1. Achievement for All SSAT SEN Conference 26th May 2011
Garath Jackson
Local Authority Project Lead
(Oldham)

2. Aims of the session An introduction to Achievement for All
Impact to date
Specific examples from Special Schools
The future for Achievement for All

3. What is Achievement for All?
2 Year exciting and pioneering pilot
Improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND
Provided local authorities and schools with support and resources to develop sustainable local solutions
Brings together current programmes,
Builds on good practice in LAs and schools
Focus more on outcomes than processes.

4. Pilot:
Achievement for All takes a whole school approach to school improvement.
Focused on improving teaching and learning for all children and young people, particularly the 20% of the school population identified as having special educational needs and disabilities.
454 schools – primary, secondary, special and PRU.

5. Approach
Achievement for All has three approaches to school improvement:
Improving the aspirations, progress and achievement;
Improved engagement with parents;
Improve the achievement, access and aspiration within wider opportunities.

6. Approach
Improving the aspirations, progress and achievement of all children and young people, through high expectations, effective use of assessment and focused target setting supported and informed by.

7. Approach
Improved engagement with parents of children and young people in supporting their child’s learning through target focused structured conversations.

8. Approach a) Improving attendance b) Improving behaviour
Improve the achievement, access and aspiration of children and young people and provide a wide range of learning opportunities in the classroom and beyond.
a) Improving attendance
b) Improving behaviour
c) Eliminating bullying
d) Developing positive relationships with others
e) Increasing participation in extended services provision, including extra-curricular activities

9. Approach Developing: Achievement Access Aspirations
for All Children and Young People

10. Why?
Achievement for All is based on the belief that teachers and school leaders can have a
profound impact
on all children and young people by developing their achievement, access and aspirations.

11. Achievement for All
This means having high expectations of what they can achieve, working in partnership with parents to set targets for their learning and track their progress, and increasing the range of learning opportunities.

12. Leadership Matters

13. Leadership
A shared Vision – a core set of values and beliefs, shared by all staff, that all children and young people have the right to opportunities to develop their learning.

14. Leadership
Commitment – to creating an ethos and culture of achievement across the whole school, a determination to secure the best provision for vulnerable children and young people and to effective continuing professional development of staff.

15. Leadership
Collaboration – with parents, children and young people and others within and beyond the school, including other schools, to develop and share best practice

16. Leadership
Communication – with and between children and young people, their parents, staff, other schools and other agencies

17. Achievement for All
The impact of Achievement for All has enhanced the life chances of vulnerable learners.
It has also changed the behaviours of leaders and teachers.

18. Raising achievement
90% of AfA schools achieved average gains of 2 sub levels, primary ( reading, writing and maths) secondary ( English and Maths) in the first 2 terms (the same average expected progress over a year as that for children without SEND).
The averages mask some exceptional progress. In one LA over 45% of year 10s made at least 3 sub level gains in English and 36% in Maths in 4 terms. 18% of pupils made at least 6 sub level gains in English and 15 % in Maths in the same period.
“The heads of year and year learning coordinators use the data and they’re printed out and there’s a system where the children that have gone down…or under achieving are highlighted, then interventions are put in place.” – AfA school

19. MMU – Interim Report May 2011
Noticeable improvements were made across the AfA cohort in both English and Maths.
Pupils in Years 5 and 10 made significantly better progress in English than pupils with SEND nationally during the first year of the project, and Year 5 pupils made significantly better progress in English than pupils without SEND nationally.
Pupils in Years 5, 7 and 10 made significantly better progress in Maths than pupils with SEND nationally.
Pupils at School Action Plus, and those with HI, VI, BESD and SPLD, made more progress than other pupils in the cohort.
Males made more progress in Maths than females, and the reverse was true for English.
Overall, more progress was made in English than in Maths.

20. MMU – Interim Report May 2011 cont......
Data is being put to a variety of uses to inform provision and promote positive outcomes
The conversations
a more holistic view of pupils,
a culture shift in parental engagement, and
have been effective in building a genuine partnership.
Parents feel more included in the process of their children’s education, more empowered.
There have also been cases of improved pupil attendance, attributable to a refocus on the pupil themselves and strategies devised to promote enjoyment of school.

21. Outcomes
“AFA has put SEND back in the classroom.” (Head teacher, Bexley)
“Through AFA, teachers have a much clearer picture of this (vulnerable, SEND) group of pupils.” (Manchester University)
“I feel listened to and really valued in the structured conversations.” (Year 5 parent)
“I know exactly what type of support my son is receiving and what his targets are so that I can help him more too.” (Year 5 parent)
My son is now more confident, he interacts better, he is learning more and he feels better about himself. He used to really struggle and was so clingy with me.” (Year 1 parent)
“I feel very comfortable coming into this school even though I have not felt like this in other schools and I used to hate school when I was a kid. I feel confident now when I help my child with her reading.” (Year 1 parent – also has older children in secondary school)

22. Specific Impacts for Special schools
Heart of the Forest Community Special School – Gloucestershire
Brief – SLD/PMLD and MALD
Age range 3-19
11 class groups
Swiss Cottage Specialist School for Special Educational Needs – Camden
Age range 2-16 years
151 places
Spring Brook Primary Special School – Oldham
Age range years
OfSTED - Outstanding February 2011
Pathways Special School – Redcar & Cleveland
Age range years

23. Heart of the Forest Community Special School AfA Objectives
Strategically prioritise and link OFSTED targets and AfA within School Improvement Plan
Assign a link Governors
Further development of CASPA
Review of IEP formulation and evaluation
More internal moderation of summative assessments
Linking Progression Guidance to target setting
Implementation of PSHE assessment to focus on social skill and relationship development
CASPA – Comparative Analysis of Special Pupil Attainment

24. Heart of the Forest – Outcomes
Assessment of Learning – reviewing targets mid year, assessment, pupil progress targets within performance management, data tracking
Improved pupil progress in IEPs- sharing targets with pupils and parents
Behaviour for Learning focus,
Subject/ %
Number
SSM
U&A
Speaking
Listening
Reading
Writing
May not be met 9 8 6 13 1 2 10
On target 31 33 35 34 48 50
Met/ extended 60 59 53 61 65 40

25. Swiss Cottage Specialist School - Camden
Parental Conversations
Training for the Structured conversations
Arranged 1:1 meetings – different to IEP reviews
All teachers had access to provision maps detailing current interventions and CASPA data, which included graphs on attainment and data
Encouraged parents to come into class and observe lessons

26. Swiss Cottage Specialist School – Camden Outcomes
The conversations provided the structure for joint planning of action to take place to address the issue identified by the parent
Parents and carers attending school see the strategies and language used in class to support learning and this has led to the transference of ideas to the home context
The conversations have been an overwhelming success at the school and have really helped to make parents feel listened too and valued.

27. Spring Brook Primary Special - Oldham
‘Spring Brook is an outstanding school which well deserves its excellent reputation with parents and the community. 'This school is fantastic. My child has come on in leaps and bounds and now enjoys rather than hates coming to school.’ ‘exceptionally high expectations of what pupils can achieve’ ‘delivery of high-quality provision’ ‘introduced a highly effective system for tracking pupils' small steps of progress’ ‘Behaviour is excellent and pupils feel exceptionally safe’ ‘exceptionally successful at engaging parents and carers’

28. Pathways – Redcar & Cleveland – Outcomes
July 2009 – OfSTED Notice to Improve
September 2010 – OfSTED Satisfactory with Good capacity to improve. “Pathways Special School have improved considerably” Considerable improvement in partnerships with parents
Attendance has improved from 66%(Feb 2010) to 84%(July 2010)
Exclusions have dramatically decreased from 123 ( Sept – Dec 09) 37 (Jan to Apr 10) 2 (Apr to July 10)
Behaviour has improved dramatically. Pupils are reaching Behaviour targets and being rewarded – Hence academic achievement is improving

29. Pathways – Redcar & Cleveland – Actions
Changed leadership and focus to AfA
Developed assessment and tracking systems
Parental Conversations
Personalised timetables
Improvements to the Common Room

30. Achievement for All beyond the Pilot
Achievement for All is within the SEN Green Paper
Achievement for All to be linked into SSAT Special School hubs.
DfE announced in February that they were to roll out Achievement for All and asked for tenders. (Process is still ongoing)
Will be in place in July to start straight away
In the first instance if you are interested in being involved please visit NCSL website from 6th June
Oldham have a showcase day for you to find out more – 5th July – school led workshops