High quality teaching: The 'five-a- day' principle
Supporting every pupil to succeed academically is a significant challenge for teachers and teaching assistants. The EEF's research evidence suggests there is a set of 5 core practices that can support all pupils, including those with SEND, to do just that.
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SEND Vision
We offer our SEND children a rich, broad and balanced curriculum delivered with high expectations and aspirations for all. Learning is not limited for any child. We seek to ensure that our children have a strong sense of belonging and connection to our St Giles family so that they leave with the cultural capital required to be 21st century citizens.
Every child is celebrated. ‘You must love one another as I have loved you’ John 13 v 34. Working together with love we will provide a happy and nurturing environment where all will, ‘learn to love and love to learn’, making outstanding progress through an enriched and creative curriculum. Through our strong Christian ethos we will celebrate and embrace the richness of our community. Learn to Love - Love to Learn ‘You must love one another as I have loved you.’ John 13 v 34
Assess, Plan, Do, Review – Developing a Graduated Response
Issue
St Giles Church of England Primary School is situated in Willenhall, Walsall in the West Midlands. The school has an excellent track record of providing provision for pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN) that, in line with the SEND Code of Practice (2015), is additional to and/or different from that received by pupils without SEN. This additional intervention results in pupils make progress from their unique staring point. For this to happen the school invests in offering pupils a high quality graduated response with a heavy emphasis on early identification and intervention.
As part of joint routine and strategic quality assurance work between St Giles and Cadmus Inclusive of the graduated response pupils’ Assess, Plan, Do, Review documentation was scrutinised. The following was identified:
Intervention and quality first teaching strategies were carefully and appropriately matched to identified need,
The ‘do’ section often placed a strong and appropriate focus on quality first teaching to keep children in the classroom learning,
Class teachers were taking ownership of the graduated response and were supported by the SENCo to do so,
Targets were appropriate but not always consistently SMART,
The Assess, Plan, Do, Review format was not user friendly for all staff resulting in some repetition of content,
A great deal of support was in place for each individual pupil but this sometimes meant that there was a lot of content in the documents which made them somewhat overwhelming,
Coproduction with pupils and their parents/carers was taking place but needed further evidencing,
All documents were up to date and regular review was taking place.
Initiative
Running throughout the academic year:
Working in partnership with the school, the following was put in place to further develop the quality and impact of Assess, Plan, Do, Review (APDR) documents:
An INSET session for all teaching staff covering:
The ingredients of an effective APDR,
Evidencing that pupils are meeting their targets,
Demonstrating the impact of APDR on classroom learning,
Further developing coproduction.
1:1 support was offered from Cadmus Inclusive for all teaching staff in the form of an ‘APDR Clinic’ to:
Review a selection of APDR from each class,
Jointly problem solve issues that individual teachers were experiencing,
Model and share best practice.
The sharing of completed APDR exemplar documents with all teaching staff.
Informal discussions with staff during school visits to offer specific advice regarding targets and provision for individual pupils,
The APDR format was reviewed and developed to limit opportunities for repetition of content and include evidence of pupil and parent/carer voice,
Further joint quality assurance work to review impact of all initiatives.
Impact
Summer term quality assurance evidenced:
All targets were carefully matched to the pupil’s identified needs and took account of their unique starting point,
The ‘Plan’ and ‘Do’ sections related directly to the specified target,
There was evidence of the ‘Review’ section informing the next cycle,
Parents/carers and pupils were consulted,
There was no repetition of content,
The majority of pupils were meeting their targets. Where this was not the case targets were appropriately modified and additional advice sought,
Outside agency advice was taken account of.
To further embed the new approach a further ‘APDR Clinic’ will be held.
Thinking differently for a brighter tomorrow…
November 2021
Facilitating Successful Transition to Improve Life Chances for Pupils with Additional Needs and Vulnerabilities
Issue
St Giles Church of England Primary School and St Thomas More Catholic School are situated in Walsall in the West Midlands. Both schools have excellent track records of providing provision for pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN) that, in line with the SEND Code of Practice (2015), is additional to and/or different from that received by pupils without SEN to ensure academic progress is made and access to wider school life is maximised. In addition to this, both schools also recognise the importance of ensuring that transition from Key Stage Two to Three is successful for all students in order to ensure that:
No learning is lost,
Pupil’s social, emotional and mental health needs are met,
Pupils are well prepared for the next phase of their education,
Potential concerns and/or worries are addressed as soon as possible,
The needs and/or vulnerabilities of pupils are well understood so that early and appropriate intervention in the new setting can take place,
Pupils feel well prepared and welcome.
In the Spring term of 2021 St Thomas More staff identified that they would be receiving a number of pupils from St Giles with a range of special educational needs and additional vulnerabilities. St Giles were also aware of this situation as the sending school. Both schools felt that a further transition offer was required tailored to the individual needs of identified pupils and their families. This would also need careful planning as restrictions on face-to-face work continued linked to the Covid-19 global pandemic.
Initiative
Both schools worked collaboratively and proactively to ensure that transition ran smoothly for all concerned by providing a more in depth process which started early. Activities included:
St Giles sharing all documentation with St Thomas More staff regarding pupils’ needs, SEND history, progress and attainment. An ‘in person’ handover took place for each identified pupil.
St Giles sharing wider pupil information with St Thomas More staff to provide a rich portrait of each pupil. This information included the pupils’ strengths, interests, hobbies, contributions to wider school life, family information and tried and tested effective support strategies.
Both schools were proactive in arranging a number of virtual and face-to-face professionals and professionals and family meetings to plan what success would look like and the resources that needed to be in place in readiness for September 2021.
Additional and bespoke visits to St Thomas More for pupils to become familiar with the building, uniform, staff and school day and opportunities to ask questions and address any potential concerns.
Additional and individual parental meetings arranged to address individual concerns and share information.
EHCP assessment requests were completed in a timely manner by St Giles staff and shared with St Thomas More.
Part of the service level agreement time purchased from Cadmus Inclusive was directed by both school to support transition activities. This included addressing parents’ concerns and questions as a neutral voice, information sharing about service work completed for each pupil, suggesting supportive strategies to aid the pupils in beginning year seven, following up transition success with pupils and quality assurance.
St Thomas More allocated support resources in advance of the pupils arriving and then responded with additional support as required once pupils had arrived in September 2021.
Impact
Quality assurance and pupil voice activities were completed by staff from Cadmus Inclusive post transition. This evidenced that all pupils had made a successful transition to their new setting. Pupils (who were already familiar with the Cadmus team) described feeling well supported, understood and happy. They were already getting involved in wider school life activities and felt confident that they could find their way around the building and were making new friends. All pupils knew who and where they could go to in times of need and felt that they had what they needed to be successful in lessons. Discussions with school staff and reviewing early progress data revealed that pupils had been appropriately placed in teaching groups and staff understood the needs of their pupils. Appropriate teaching strategies and additional support resources were deployed efficiently as soon as pupils had started their new school.
