Provision for pupils with Additional Learning Needs
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Information about the school
Ysgol Gyfun Llangefni is a bilingual secondary school for 11 to 18-year-old pupils that is maintained by Isle of Anglesey local authority. The school is situated in the town of Llangefni in the centre of Anglesey and is mainly a Welsh-speaking area.
There are 719 pupils on roll, including 91 pupils in the sixth form. Seventy-eight point five per cent (78.5%) of pupils come from Welsh-speaking homes. The percentage of pupils who are eligible for free school meals is around 18.9%, on average. The senior leadership team includes the headteacher, the deputy headteacher, two assistant headteachers and two acting assistant headteachers.
Context and background to the effective or innovative practice
In preparation for the arrival of the new Code of Practice for Additional Learning Needs (ALN), the school has prioritised preparing staff to enable them to provide confidently for pupils with ALN. This has happened at several levels, including governors, the senior management team, middle leaders, teachers, assistants and support staff. The school believes that ALN is everyone’s responsibility and the ALNCo was given responsibility for ensuring that all members of staff have the ability to realise this.
Description of nature of strategy or activity
The ALN register is a live, comprehensive document that refers specifically to barriers to learning and includes specific guidance on how to overcome them. There are also direct links to the one page profiles of all pupils with ALN. Information is recorded about any personal support methods that are suitable for each individual, in addition to reference to universal support strategies.
A provision map refers specifically to all interventions that are provided by the school. Particular attention is given to the input and output criteria for each individual intervention. Attention is also given to the further action that will be needed if the intervention is unsuccessful.
When producing individual learning plans, attention is given to pupils’ aspirations and an attempt is made to produce outcomes that lead to those aspirations. As a result, it is ensured that any additional teaching provision is pupil-centred.
The school identified a decline in pupils’ basic skills following the lockdown periods and not necessarily among pupils who would need additional learning provision. In response to this, the school identified a priority to ensure ‘Quality First Teaching’ in the school development plan, which means developing teaching strategies that highlight the need for personal learning methods that encourage prioritising the needs of pupils with ALN when planning.
The school is on a journey to becoming a trauma-informed school, which has included whole-school training, SMT training and facilitating a number of the school’s staff and stakeholders to complete a relevant diploma. This means that pupils with ALN are given opportunities to use alternative methods to communicate their feelings, placing less emphasis on verbal or written communication.
To realise this vision, the school has invested time and money in training classroom assistants. Comprehensive training opportunities have been prepared, such as the ‘Practising Teaching Assistant’ programme, ELSA and ‘Drawing and Talking’. The ALN department has also created discussion prompts to be used with pupils to promote independence; work that is based on EEF (Education Endowment Foundation) research.
Recently, the ALN department has transformed its approach to conducting departmental meetings. It now holds ‘Datrysiad’ (‘Solution’) meetings, which provide opportunities to share good practice and experiment with a range of support strategies.
What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?
As a result of the training presented to all staff on the new Code of Practice and the priorities in the school development plan, all members of staff are aware of their duty to provide appropriately to meet any barriers to learning for pupils with ALN. This has enabled departments to evaluate their provision for this specific group of pupils. These valuable evaluations are used to plan future improvement through the school development plan and departmental development plans.
Investment in provision-mapping software has enabled the school to evaluate the success and value for money of any interventions that are in place. In cases where there is no progress, reference can be made back to the provision map to adapt additional learning provision. Recent evaluations show that the assistants’ response scripts have led to a reduction in superficial support that prioritises ‘task completion’ and an increase in practices that prioritise the process of learning and metacognition. These indicators are also a strong reflection of the successes of staff in differentiating effectively for pupils with ALN. Evaluations of a secondary questionnaire on trauma also show the positive effect that the support given to pupils with ALN has on their emotional well being.
How have you shared your good practice?
The school works closely with primary schools in the catchment area and cascades good practice through meetings of the catchment area’s ALNCos. The school works closely with secondary schools on Anglesey and makes use of the ‘Cynghrair Ysgolion Môn’ (‘Anglesey Schools Alliance’) co-operation plan to share best practice and seek the opinions of other colleagues on this work.