In this blog post, Executive Headteacher Christabel Shepherd draws on her experience of using the NACE Challenge Framework and achieving the Challenge Award in two schools, sharing her top “dos” and “don’ts” for those starting out on the NACE Challenge journey…
Do…
Work collaboratively
The Challenge Framework is designed to be used by all staff in your school and is most effective when all staff are empowered to contribute. Identify key staff members to work with you – including senior leaders, department/subject leads and influential members of the teaching team – and encourage them to share the “challenge” message school-wide.
Communicate what, who and why
In some cases, you may be leading on challenge in a setting where some staff believe there are no “more able” learners. It is important to share clear definitions of what you mean by more able, as well as what you mean by “challenge”.
It is also important to consistently share the message that high-quality challenge is the responsibility of every stakeholder in the school and the right of every child. Back up your views with research and evidence, including case studies from schools holding the Challenge Award.
Be systematic
Use the Challenge Framework to identify priorities for your school. Produce clear action plans, supported by clear success criteria and identify key staff to lead on each. Follow up with regular monitoring and evaluation.
As well as the supporting guidance provided by NACE, you may find it useful to use the Education Endowment Foundation’s Putting Evidence to Work – A School’s Guide to Implementation.
Be prepared for the “implementation dip”
This is normal. Keep yourself and your colleagues motivated by staying focused on the “why”, celebrating good practice, and sharing relevant research and examples.
Be resilient
Especially when you first start working with the Challenge Framework, it’s likely that you’ll have some persuading to do. Not all staff members in your school or department will immediately be on board – as is the case with any new approach or tool. Be prepared for this and keep going even when things seem tough – it will be worth it!
Don’t…
Focus just on the award
Achieving the NACE Challenge Award is wonderful, but the real value of the Challenge Framework is in the journey. Consider how you can use it as a catalyst and tool for change, leading to improved outcomes for learners, and setting in place a lasting model to support continuing whole-school improvement.
Rush
The Framework cannot bring about real, substantive change if used as a superficial checklist. Maintain a steady, systematic thoroughness and remember the minutiae matter, especially in terms of classroom practice. Keep drilling down to ensure that there is real depth to change in the setting and that it is sustainable in the long term.
Forget about the learners
Keep returning to consider the impact of any actions taken on learners. Champion learner voice and make them part of the process. Celebrate and discuss changes with learners, so that the change and its effects are clear and tangible to them.
Stop
The Challenge Framework is an ongoing journey – one that doesn’t end with the Challenge Award. Ensure that plans are in place to build on successes year on year in terms of provision for more able learners and high-quality challenge for all.
Find out more about the NACE Challenge Development Programme.
Tags:
collaboration
leadership
school improvement
self-evaluation
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Posted By Sara Elliss,
06 September 2017
Updated: 07 August 2019
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Reading’s Maiden Erlegh School recently gained NACE Challenge Award accreditation for the third time, marking its continued commitment to high-quality provision for more able learners in a context of challenge for all. In this blog post, deputy headteacher Sara Elliss outlines some of the key initiatives undertaken at the school to ensure more able learners are challenged and supported throughout their studies.
Whole-school leadership
The lead school within Maiden Erlegh Trust and Maiden Erlegh Teaching School Alliance, Maiden Erlegh School is a mixed comprehensive with approximately 1,800 students, with a high proportion of more able learners identified based on KS2 results on entry from a diverse local population.
For a number of years, the School Improvement Plan has included a section specifically referring to provision for the more able, which has been progressed by curriculum areas through annual Department Development Plans. All quality assurance documentation includes a section relating to provision for the more able, and all staff are encouraged to include a teaching, learning and assessment appraisal objective centred around challenge.
There is a more able coordinator to ensure provision is in place and student progress is tracked. All students choose their own aspirational target grade, which is based around FFT-5, with approximately 40% of students achieving these aspirational targets at the end of KS4.
Within the classroom
All schemes of work have been developed with the philosophy of teaching to the more able learners, and differentiating work to the support learners who are not able to access it at that level. A number of CPD sessions have been run by staff at all levels within the school with an emphasis on challenge.
Beyond the classroom
The Gold Programme was established for Year 9 students in 2012, aiming to:
- Give students every opportunity to broaden their intellectual experience well in advance of applying for university;
- Expose them to discussions and thinking beyond GCSE;
- Introduce them to universities, courses, and university alumni;
- Model a passion for learning and intellectual rigour.
In 2013, following our reaccreditation with the NACE Challenge Award, the NACE report recommended that Maiden Erlegh School should “create opportunities for younger [more able] students to work together as a group in the way that older students do through the Gold Programme”. In 2014, the school launched the KS3 Gold Programme, which has now evolved into the Silver Programme. This programme aims to:
- Provide students with the opportunity be stretched and challenged beyond the classroom;
- Help them become independent, higher-order learners;
- Celebrate their academic ability.
Students and parents are invited to a launch event at the beginning of Year 7 (Silver Programme) and Year 9 (Gold Programme). They are invited to join the programme if they are interested in the events that will be run throughout the year. Participation is not compulsory; the emphasis is on the student to engage with the opportunities provided. Each student is given a badge to wear on their blazer if they are a member of the Silver or Gold Programme.
The Gold and Silver Programmes offer a selection of sessions run voluntarily by staff after school, including:
- Studying… grade 9 skills which are subject-specific and include debating, critical essay writing, questioning
- Introducing… Latin, Greek, Italian, Chinese
- Exploring… psychology, criminology, philosophy, scene of crime officer (SOCO)
- Informing… medicine, Oxbridge, careers, developing resilience and using failure
- Thinking… “Gender neutrality: the way forward or PC gone mad?”; “Will we get a white Christmas?”; “The Lightning Process”; “The Palestinian Israeli conflict”; “Siege of Kenilworth Castle 1215”; “The Economics of Brexit”
- Reflecting… “If only I’d known then…”
- Visiting… Reading University, Thales, Tech Deck, STEM challenge days, Cambridge University
What has been the impact?
Learning walks and lesson observations indicate that there has been a noticeable shift in the pedagogy being used. Staff ensure students have enough time to think, question and explore ideas. At every data collection point, the more able data is analysed separately and included in the self-evaluation form for governors, senior leadership and teaching staff to evaluate. From this data it is clear that over 90% of the more able Year 7 students are making at least good or expected progress, or are now above national or well above national levels. KS4 and KS5 results analysis has also shown that students involved with the Gold Programme have performed well.
How is your school developing provision and support for more able learners? Contact us to share your story.
Tags:
CEIAG
Challenge Award
Challenge Framework
enrichment
school improvement
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Posted By Nishkam School West London,
16 June 2017
Updated: 07 August 2019
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Tom Cragg, vice principal and line manager of the more able coordinator at Chelsea Academy, describes the steps taken to maximise the feedback given by NACE following the Academy’s successful Challenge Award assessment day.
I am vice principal at Chelsea Academy, a Church of England Academy situated just off London’s famous King’s Road, with a vibrant and highly diverse student body of just over 1,000. A high percentage of our students are pupil premium, but they have great ambitions, which makes the Academy a fantastic place to work. We believe that we have given our more able students a great platform to go on and achieve success through bespoke curriculum pathways, targeted intervention and by exposing them to opportunities that have broadened their horizons.
After the initial euphoria of achieving the NACE Challenge Award, all of the relevant post-holders sat down together and read through the report, highlighting where development points related to their areas of responsibility, for example, higher-level questioning for the Lead Practitioner Team or embedding intervention strategies for the overall Raising Standards Leader. Two weeks later, we revisited the report in a leadership team meeting, and agreed where the most significant areas for development would fit into next year’s Academy development plan.
Sustaining the momentum
Naturally, a lot of hard work went into presenting the Academy in its best possible light on the assessment day, so it was important to celebrate all of the positive feedback we received, as well as highlighting the points for improvement. Rather than present this in one whole staff meeting slot, we thought it would have more impact using our weekly “sharing good practice” briefing slots over the course of one half-term. So for five weeks in a row, we shared one “www” (what went well) and one “ebi” (even better if) with the whole staff.
This information was also published on our learning cloud so that essentially, the more able agenda was “marketed” in as many places as possible and as often as possible to keep it fresh in people’s minds. In order to sustain this momentum, we will be co-planning our weekly CPD sessions for the next academic year with the Lead Practitioner Team, as well as recycling tips and examples of good practice relating to our feedback in our weekly staff bulletin.
Engaging parents in more able provision
The NACE audit was highly effective in bringing to light areas for improvement and as we compiled our evidence, we realised that it had been a while since we had undertaken a parental survey. So we asked for parents’ views on a range of more able-related questions. There was a clear pattern of overwhelmingly positive feedback from the upper years, but a less consistent level of positivity as we read through the survey results in the lower years. So it was clear that we needed to engage with the parents of our more able learners in Key Stage 3 in particular.
For this reason, we will be running a more able parents’ information evening in June for parents of students in Years 7-10. In my next blog post, I will share full details of the event, along with some reflections about how it went.
All of the above has helped not only to ensure that the momentum gained from achieving the Challenge Award is sustained, but also raise the profile of the more able agenda on our colleagues’ list of priorities.
Tags:
Challenge Award
Challenge Framework
parents and carers
school improvement
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Posted By Paul Dick,
03 April 2017
Updated: 22 December 2020
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Berkshire’s Kennet School recently attained its third accreditation under the NACE Challenge Award scheme, one of only a small number of schools to achieve this so far. Paul Dick, chief executive of the Kennet School Academies Trust, explains how the Award and underlying framework have helped the school raise standards for all students.
Kennet School is very proud of being only the 12th school in the country to achieve a third-time accreditation of the NACE Challenge Award.
The school is a large 11-18 academy, with 1,750 pupils on roll. It serves the “new” town of Thatcham and surrounding villages, and has almost doubled in size in the last 20 years, becoming the school of choice in a wide area. Kennet School has been rated outstanding by Ofsted from 2008-2014 and again from 2016. The intake is broadly average by most measures, and it enjoys both a Physically Disabled Resource and a Hearing Impaired Resource.
How has the Challenge Award made a difference?
We have found the Challenge Award hugely effective in raising our standards so that we gained an Ofsted outstanding rating, but also to maintain and improve further those same standards. The framework of the Award highlights the importance of a high-quality curriculum for more able children, but also one which benefits all children. Its strategic thinking and pedagogical structures are well-matched to one of our key mottos: “Better never stops”.
The Award helped us focus on ensuring that, both inside and outside the classroom, curricular and associated opportunities for all our children are second to none. Our Ofsted rating and exceptionally high scores in Progress 8 and in the Sixth Form underline the power of the NACE Challenge Award.
Planning and training key to success
I am proud of all we do, and our Challenge Award report reminds us that we have a “rich culture of celebration and achievement for all pupils, including the most able”. This is underpinned by our School Development Plan, and that is secured by the persistent and consistent commitment amongst our staff to improve their own skills and also those of our pupils.
Training for all in our academy has been key. Opportunities for high achievement within and outside the curriculum are planned for and therefore happen and are effective; such important issues are not left to chance.
Ongoing evaluation and improvement
A key strength of the Challenge Award is the fact that it identifies areas where the school can improve further, and we take these things seriously. We are considering further use of our virtual learning environment (VLE) to provide a forum for the most able, and we are considering how we can improve research techniques amongst our pupils. We also have issues to consider in the use of transactional language and mastery more generally.
As a head teacher, I commend the Challenge Award to every school. I have found it tremendously powerful at all stages of our development, in this school and in other schools where I have had management responsibilities. Whether the school needs to develop from a low Ofsted category and low achievement to a high-performing school, or go beyond the outstanding category, the framework provides the challenge, the direction and the energy for all.
Join the Challenge today!
Paul Dick is the chief executive of the Kennet School Academies Trust, and has been head of Kennet School since 1989. During this time he’s also led a number of other schools to strong positions, as well as serving on the board of the forerunner of QCA and contributing to a range of local and national developments. He won the Leadership Teaching Award for best leader in the South of England in 2000, and holds an OBE for services to education.
Find out more about the NACE Challenge Award.
Tags:
CPD
Ofsted
school improvement
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