The Hazeley Academy

Short Term (One Year) Improvement Priorities following Faculty Review

[These must inform Faculty Action Planning]

As per faculty review, all improvement priorities to be addressed fully by the end of the summer term 2014 and then impact- reviewed in the autumn term 2014/15

Mathematics

  • Sustaining Outstanding Outcomes at Key Stage 4: The excellent GCSE results of 2013, a return to form in 2010, must be sustained and built upon. The progress made by the highest achievers – arriving in year 7 at level 5, to at least a grade B, must become and additional focus.
  • Sustaining and Accelerating Rates of Improvement at Key Stage 5: Achieved largely through improved IAG, induction-transition and staff training and support the modest recent gains in attainment and progress in some areas of post-16 mathematics provision must be sustained and accelerated. ALPs scores of 1-3 (or their equivalent) in all mathematics programmes (AS, A2, IBHL, IBSL, IBMS) must be secured consistently
  • Improved Provision and outcomes for Year 12/13 GCSE Resit Group: The creation and use of detailed schemes of work, personalized according to need for the year 12/13 resit group must become a priority. Families should be engaged to support the critical endeavour of securing for all 18/19 year olds a level 2 GCSE pass in mathematics. (Alongside this, iGCSE might be considered).
  • Marking Policy Review: Review the faculty marking policy to ensure that the frequency, breadth, depth of marking is robust enough to ensure that all learners make rapid and sustained progress. Furthermore to consider the strategy for the use of exercise books as ‘rough notebooks’ alongside an additional book or file for the retention of ‘neat workings/layout and homework worksheets returned’.
  • Split Groups at Key Stage 3: Every effort should be made to, initially minimize, the potentially negative impact on these for progress and in subsequent years to reduce them to zero.
  • Independent and Active Learning: The best practice in independent and active, practical learning witnessed in the faculty review should be spread widely.
  • Governor Link: The appointment of a core-subject faculty Governor Director link could be explored.

English

  • End of Year 12 & End of Key Stage 5 Outcomes: Planning, teaching, learning, assessment and intervention alongside the highest levels of expectation must be robust so as to secure good or better outcomes at key stage 5. Promoting and supporting authentic independent, out of lesson learning must dovetail with this, alongside developing partnerships with Higher education provision to support and enhance attainment.
  • Marking, Feedback & Response: Significantly improved regimes for written assessment, marking, feedback & ensuring response to feedback – especially in regard to on-going classwork and homework (consolidation & preparation). Additionally, robustly implemented sanctions for non-completion of work (including KS5). Holding each other to account for significant improvements in this area.
  • Assessment Focus: Although since last year WWW and EBI are now much more embedded the assessment focus (RED) weeks need to be embraced fully to dive further into students’ responding to feedback from staff.
  • Tardiness: Taking the lead, in the busiest thoroughfare at the Academy in securing the very highest levels of punctuality to lessons. Consistent use of expectations cards must be adopted. Following up and following through when punctuality and other basic indicators of attitude (e.g. uniform) fall short of outstanding.
  • Literacy: Develop further literacy across the curriculum, building on some excellent current practice; to include building firmer and more extensive bridges with the library around Accelerated Reader and other initiatives.
  • Narrowing the Gap: Continuing to build on excellent relationships with the Excellence Team to ensure that the trend towards narrowing the gap for vulnerable learners’ attainment and progress does not stall or reverse. Working more closely, at the level of individual student data and intervention for a joined-up approach.
  • Restorative Practices & Behaviour Management: Sharing the best practice in behaviour management (including the use of restorative practice which although not seen, was referred to by students when questioned) to a wider audience, across the academy.
  • Questioning & SMSC: Contributing to the academy-wide developments in questioning & SMSC, offering case studies for outstanding practice in these areas.
  • Extended pieces of writing: During the review period, no significant pieces of extended writing were seen. Although early in the year, after 4 weeks of starting we would expect to see a larger piece of writing, marked and levelled.

Creativity

  • Challenge Targets (Horse-Trading): Whilst holding as closely as possible to whole-cohort FFT-D predictions, to forensically investigate and to address any issues of targets (MAGs & TAGs) being inappropriate (too high or too low) through years 9 – 11 (GCSE). As an example, the national expectations are that, in performing arts, by the end of year 9, students making expected progress should be around a level 6. [e.g. The average student at a local grammar school by the end of year 7 is 4a in music, 5c in drama and 5c in art]
  • Staff & Team Consolidation: Consolidate the working of the faculty team. Support robustly where staffing instability is clearly impacting on standards of delivery in some areas.
  • Good Outcomes for All: Build on improvements seen in GCSE drama and in BTEC fashion and BTEC media to secure above national average, good outcomes across all subjects within the faculty at key stages 4 & 5 – improving attainment and progress for all students.
  • Tracking and Intervention for Groups: Track more robustly the on-going attainment and progress of students in groups and then intervene in a timely fashion to maximise impact: these groups to include gender, Ever 6, EAL, SEN(D) and the most able – across both key stages 3 & 4 but most critically in years 10 and 11
  • Embed Management Systems: Continue to improve the quality of leadership and management at all levels to become securely good; embedding the already improved systems of handling data, tracking, personalised and timely intervention, risk management and holding others to account.
  • Teaching and Learning Model (Including Coaching): Continue to develop a model for good and outstanding teaching and assessment that translates into good and outstanding learning over time, in all subjects of the faculty and across all key stages.
  • Feedback: Continue to develop the strategy for recording verbal feedback (marking) that is common throughout the faculty. One that is not teacher-time intensive and records much of the good verbal and peer feedback that is observed as having impact in lessons.
  • Punctuality: Follow robustly the new whole-academy procedures for logging lateness to lessons on the management information system (SIMS) as well as following up and following through at class-teacher level
  • Split Classes: Continue to improve consistency and continuity at KS3 and KS5 in relation to split classes. Strategies may include the development of greater consistency in teaching amongst the teachers. Greater use of learning walks, peer observation and in marking reviews to monitor consistency. Time should be built in within faculty meetings to share good and outstanding practice and to plan together common behaviour management strategies. They should also plan the delivery of a series of lessons that show a continuity between teachers across these split classes.
  • Improvement Cycles: Ensure that all members of the Faculty continue to be relentless in seeking out feedback and exploring ways to improve further. This should go hand in hand with encouraging independent learning in students and measured risk-taking in teachers.
  • Tracking & Intervention: Continue to develop the use of data and its tracking from Y9 to 11 to allow early, high-impact intervention with students not meeting their MAG.

Enterprise

  • Leadership – Structure & Support: Re-stabilise leadership and management and develop further the clarity of the leadership roles and responsibilities across the faculty to work, strategically towards consistently good planning, delivery, assessment, tracking, and intervention; across all subjects and all key stages in the faculty.
  • Accountability: The senior leaders to hold more robustly to account the middle leaders for the quality of teaching, learning, assessment, recording, reporting and outcomes in their various areas and to spread the best practice seen in some areas faculty-wide.
  • Towards Outstanding Teaching & Learning: Continue to develop a model for good and outstanding teaching that translates into good and outstanding learning in lessons and over time in all subjects of the Enterprise faculty. A particular focus on planning for differentiated tasks to meet the needs of different cohorts of students and less of a reliance upon differentiation by outcome.
  • Organisation of Assessment in Business Studies: Reduce the time taken to feedback to students their current performance and ensure trackers are up to date to ensure all students are making the required progress to meet their MAG.
  • Improved Teaching, Learning in Faculty & Outcomes – a focus on Business Studies: Work towards consistently good and outstanding teaching across all subjects of the faculty and improved teaching, learning, assessment and outcomes in Business Studies at Key Stages 4 & 5 – above national averages and towards the top 25% of schools nationally
  • Audit Planning, Provision and Outcomes in ASDAN: For the most senior leadership (Vice Principal) to carry out in 2013/14 a separate, short review of ASDAN (key stages 4 & 5) and allied programmes to determine and improve standards of teacher-led planning, provision, assessment and outcomes.
  • Strategic Planning: Collectively as a faculty, research current pedagogy, best practice and both current and future trends in enterprise subjects; business studies, economics, computer science, IT, ASDAN, Employability and the broader extra-curricular domain of ‘enterprise education’.
  • Towards Outstanding Behaviour and Enjoyment for All: Increased, supportive learning walks by senior Enterprise staff, peer observation and marking reviews should be used to monitor consistency across the faculty. Time should be built in within faculty meetings to share good and outstanding practice and to plan together common behaviour management strategies whilst also monitoring and responding to students’ level of enjoyment in their learning across Enterprise.
  • ICT Infrastructure: The Vice Principal overseeing the faculty and the infrastructure must ensure that nothing in the management of ICT infrastructure gets in the way of teachers and students being able to make good and better progress in learning. This includes keeping all machines working well, allowing for staff to be able to change passwords for students and ensuring that all teachers are using remote monitoring effectively.
  • Punctuality and Behaviour: All teachers and across all key stages, must follow rigorously, academy policy and procedure for logging and following up poor punctuality and behaviour, through SIMS and the CODES system respectively.

Global Citizenship

  • Progress for Boys in GCSE History: The review group recognise that there is no apparent trend that led to the statistically below national progress for boys in GCSE history in 2012/13 – which has carefully unpacked extenuation in place. It is also seen that current data indicates that the same or similar outcome will not present itself in 2013/14. Nevertheless – the choice of specification, the transition in the three-year key stage 4 and the styles of delivery used to teach boys must all be carefully looked at over the coming months.
  • Overall Achievement at KS4: To secure this outstanding judgement well into the future, attainment in humanities and languages at KS4 needs to be at least maintained at A*-C and to work towards around 10% above national averages. At A*-A attainment needs to be at or above national averages – particularly in the core subjects of history and geography
  • Marking, assessment, Feedback & Intervention: The Faculty need to review this system and settle on one clear and transparent method for tracking progress, to help students to know target grades and currently the level they are working at, so they can identify how to move to the next level.
  • Post-16 Transition and Induction: The faculty should build on good and fast improving procedures for the highly effective transition and induction of new post-16 students.
  • Post-16 Attainment and Progress: Post-16 achievement is generally at least good. All subjects should aim to secure outstanding outcomes – reflected in consistently 1-3 ALPs scores and statistically significant value added on L3VA.
  • Citizenship Achievement: The faculty must support leadership within citizenship and intervene to secure at least national averages (A*-C and A*-A) in summer 2014 (GCSE) and work towards outstanding outcomes from 2015
  • Curriculum expansion – going forwards, prepare for teachers to teach outside their specialism and both welcome and support non-specialist teachers who may have to deliver some KS3 Humanities lessons.
  • External Examination & Moderation Experience– Members of the faculty to ideally become more involved in external marking and moderation at KS4 and 5
  • Continue to share best practice – especially with an influx of young teachers who bring fresh ideas and can learn from the more experienced and well regarded teachers in the faculty.

Science

  • Regular and Rigorous Audit, Evaluation by Leaders of Teachers’ Work Leading to Better Teaching, Learning and Outcomes for Learners:

The senior and middle leaders must increase the regularity and improve the rigour of day-to-day audit and support of teacher performance in the classroom.

They should do this through:

  • Peer Pairs: Pairing staff to address inconsistencies in approach to data-management, planning, teaching for learning, differentiation, assessment, marking, feedback, intervention, homework and ensuring students take pride in their written work and are adequately supported in preparing well for summative assessment.
  • Quality Assurance: More regular lesson observation, learning walks and ‘drop in’ sessions by senior and subject leaders and managers with prompt and documented feedback and action in the form of increased support, coaching and the setting of targets for improvement as well as sharing best practice.
  • Faculty Folders: Close and regular monitoring of the integrity and use of the Faculty Folders in lessons and over time.
  • Marking Audit: A regular (at least half-termly) and relentless focus by senior and middles leaders on the regularity and quality of marking of students’ written work – ensuring that it in line with academy and faculty expectations, that it informs improvement in learning behaviours and in progress and that it addresses successfully low levels of pride in presentation prevalent amongst too many students.
  • Homework Audit: At the same time, a regular (at least half-termly) focus on the regularity, quantity and quality of homework issued – how robust teachers have been in following up and following through those that default and how both homework and classwork have informed a consistent and effective use of target-setting tools (WWW/EBI).
  • Presentation and Work Audit: A regular audit, in pairs and by line-managers that students are increasingly taking pride in their written work and that basic expectations are robustly reinforced by all. This should be across all key stages – including insisting that post 16 students folders (containing lesson notes, independent work etc..) are brought in for every lesson with folders being scrutinised on a regular basis.
  • Improvement Awareness: Senior, faculty and subject leaders themselves must show a greater awareness of where the most immediate concerns are in rates of progress – be they subjects, whole cohorts, particular classes, sub-groups; in order that they can act swiftly and effectively.
  • Personalisation: In line with above, all teachers must ensure that they are both aware and proactive in their support for the most vulnerable learners; positively discriminating if necessary, to ensure that at least expected progress for those on the SEN(D)/Ever 6 registers is being secured through such action.
  • Work of the Director of Learning: The Director of Learning (Lead Practitioner and qualified AST) models exemplary classroom practice and endeavours, through coaching and mentoring, to both disseminate this across the faculty and to spread the best practice of others. It is important, however, that she is seen, by both the leadership and core teaching elements of the faculty to be their lead-teacher and pedagogical champion. As such she must be supported to focus her attention on developing teaching and learning across the faculty; modeling engaging starters, differentiation, excellent pace of lesson, exemplary use of faculty folders - using data to inform planning and embedding outstanding marking and assessment consistently across the faculty. If this important role is taken more seriously by the faculty, it will play an important part in the short-term target to bring about 100% good or better taught lessons in Science.
  • Planning for Consolidation and Higher-Order Thinking:
  • At post-16, students report (triangulated by observation), that too often, teachers move on to expect learners to apply, synthesise and evaluate in new contexts before the underpinning principles of knowledge acquisition and concept-understanding are truly secure.
  • This is especially the case in the transition period (first three months) of year 12. At post-16, teachers should ensure that prior learning is well and truly consolidated before adding such challenge and must see differentiation of task and activity and learner support to be just as relevant post-16 as it is pre-16. Whilst practice of past-paper questions is absolutely essential and must be continued, a more careful choice of questions and a greater use of scaffolding in the early weeks and months will build confidence as learners segway from level 2 to level 3 content.
  • With even a considerably improved transition programme in place, those whom are struggling at AS level must be identified early with very active individual support plans negotiated and monitored closely by the Director and Assistant Director of faculty.
  • Towards Good and Outstanding Behaviour for All:
  • Supported by the Academy Directors of Learning, build on the good work that has already been done to achieve good behaviour outcomes in all settings, for all teachers. Strategies would include improved teacher-directed punctuality to lessons by learners.
  • Improved Curriculum in Year 9
  • There was some concern raised in teacher interviews with the curriculum at year 9 – not enough attention having been given to year 9 acting as a suitably accessible transition curriculum from key stage 3 to 4. This needs to be audited, with staff and students and if necessary, addressed.
  • Literacy and Questioning:
  • Continue to share the excellent questioning skills and the good use of literacy in lessons exhibited by some teachers in the faculty and embed this and other good literacy practices across the faculty. Staff should continue to share excellent questioning skills, working closely with the Director of Learning, who has a lot to share in this regard.
  • Planning Assessment for Learning:
  • Continue to develop regimes of assessment for learning to support students in their understanding of the levels at which they are working and how they might then move to the next level. This will develop a greater understanding of the levels at which students are working and empower students so that they fully know how to improve.
  • Organisation of Teaching and Learning:
  • Continue to work to reduce the number of split classes – even at key stage 3.
  • Data for Learning:
  • Continue to improve the reliability of data for progress reviews in line with the good work at KS4 - particularly KS3 science and KS5 sciences
  • Specialism:
  • Continue to work collectively as a faculty, to re-engineer the core values and strategic vision of a faculty that heads up the specialism within the academy.

Well Being