Review of Pupil Performance 2013
Present
Learning Improvement Officer David Bristow
Consultant Kevin Griffiths
Headteacher Chris Pollitt
Deputy head - primaryVanessa Lamb
Deputy head - secondary Sandra Wright
Chair of GovernorsMaggie Armitage
Context
This report is a review of pupil performance in 2013. It is based on an analysis of performance data carried out by both the school and a learning improvement officer (LIO) supported by a specialist consultant.
This meeting was held very shortly after the school’s Ofsted inspection at the end of October 2013. Inspectors reported that the school’s overall effectiveness was good, with good pupil achievement, good teaching, good behaviour and safety for pupils, and good leadership and management. As this inspection included a full review of pupil attainment and progress data, and set priorities to help the school improve further, this LIO review was treated as relatively light touch.
In the recent past, there have been many developments at the school. Pupil numbers have increased from approximately 140 to 160, and the staff count from 109 to 112. The school is now full. The school has introduced a new curriculum, and set up a farm, a café, an eBay shop, and increased the size of the forest school. Building work has includeda gym, an expressive arts studio, and a new classroom for the Early Years Foundation Stage. The nurture group is now fully established.
Specialist assistance is available from an additional speech and language therapist, an occupational therapist, an educational psychologist, a nurse, a school counsellor, and, when needed,a family counsellor. All teachers have clinical supervision. Class sizes have been reduced to a maximum of eight to ten, with working group sizes around a maximum of seven in secondary and five in primary. This has been accomplished by recruiting teaching assistants at level 2 rather than 3, and by employing seven high quality apprentices.
Three children who would previously have been educated out of county in specialist provision came to the school with specific, negotiated resources. For example, one pupil had funds allocated for the equivalent of a dedicated teacher and teaching assistant.
The school has a staged approach to the moderation of assessments and analysis of pupil progress. Meetings take place within class teams, and subsequently with phase leaders, department leaders and deputy heads. Finally, analyses are presented to the headteacher and an outside visitor as part of termly learning walks. In order to inform these internal moderation procedures, the school sends representatives to the Warwickshire special school deputies’ group and to the inter LA special schools’ moderation group.
The school has now chosen the Special On-line Assessment Records (SOLAR)resource developed by schools in the London area for on-line assessment, recording and reporting, including setting targets and tracking pupil progress. The school intends to upload individual teaching plans to SOLAR, as well as assessment records including pictures with annotations.
It may also experiment with the facility to allow parents to view their children’s annotated work and assessment records. The school’s intention is to use SOLAR for short term assessment records, but to analyse pupils’ progress over the long term using CASPA.
The school identified a weakness in its approach to target setting last year, in that the process was ‘top down’. This year, primary teachers have started the process, using SOLAR to inform their target setting for English, mathematics, science, information and communication technology (ICT), and personal, social and health education (PSHE).
The overall evaluations of pupil progress in this review were made with reference to the updated Warwickshire “Guidance Criteria for Describing Pupil Progress”, and in particular to its grid for progress over whole key stages. This is intended to help schools evaluate the progress that year groups of pupils make from their individual starting points at the end of the previous key stage to their statutory assessments at the end of the next key stage. It was originally developed in June 2012 by a group of Warwickshire special school headteachers and the specialist consultant, and is based on the National Progression Guidance and the Comparison and Analysis of Special Pupil Attainment (CASPA) expected progress. This Warwickshire grid has been updated for the 2013 round of performance reviews carried out by Warwickshire’s learning improvement officers (LIOs), but nevertheless continues to have the status of a pilot.
The LA has also offered guidance for headteachers’ reports to governors in the document “Possible Framework for Special Schools Writing an Annual Self-Evaluation Report on Pupil Progress 2012”.
Looking at CASPA graphs of progress for individual children in relation to percentiles, the school has a long time series of assessments, but there appear to be considerable inconsistencies in individual children’s recorded assessments from year to year. While moderation has been more secure from 2009 onwards, there is more variation from year to year than in other Warwickshire special schools. It is therefore not possible to draw firmly based conclusions about pupils’ progress over the long term.
The school’s document ‘Review of pupil progress 2012-13’ was scrutinised by the governors’ performance and standard committee, and the chair of this committee presented the report to the full governing body. It was then posted on the school website for parents to access if they wish. This report was used to inform this performance review meeting.
How good was pupil achievement over the long term last school year?
End of Key Stage 2
Only three pupils completed Key Stage 2 in 2013, and progress data is available for only two. Both of these pupils made three or more levels of progress from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 2 in English and in mathematics, which was in the progression materials upper quartile. While this nominally meets the Warwickshire criteria for outstanding progress, the data is too limited and too unreliable to draw firm conclusions.
End of Key Stage 4
20 pupils completed Key Stage 4 in 2013, and progress data from Key Stage 2 is available for 18 of them. According to the school’s records, in English only one pupil made three or more levels of progress from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 4, no pupil made progress at or above the progression materials median, and only 3 made progress that matched or exceeded CASPA expectations. In mathematics, only one pupil made three or more levels of progress, only two made progress at or above the progression materials median, and only four made progress that matched or exceeded CASPA expectations.
Even taking into account the comments in the previous section about the variability in past assessments, it seems likely that the school is correct in its judgement that progress for this group in English and mathematics requires improvement.
Looking at progress over the last year is also helpful. Using CASPA comparisons for the 85 out of 140 pupils for whom data is available, 9 pupils made above expected progress and 11 below expected progress in English, 17 made above expected progress and 6 below in mathematics, and 3 made above expected progress and 34 below expected progress in science. Bearing in mind possible variations in assessment and the large proportion of pupils not included in this analysis, this suggests that recent progress in English and mathematics has been more or less in line with other schools and therefore good, while progress in science requires improvement.
Attendance and exclusions
Taken over the whole of the school year 2012-13, the school’s calculations show that attendance for all pupils was 95.8% (4.2% absence). This can be compared with the national averages published in Ofsted’s Reporting and Analysis for Improvement through School Self-Evaluation (RAISE) summary report for the school. Comparisons are not straightforward since the latest figures in this report are for 2011-12, and for five half terms only. Nevertheless the school’s absence figures appear noticeably better than the national average for mainstream secondary schools, which was 5.9%, and very much better than the 2011-12 national average for special schools, which was 9.6%.
The latest official figures for persistent absentees are also for 2011-12, when 4.9% of the school’s pupils were persistent absentees. This was considerably better than the national average for mainstream secondary schools, which was 7.4%, and very much better than the national average of 16.3% for special schools. The school partly attributes these very good figures to the policy of health care professionals visiting the school to provide continuing care for pupils with medical conditions. This means that pupils who have a short appointment, for example for physiotherapy, miss only a few minutes of learning rather than a whole day.
There were no permanent exclusions last year, and only one fixed term exclusion of two days.
Progress on actions recommended in last year’s performance review
- Improve with some urgency the quality of teaching at the ends of Key Stages 2 and 4
Coaching and mentoring has improved teaching so that is now consistently good.
- Ensure that teachers’ performance management emphasises the evaluation of teaching through its effect on pupils’ progress in lessons and over the long term
The school’s systems now involve ‘triangulation’. Not only are there formal lesson observations, ‘drop ins’ and learning walks, but data on pupil progress and the quality of planning and children’s work are also taken into account. All teachers have three targets: one relating to pupil progress, one relating to quality of teaching and a third relating to the school development plan.
- Ensure that baseline assessment on admission to the school is timely, comprehensive and accurate
This action is to be carried forward.
- Increase pupil engagement and achievement at Key Stage 4 by enhancing the curriculum and the range of qualifications
To enable pupils to make informed choices for Years 12 and 13, the Key Stage 4 curriculum has been changed to include vocational taster courses. These are in areas including construction, catering, retail, agriculture, motor vehicles, hair and beauty. Accreditation is through the Open College Network (OCN).
- Improve the performance of girls in English, by creating opportunities for language-rich girl-only sessions in a variety of contexts.
The school did not draw attention to any specific action.
Key priorities for future action
In order to evaluate pupils’ progress more securely, and identify where improvements may be needed, the school should focus on the following priorities:
- Ensure that baseline assessment on admission to the school is timely, comprehensive and accurate
- Check that the school’s moderation procedures are sufficiently robust to ensure that all teachers make formal assessments accurately and consistently, and that pupils’ progress can be evaluated effectively over the medium and long term. It could be helpful, for example, to require class teachers to moderate end-of-year assessments with the colleagues who will be teaching the pupils the following year
- Use the Department for Education (DfE) secure website ‘Key to success’ to see if it is possible to find prior attainment data for the previous key stage for pupils who joined the school late.
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