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Posted By Cwmclydach Primary School,
25 April 2022
Updated: 22 April 2022
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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.
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Posted By Christabel Shepherd,
29 March 2022
Updated: 25 March 2022
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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.
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Posted By Nettlesworth Primary School,
29 March 2022
Updated: 24 March 2022
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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.
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Posted By Chris Yapp,
08 September 2021
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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.
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Posted By Ann Dwulit,
08 July 2021
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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.
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Posted By Christabel Shepherd,
25 March 2021
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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.
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Posted By Jon Murphy,
17 March 2021
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Does your school have a dedicated link governor for more able learners? If so, are you using this role to full effect? If not, how could you benefit from and effectively develop this role?
In this blog post, NACE Associate Jon Murphy – a former teacher governor representative, headteacher governor (ex officio), clerk to governing bodies for seven years, and currently chair of a primary school governing body – explains the benefits of the more able link governor role and shares advice for effective implementation.
Great school governing bodies are not at arms-length; they are hands-on. School leadership is done with them, not to them. Strong governing bodies are acutely aware of the differentiation between their leadership role, the day-to-day management responsibilities of the headteacher, and the fine dividing line that enables them to work in harmony.
Prior to March 2020, visitor registers reflect the considerable amount of time governors spent in school, often in their link governor role. Blank pages for last year’s entries are testament to the impact of national lockdown measures on the many people who enhance and enrich life of a school.
Media platforms such as Teams and Zoom have thrown us a lifeline, boosting our mental wellbeing by keeping family, friends and the wider world in touch. For school governing bodies, these platforms provide a virtual route into school, enabling them to carry out their core school leadership function. However, even though we have been grateful for the contact video conferencing has given us, not being able to physically visit schools has narrowed the full contributions school governors are able to give. One of the key roles that has suffered most has been that of the link governor, the nature of which is hands-on and school-based.
However, the much talked-about tunnel light is now shining brighter and growing larger. Soon, under careful risk assessment management, governors will again be signing the visitor register and crossing classroom thresholds.
Earlier this term the DfE published an updated guide to external reviews of school governing bodies in England. It cites reasons for a review, including to help the governing body be more skilled, focused and effective; to be confident that it has a clear delineation of roles and responsibilities; to have the right number of skilled and committed governors to meet the needs of the school or academy; and to hold school leaders to account for improving outcomes for all pupils, including those who are disadvantaged.
As schools re-open to all learners, it seems timely to refresh our memories of the key purpose of link governors and how they contribute to continuous school improvement and the raising of standards.
Appointing a more able link governor: what, why and how to get started
The primary role of the more able link governor is to provide a conduit between the governing body and the school, to collaboratively monitor how strategy translates into practice, and ultimately the impact policy has on the raising of standards for more able learners.
It is not a mandatory requirement for a school governing body to appoint one of its members to the position of more able link. However, most appreciate the value and benefit for more able learners that this more operational governor role brings to the school.
School governing bodies are most effective when they undertake an interests and skills audit to enable them to best deploy their members to specific roles. Interests and skillsets of individual governing body members should be carefully considered when allocating them to a specific link role. Aligning the skills of an individual to the area they are supporting will directly impact on the success and effectiveness of that person in the role of link governor.
Guidance for more able link governors: how to be effective in the role
Seek out opportunities for continuing professional development
More able strategy and operation in school is diverse. Understanding the extent of its reach and the depth of its provision can prove a challenge to the non-initiated or non-educationalist. In undertaking preparation for this role, it is advisable that appropriate professional development is undertaken. Many governor services offer excellent CPD on curriculum provision and specific areas such as more able and ALN/SEND, often facilitated by school-based staff.
In best practice, the school’s more able lead will make presentations at governing body meetings on provision the school makes for more able learners. These presentations are an excellent first-hand source of expertise, information and experience. To be fully effective the link governor should grasp professional development opportunities which will enable them to keep abreast of local and national developments (particularly significant in Wales at present, with the pace of reform and the inception of the new Curriculum for Wales).
Develop your knowledge and understanding of school data
Data training is an important part of the induction of a new governor. Prior to classroom visits, a great deal can be learnt about the impact of a school’s more able provision by looking at and understanding what data is saying about the performance of the cohort of more able learners. In its raw numerical form data gives an overview of performance, but it is at its most useful when accompanied with a commentary explaining patterns, trends, comparisons and reasons – not excuses – for performance.
Governors should never react to data but they should think about it. Data is at its most useful and powerful when it is used to generate questions. A thorough knowledge and understanding of data allows governors to undertake one of their core responsibilities: to hold the leadership team to account and to challenge standards and performance.
The more able link governor should be aware that data generally only covers “academic” subjects, and that provision for the more able extends far beyond just academic achievement. NACE’s approach is to look beyond definitions that focus solely on academic achievement, “to include those who may be underachieving or whose skills and knowledge may extend beyond national measures of progress and attainment.” Understanding the school’s target-setting processes provides another source of data and can say a lot about a school’s aspirations and ambitions for more able learners. Establish strong and positive relationships with school staff
As with any link governor position, establishing a working relationship with the more able coordinator and teachers based on mutual trust and transparency will determine the success of the role. Sensitivity to the perception that staff have when the link governor is invited into the classroom is critical. Teachers must see the purpose of a link governor as a source of support and as a critical friend, not as an inspector. Do not approach the task in terms of “I am…” but instead “I will…”. For example: “I will look forward to learning from you and supporting you in further developing provision for our more able learners.”
Following adequate preparation to undertake the role of more able link governor, the first port of call for staff contact would be with the school’s more able lead/coordinator. Initial discussions should focus on the more able policy that has been adopted (or not, as may be the case) by the school governing body. A valuable insight can be gained about how, when and by who the policy was developed. Discussions will focus on how the more able coordinator ensures that policy and strategy translate into practice within the classroom. Ownership of policy is directly linked to its effectiveness and the more able link governor has a vested interest in becoming one of the co-owners.
A governor new to the link role should approach their first learning walk or classroom visits as an informal awareness-raising exercise, an opportunity to talk to staff, to get to know them, and to learn about the different strategies and methods used to provide for the more able. Until you know what the practice is, you can’t start to make contributions to support and develop it. First impressions on initial classroom visits are critical in establishing a good working relationship between the link governor and school staff. Positivity opens doors; negativity closes them.
Undertake regular monitoring through visits and discussions
As the more able link governor builds experience, confidence and staff trust gained from the initial awareness-raising visits, they can start to extend their more formal monitoring responsibilities. Monitoring of provision and standards is an important function of the link governor. Learning walks and classroom visits will allow a well-informed link governor to monitor how well policy is being implemented.
Visits should not be ad hoc; the purpose of classroom visits should be carefully planned and focused. Provision for the more able is extensive; it touches most areas of curriculum delivery and wider aspects of school life. The more able link governor should let staff know the purpose and focus of their visit so staff can prepare and share best practice. During the classroom visit only the agreed focus should be monitored; it is important not to be distracted from that focus. Staff trust can easily be lost if a link governor comments on aspects of practice that are not part of the agreed focus.
Discussions with teachers provide a measure of how consistently policy is being delivered. Importantly, listening to pupil voice is a key priority as part of the monitoring process and will give a strong indication as to the impact policy is making on individual learners. Discussions with parents can be valuable, and where held, governors’ annual meetings provide a vehicle to listen to the parent voice and to gain their opinion on the provision made for their more able child. Through stakeholder discussion, monitoring allows the link governor to understand any pressures or barriers (budgets, lockdown!) that may affect implementation of policy.
Recognise and celebrate good practice
We all thrive on praise and the proverbial pat on the back is always most welcome. Praise can be a self-fulfilling prophesy (and teachers can be their own worse critics). Tell someone they are doing a great job and they aspire to do even better! Learning walks and classroom visits provide that face-to-face opportunity to acknowledge hard work and good practice. Link governors are the conduit between the staff, and at times, an otherwise faceless governing body. They are ideally placed to acknowledge, thank and celebrate a job well done by committed and dedicated staff.
Report back to support whole-school review and improvement
Following a learning walk, classroom visit, or listening to stakeholders, the link governor should prepare a brief bullet point report for feedback to either a governor’s sub-committee (e.g. teaching and learning sub-committee) or to the whole governing body. In no way should reports be personalised and name individual members of staff; they should be based on how well policy is being applied and its impact on the provision that is being made. When any report is more widely shared with governors, there should be no surprises for staff.
Full governing body meetings provide an ideal platform for the more able coordinator to champion the provision the school makes for more able learners and to make the case for the further allocation of budget and resources. The strength of a governing body lies in the sum of its parts and each link governor constitutes a part of the whole. When each feeds back their observations, the full governing body gains an invaluable evaluation into how effectively their strategic lead and policy development is impacting on raising standards for learners.
There is a direct correlation between well-informed and strategically effective governing bodies and the work undertaken by their link governors. Each governor link role adds value to school improvement. It is incumbent on each link governor to do the best possible job they can: “a chain is as strong as its weakest link”. We get out of bed in the morning to make a difference, and the difference a well-informed and skilled link governor can make to the learning opportunities for more able learners is indisputable. In my own link governor role, I for one look forward to when we can walk back through the school gates again, alongside staff and pupils, to make a difference together.
Additional reading and support:
Ask NACE... Could you benefit from additional guidance in establishing or developing your school’s more able link governor? Whether you are newly creating this role, or keen to develop its impact, our “Ask NACE” service offers 1-2-1 support bespoke to your individual needs and school context. Find out more.
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Posted By Chris Yapp,
14 January 2021
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Dr Chris Yapp, NACE patron
The need for reform of the assessment is system is now being well argued at the national level. It is important to remember that the current assessment framework and exam results are an important part of the accountability framework by which schools are judged. The issue I wish to address here is: how does any new assessment framework that is developed impact on the accountability of schools? Importantly, what issues and problems of the current approach could be addressed by a novel approach?
If I ask you about the ethos of your school, I would probably have no difficulty in achieving consensus that “every child should be able to reach their full potential” would be a core value of teachers and educational leaders near universally. However, if I suggest that 80% of children should achieve their full potential in education by 2025, how would you react?
My experience is that few are comfortable with the target, even though you can’t reach 100% unless you go through 80% at some point. It would be easy to be cynical that teachers may aspire to the vision but react against trying to achieve it. There are numerous reasons why professionals are uncomfortable with this problem. First, how do you measure potential? Importantly, does the assessment framework reflect both achievement and potential?
There is an economic model, Goodhart’s Law, which has a long history of precedent in different fields and is now more widely understood as a general problem. The usual formulation of the law is: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”
Consider the following example: 80% of children should reach Level X by Year Y.
Apart from agreeing how that is measured, there is another big problem to be addressed. Once a measure becomes a target it can be “gamed”.
Consider two schools with similar catchment areas and performance facing this as a target.
In the first, the leadership team focuses resources on all children and their development and reaches 78% on the timescale set.
In the second, 10% of children are given minimum support and the resources are focused on the remaining 90%. The school achieves 82%.
Which is the better school? Which would you want to work in? Which would you want your children to go to?
In short, targets can distort ethos and with it the morale and self-worth of professionals. It happens with accounting in the private sector, in reward mechanisms and many other walks of life. My experience is that once you understand Goodhart’s Law you start to see it everywhere.
One of my favourite quotes of Sir Claus Moser sums it up well: “If you can measure the same thing in two different ways, you'll get two different answers.”
The different components of education are heavily interdependent. Teacher development is heavily dependent on curriculum design, which in turn is heavily dependent on assessment. Attempting to reform one without understanding the impact on the other parts is fraught with difficulties.
So, I welcome a focus on reforming assessment in schools. For me, it is long overdue. However, in the context of our 21st century economy and society we need to be more explicit about the ethos of our education system and its individual institutions. I believe in accountability systems, but they must be driven by ethos, not targets. The assessment measures that are developed need to reflect our societal and economic goals for education itself.
If our ethos is to optimise pupil achievement, the wise words of Plato come to mind: “Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.”
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Posted By Tracy Goodyear,
15 December 2020
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NACE Associate Tracy Goodyear, BA (Hons), FCCT
The title of NACE’s recent research report, Making space for able learners – Cognitive challenge: principles into practice, is very apt indeed – the age-old question remains: do we truly make enough space in our schools for all of our learners to flourish or not? But what does it really mean to ‘make space’ to allow the highest levels of cognitive challenge in our classrooms?
For me, ‘making space’ is about ensuring that schools have the tools and expertise to allow all pupils to thrive beyond the restrictions of examination rubrics or mark schemes; for too long, these have been limiting factors in the education of our young people and in the planning and execution of a truly effective curriculum.
Our real challenge is to work hard to remove the barriers and ceilings where learning has been hemmed in and to allow flexibility of thought and dexterity of expression. That task isn’t easy, given the various accountability measures that feel at times as though they work in opposition to this. It’s imperative that we create and sustain school climates where intellectual curiosity beats the rationing of difficult or challenging work (Mary Myatt put this brilliantly at ResearchEdBrum when she said ‘you don’t give difficult work to get great results, the great results follow the difficult work’).
This NACE report gives school leaders at all levels an accessible toolkit for putting some principles of cognitive challenge into practice in their classrooms. It acts as a ‘one-stop-shop' for neat summaries of key educational research and gives models for how this has been implemented in different settings. The four areas of focus – cognitive challenge, rich and extended talk, design of challenging learning opportunities, and curriculum organisation and design – highlight the interconnectedness of these factors in a successful education. Each section usefully includes graphics that highlight aspects of key research and there is also a useful summary at the end of each chapter. What’s useful about the write-up is that it considers how schools could/do go wrong in their implementation of some of these models and effectively warns against common ‘traps’ when trying to make improvements.
This report is an ideal text to dip into when instigating school improvement or when considering reviewing current practice. It is a useful compendium of educational research – Vygotsky's zones of proximal development rightly get a mention, as does the Fisher and Frey model and Rosenshine, alongside graphics of findings from NACE’s own research.
Perhaps most useful are the examples from NACE Challenge Award schools, which show some of the principles being applied in various contexts. Whilst these may not be for everyone, seeing how these elements have been applied in a range of ways is useful and may give ideas for practical implementation in your own settings. At the back of the book, there’s a list of the schools mentioned and it would be a mistake not to follow up and contact those schools if you felt there was more to be learned about a specific focus. Likewise, readers could extend some of these contacts through the NACE Research and Development Hubs.
As useful as this text is, the action by school leaders following the reading of this report is what will have the greatest impact. We know there is still so much more to do to address the gaps in research in this area, and schools can certainly contribute to building a more coherent picture by supporting the ongoing research work that NACE is undertaking.
I would recommend the following actions for school leaders who are considering using this research report as a springboard for school improvement:
- Find out where the need is first: will this work for your school, now? It’s no good introducing an initiative if it doesn’t solve a problem that you have (and that you can prove that you have!). NACE offers a series of useful self-evaluation frameworks if you are looking for a way to identify the needs of your pupils and staff (including the NACE Challenge Framework and Curriculum Audit Tool); these will support you in checking your assumptions and working on improving a real problem.
- Use a framework for implementation which will support the adaptations that are taking place. The EEF’s School’s Guide to Implementation is a great tool to support any level of school improvement and supports planning for long-term, sustainable change.
- Be ambitious for all learners and use the models highlighted in this report to support the implementation of positive change in your school. But use the models critically: there’s a necessity to adapt some of these to suit your purpose and school context.
- Find strength in the struggle! Whilst it may now feel like a time to pause developmental work in school, this is the time where this work and thinking will be most valuable. Educational sands are shifting rapidly as a result of Covid-19 and our educational landscape could look very different this time next year. Be proactive about what you’d like to see in your classrooms (face-to-face or online!) as we edge into very new and unfamiliar teaching territory.
In summary, this text works hard at bringing key cognitive research into focus and supports schools in filling in the missing gaps in research into improving outcomes for all pupils. It’s an essential guide for anybody working to improve the quality of teaching and learning in a school setting.
Find out more
NACE’s research publication “ Making space for able learners – Cognitive challenge: principles into practice” is available to preview online, with copies available to order for £12 (UK mailing) / £16 (outside UK). To explore the report findings in more depth, join our new three-part online course, Creating cognitively challenging classrooms – offering guidance and support to apply the research findings in your own context.
Additional reading:
Share your own review… Have you read a good book lately with relevance to provision for more able learners? Share it with the NACE community by submitting a review.
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Posted By Sue Riley,
22 October 2020
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Sue Riley, NACE CEO
Many of you will have seen the open letter to the Sunday Times from the recently formed Rethinking Assessment group. Born from issues raised this summer, Rethinking Assessment is a broad coalition of state and independent schools, universities, academics, employers and other stakeholders, which aims to value the strengths of every child. At its heart lies four fundamental principles:
- Many young people find the way our exam system works increasingly stressful and not a true reflection of what they are good at.
- Many employers complain that exams do not provide them with good enough clues as to who they are employing.
- Many headteachers feel that high-stakes exams distort priorities and stop them from providing a well-rounded education for their pupils.
- Many who are passionate about social mobility believe that any system that dooms a third to fail is a system with little sense of social justice.
We want to add our members’ voice and our research to this debate. There are immediate questions to be answered and longer-term opportunities to recalibrate the assessment system so that all learners have their full range of strengths recognised. As a membership organisation we can share and build on the decisions school leaders are taking now and over time provide perspectives that will inform longer-term changes.
Assessment is of course an integral part of learning and teaching. It facilitates daily ongoing review of individual progress and impacts on planning and target-setting. It supports personal learning targets. But we must not let the tail wag the dog. Not everything needs to be assessed, or indeed can be assessed, or needs to be independently assessed. We must consider too the timing of assessment – even more pressing as schools focus on tier 2 rota planning.
Whilst a decision over summer exams has been made in principle, “fall-back” detail remains unclear and learners are picking up on this, increasingly questioning the reasoning behind assignments, and the part they will play in assessment. All of this detracts from the richness of a subject.
The Early Career Framework and Teachers’ Standards have done much to support the teaching profession’s development in recent years. We must trust teachers with assessment, but teachers must be clear on what they are assessing and why.
What can we therefore now do in our schools to readdress this balance? One response lies in thinking about what we assess on a day-to-day basis in classrooms, how we build on low-stakes testing, and how we position effective challenge. How effectively do your teachers use retrieval practice for example? Deliberately recalling information forces us to pull knowledge “out” and examine what we know. The “struggle” or challenge to recall information improves memory and learning – by trying to recall information, we exercise or strengthen our memory, and we can also identify gaps in our learning.
NACE has recently undertaken a literature review of retrieval practice – looking at the theoretical framework and considering emergent related classroom practices and practical amendments and applications for more able learners. To access this review, click here.
Beyond the here and now of assessment, we need to return to the longer-term focus of the Rethinking Assessment coalition. Against the current backdrop, what could we do to improve the assessment system more broadly? How would we do it differently, allowing us to show non-traditional talents – making assessment more effective for employers, individuals and supporting the practising teacher? Fundamentally, how can we assess the child in front of us?
Contribute to the debate:
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