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Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

Powys County Council was judged to be in need of significant improvement in 2019 and was removed from follow up activity in 2021.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

The council restructured its ALN services and appointed a new head of service. Support for pupils with SEN and ALN is a high priority for the education service and the head of service has works closely with the chief executive and the director of education to bring about improvements in the support provided to schools and pupils. The council brokered external support from experienced consultants and advisers to support this work. Officers are mindful of the need to sustain and build upon this work and strengthened performance management processes and improved professional learning opportunities to upskill and develop permanent members of the ALN team. Improved self-evaluation processes are helping officers to identify strengths and areas for improvement in the work of the ALN team and senior officers have high expectations of the team’s work. The ALN team has brought about these swift improvements in its work at the same time as supporting schools with the ALN transformation agenda.  

Officers have developed good working relationships with schools. They have responded well to the views of headteachers and ALNCos as they put in place new systems and processes. Officers provide effective support and advice, for example through helpful weekly bulletins, meetings and valuable online resources. School leaders appreciate the authority’s single point of access for referrals into the Schools Service through the Powys Inclusion Panel (PIP) and the Early Years Inclusion Panel, as well as the bilingual ‘Tyfu’ platform and gateway. This platform is a very useful and easily accessible resource that ensures that SEN documentation and referrals are all available in one convenient access point. 

The local authority offers valuable professional learning for schools and settings. For example, the service has funded a few teachers in special schools and specialist centres to study post-graduate diplomas in SEN provision. This expertise is shared beneficially with other providers. Other staff in special schools have undertaken professional learning to ensure a high-level of understanding of need. A county-wide training programme has also been established, so that teaching and support staff in all schools are able to develop skills in relation to a broad range of SEN, including autistic spectrum condition; speech, language and communication difficulties; specific learning difficulties and social, emotional and behaviour difficulties. 

What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?

Overall senior leaders within schools and settings feel well supported by local authority additional learning needs officers and central service staff. The local authority makes effective use of a range of data and information as part of its evaluation of services. Officers reflect on strategies that have worked well and those that have been less successful in terms of their impact on learners. For example, following a recent positive behaviour training event, nearly all delegates have made changes to their practice as a direct result of the professional learning. Many schools and settings report that they have already started to see a positive impact on practice including an improved consistency of approach from staff as well as a reduction in challenging behaviours and exclusions.
 

Information about the local authority

Powys County Council is a large, rural county in mid-Wales with a population of 132,515. It covers a quarter of the area of Wales and is one of the largest yet least populated counties in England and Wales. The local authority maintains 95 schools. The authority has one all-through school for pupils aged 3 to 16. There are 80 primary schools, including 21 that provide Welsh-medium education. There are 11 secondary schools, none of which are categorised as Welsh-medium schools. Six of these secondary schools are dual stream language schools. In addition, there are three special schools and a pupil referral unit.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

The purpose and rationale of the bilingual Learning Support screening process is to promote a culture and ethos of inclusivity, which informs teaching and learning practices, support provision and identifies staff training needs. The process helps to facilitate person centred practice, in line with the Additional Learning Needs Education Tribunal Wales Act 2018 (ALNET) and the Equality Act 2010.

Following research, in 2019, the college ALNCo and the Learning Support management team developed an electronic platform for all learners to complete based on their individual profiles. The rationale for the administration of the electronic screening process is to provide an opportunity for learners without a formal diagnosis, or who have not previously disclosed an additional learning need and/or disability (ALN), to self-reflect and record the learner’s profile and neurodiversity. Neurodiversity is the concept where neurological differences are to be recognised and respected by others like all other human variation.

The learning support screening questionnaire informs staff on how best to support the learner and facilitates the compilation of the one-page profile. The process provides immediate feedback at the start of the academic year to curriculum teaching staff via a dedicated the management information system. It promotes self-awareness of individual learner profiles to facilitate reasonable adjustments and in-class differentiation.  
 

Description of nature of strategy or activity

The screening process is administered as part of the learning support induction across all campuses. Within the first two weeks of the autumn term all new and returning further, higher and work-based learning learners complete the electronic questionnaire. This in-person process enables learners to meet key members of learning support staff and to be supported throughout the process to capture a rich profile of each individual learner.  

In terms of accessibility,  learners can use assistive technology (e.g. reading software) to access the easy read format.  The screener has been written using positive language to empower and encourage learners to share valuable information about their learning needs.

All learners complete a questionnaire across a range of areas including:

  • Time management
  • Reading and written work Memory, concentration and organisation  
  • Social and communication needs, sensory sensitivities and dealing with unexpected changes
  • Learning differences, medical and health conditions
  • Previous exam adjustments

Learners have an opportunity to disclose any previous diagnoses and conditions, and to comment on their perceptions of barriers to learning. They can also report on person-centred strategies they are currently employing, and which work for them. Once learners provide a consent to share and submit their responses, the learners are emailed with contact details for key learning support and wellbeing staff, on how to access support which encourages independence and responsibility for their learning, as well as signposting services that are accessible to them throughout the year. Learners and staff can access and view submitted responses via the dedicated management information system. 
 

What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?

Over 2,500 learners completed the screening questionnaire in 2021-2022. The information generated from the learning support screening process supports a person-centred learning experience and promotes an inclusive culture within the college for all learners. The screener acts as a strategy for raising student motivation for learning as they can reflect and interpret their own unique strengths and barriers to learning.

Teachers can view all questionnaires via the dedicated management information system on an individual or class basis. Teaching staff consistently utilise the information to create rich class profiles and to provide an inclusive teaching and learning environment. Teaching staff have reported that the bilingual screening information is vital: the learner’s perspective is insightful and often provides the basis of conversations about personalised learning early in the academic year.  Teachers receive an in-depth understanding of the range and diversity of learning needs within the classroom. The information is embedded in the planning and delivery of teaching and learning sessions. Learning support assistants also access the screener information to plan activities appropriate to learner need and individual support requirements.The learning support team, in conjunction with the teaching and learning team, continue to support teaching staff in utilising the information in the screener and sharing the ethos that ‘ALN is everybody’s responsibility’ at the college. 
 

How have you shared your good practice?

Whole college staff training has been delivered to disseminate the rationale of the Learning Support screening process, along with the compilation of a toolkit to support teaching staff in providing an inclusive learning experience. Staff are therefore not only informed about their learners’ neurodiversity but also given tools and ideas to incorporate into their practice to meet learner needs. Good practice case studies have also been shared with Local Authorities and the All Wales ALNCo Forum.

Information about the college

Coleg Sir Gâr and Coleg Ceredigion became an integrated college in August 2017 and is now referred to as one college, with two brands and seven campuses across Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. The two campuses that form Coleg Ceredigion are in Aberystwyth and Cardigan. Coleg Sir Gâr has five campuses in Ammanford, Gelli Aur, Jobs Well, Pibwrlwyd and Llanelli. The integrated college delivers a wide range of vocational courses with progression opportunities available on most courses to the next level, apprenticeships and higher education. Currently the college has 5,505 further education learners, of which 2,795 are full-time learners and 2,710 are part-time learners. Of the full-time learners, 80% are learners at Sir Gâr and 20% are at Ceredigion.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Information about the provider

Learn Welsh Ceredigion Powys Carmarthenshire (LWCPC) is at the forefront among WfA providers in terms of planning purposefully, in partnership with other organisations, to train the education workforce in line with national priorities to increase the number of active Welsh speakers.

Please identify how the area of excellent/sector-leading practice, identified during the inspection, relates to a particular key question, quality indicator and/or aspect

LWCPC trains the education workforce with workplace-based courses tailored to school staff in Ceredigion and Powys to increase the number of Welsh-speakers in that workforce. They work closely with education officers at Ceredigion Council and Powys Council to identify staff who are in need of training and to tailor relevant courses for them. They also co-operate valuably with Rhagoriaith at the University of Wales Trinity St David (UWTSD) while training the education workforce and sharing the sector’s pedagogy with trainee teachers and teacher trainers. By participating in this scheme, LWCPC realises the Welsh Government priority of expanding intensive Learn Welsh provision for the education workforce.

Context and background to excellent/sector-leading practice

During the lockdown periods, there was an increase in demand for workplace courses at different levels online for the education workforce in Powys and Ceredigion. LWCPC has been involved in the Sabbatical Scheme for teachers for over ten years and now works in a strategic partnership with Rhagoriaith at UWTSD to provide intensive courses for the education workforce. Since September 2021, the provider’s workforce course co-ordinator has been on a part-time secondment with Rhagoriaith for three days a week to teach sabbatical courses to teachers and classroom assistants in Powys. This has led to opportunities to share good practice between the two organisations and both sectors. The co-ordinator shares good practice in the methodology for learning Welsh as a second language in schools with the workplace course tutors who, in turn, share good practice with the education workforce for them to emulate in their schools.

Description of nature of strategy or activity identified as excellent/sector-leading practice

This strategic co-operation is being developed further by planning suitable progression routes for practitioners of National Sabbatical courses on Learn Welsh courses, so that learners can take full advantage of the Welsh Government policy to allow the education workforce free access to Learn Welsh courses. The co-ordinator discusses suitable Learn Welsh courses with the Sabbatical course practitioners, in addition to sharing the details of local extra-curricular activities that are organised by LWCPC e.g. a team of teachers on the Sabbatical course took part in the Big Quiz in the Maldwyn area in 2022, which was an opportunity for them to socialise and use their Welsh in the local community, in addition to at school.

The co-ordinator held discussions with one school when co ordinating a Learn Welsh course in the area so that a teacher who followed a Foundation Sabbatical course could attend a community class during her planning and preparation time. As a result, the teacher has continued her studies and is now the Welsh Language Co-ordinator at the school and will return to the Sabbatical scheme at Intermediate level. A strength of this work is that it is based on working with local authorities, Rhagoriaith, University of Wales Trinity St David and individual schools, and brings expertise from different disciplines together for the benefit of training the education workforce in Powys and Ceredigion.

What impact has this work had on the quality of provision and learners’ standards

As a result of close co-operation and purposeful planning, LWCPC’s courses for the education workforce have succeeded in increasing practitioners’ confidence in using the language they already had, learning suitable new language patterns to use in the classroom with pupils and other staff, and discussing the methodology of teaching Welsh to children in second language schools. This has had a direct effect on practitioners’ standards and the use of Welsh in schools

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Information about the college

Bridgend College is a further education college with a total of around 7,000 learner enrolments. 

The college offers progression opportunities to the next level in many courses. It has approximately 1,864 full-time, and 652 part time learners as well as 545 learners who attend in the evenings or at other times. The college employs around 800 staff and operates across four campuses, with two in Bridgend, Pencoed and Maesteg. It also operates a residential facility for learners with disabilities and severe learning difficulties, Weston House, based within the grounds of its Bridgend campus. 

Across the college, 6.4% of full-time learners identified as having fluent Welsh language skills. Around half the college’s learners come from within the Bridgend County Borough, which stretches roughly 20km from west to east, taking in the Llynfi, Garw and Ogmore valleys. The total population of the county is estimated at about 135,000. The college is positioned centrally between Swansea and Cardiff. The college serves a region with pockets of high social deprivation with economic inactivity rates above the Welsh average. 

Around 148,000 people live in Bridgend. According to data available, the population of Bridgend grew by 8% between the 2001 and 2011 censuses. Of the current population, about 26,000 (18%) are aged under 16, and around 30,000 (20%) are aged 65 and over. 

In September 2021, the employment rate in Bridgend was 72.9% which is slightly lower than the Wales figure of 73.1%. In 2021, average (median) gross weekly earnings in Bridgend stood at £608. This was the highest amongst the 22 local authorities. The Welsh index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) 2019 shows that 40% of Bridgend areas are within the 30% most deprived in Wales. 

Nearly all of Bridgend’s residents are of a white ethnic background. The Annual Population Survey of 2021 indicates the percentage of people aged three and over who speak Welsh in Bridgend is 17%, a 3 percentage points rise in 10 years. 

Around 19% of adults in Bridgend are qualified up to level 2, which is above the Welsh average. The proportion of adults qualified to level 3 (20%) and to levels 4 to 6 (31%) are below the Welsh averages.

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

The college has an ambitious ALN transformation strategy, aligned to the priorities and agenda outlined by the Welsh Government, following the introduction of the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act and the ALN Code of Practice in 2018.

The college has continued to respond to the evolving needs of learners with additional learning needs, creating an inclusive and person-centred environment, focused on personal development, independence and progression.

Whilst it is recognised that not all learners will progress into paid employment, our aspiration must be to support and appropriately stretch the development of all core life and living skills, building on a personalised pathway for each learner.

As such, the college has developed a number of pathways to support learners within the independent living skills (ILS) curriculum area.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

In 2019, the college launched a supported internship programme, an extended work opportunity for learners with additional learning needs, who, with the right support, would be able to secure paid employment as a medium to long-term outcome.

The college worked with a large local business, a supported employment agency and other partners to launch the supported internship programme. Learners undertake job profiling to identify their interests and areas of strength before undertaking three internship rotations across the academic year. Each intern attends the workplace Monday to Friday, with a college tutor and job coach based on site at the host business at all times, with a classroom available at the employer’s premises.

Interns and departments across the host business are supported with assistance from the college tutor and trained job coach, ensuring that each placement has the best opportunity to be effective and successful, without creating additional workload for staff in the host business. Interns are further supported to develop the skills and confidence needed to travel to and from work, through independent travel training – this is a critical element of the programme’s success.

The internship serves as a year-long interview, with interns developing, demonstrating and applying their skills and learning within different contexts, providing a wide range of experience to reflect on in the recruitment process. Interns also complete the full induction at their host employers, meaning that they are well positioned to apply for job opportunities both within the host business or the wider jobs market. Since launching the programme in 2019, the college now runs two separate supported internship programmes. 

The college identified that learners in the ILS curriculum area weren’t always ready to progress onto a full off-campus employment programme and needed further opportunity to develop their confidence, communication and wider core skills before moving onto the supported internship programme.

In 2021, the college launched a campus-based operational coffee shop, fully staffed and managed by ILS learners. The coffee shop is open to the public and college staff Monday to Friday and provides a safe and supportive campus-based experience for learners. The overall model of the coffee shop is aligned to the supported internship programme, with a tutor and job coach assigned to the programme. Learners on the programme complete relevant qualifications and training, including their food hygiene certificate and Barista training. This programme serves as a launchpad for learners to progress fully into the supported internship programme in the following academic year.

What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?

Learners with additional learning needs have improved inclusive pathways to support their long-term outcomes, helping to reduce and remove barriers to developing the skills and confidence needed to gain meaningful paid employment.

A graduated approach towards independence and employability enables learners from the ILS curriculum area to access both accredited and non-accredited qualifications, further supporting their holistic development and the personalised support available to them. Importantly, these programmes also serve as an important transition from college into education for young people with additional learning needs.

Across a three-year period of the supported internship programme running, more than 70% of learners secured paid employment at the end of their internship.

How have you shared your good practice?

Practice has been disseminated via invitations to present at national conferences, as well as both supporting and learning work streams for the Welsh Government on this pathway of ILS provision in Wales.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Information about the college

Bridgend College is a further education college with a total of around 7,000 learner enrolments. 

The college offers progression opportunities to the next level in many courses. It has approximately 1,864 full-time, and 652 part time learners as well as 545 learners who attend in the evenings or at other times. The college employs around 800 staff and operates across four campuses, with two in Bridgend, Pencoed and Maesteg. It also operates a residential facility for learners with disabilities and severe learning difficulties, Weston House, based within the grounds of its Bridgend campus. 

Across the college, 6.4% of full-time learners identified as having fluent Welsh language skills. Around half the college’s learners come from within the Bridgend County Borough, which stretches roughly 20km from west to east, taking in the Llynfi, Garw and Ogmore valleys. The total population of the county is estimated at about 135,000. The college is positioned centrally between Swansea and Cardiff. The college serves a region with pockets of high social deprivation with economic inactivity rates above the Welsh average. 

Around 148,000 people live in Bridgend. According to data available, the population of Bridgend grew by 8% between the 2001 and 2011 censuses. Of the current population, about 26,000 (18%) are aged under 16, and around 30,000 (20%) are aged 65 and over. 

In September 2021, the employment rate in Bridgend was 72.9% which is slightly lower than the Wales figure of 73.1%. In 2021, average (median) gross weekly earnings in Bridgend stood at £608. This was the highest amongst the 22 local authorities. The Welsh index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) 2019 shows that 40% of Bridgend areas are within the 30% most deprived in Wales. 

Nearly all of Bridgend’s residents are of a white ethnic background. The Annual Population Survey of 2021 indicates the percentage of people aged three and over who speak Welsh in Bridgend is 17%, a 3 percentage points rise in 10 years. 

Around 19% of adults in Bridgend are qualified up to level 2, which is above the Welsh average. The proportion of adults qualified to level 3 (20%) and to levels 4 to 6 (31%) are below the Welsh averages.

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

The Junior Apprenticeship programme is a partnership between the college, the local authority and local schools.  It originated as part of a Welsh Government post-16 Creative Solutions initiative. 

Following a rigorous transition process headed up by the college’s partnerships team, successful learners leave their school environment and join the college community for Year 10 and Year 11.  Key to the success of the programme is the wrap-around support each learner receives from specialist learning coaches and a staff team with expertise in youth engagement and safeguarding. 

The college has space for a maximum of 90 learners on this programme. 

Description of nature of strategy or activity

Junior Apprentices are young people who are struggling to remain in the school environment but demonstrate a flair for vocational learning. These young people are capable of achieving well in an environment that is able to allow them to flourish and learn. Learners attend college for 5 days a week and study an innovative curriculum made up of core GCSEs and a vocational qualification in either construction, hair and beauty, or sport and public services. 

Following a morning meeting with learning coaches and staff in their base room, learners attend their classes. Here they are provided with the opportunity to develop vocational skills in fully resourced workshops.  Work-related experience is key to motivating learners to stay on programme. The college uses project-based learning, developing entrepreneurial skills as a core component of the programme. Activities include creating products for sale at Christmas markets, producing sustainable products such as bird boxes and holding pamper days for staff and learners, with all learners accessing work experience in Year 11.  

Enrichment activities that develop the softer skills learners that need and which are often underdeveloped, are a foundation to the programme and have resulted in learners completing sports coaching qualifications, attend Fitness First courses with the army alongside a range of trips, visits and community action activities such as beach cleaning and providing artwork for areas that need beautifying. These activities provide learners with a sense of purpose and help them to develop pride in their work, the community they are part of and help individuals to develop clear aspirations and goals. 
 

What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?

In the five years of the programme running, the successful completion rates of the vocational qualifications annually exceed 95%. GCSE results are in line with or exceed predicted grades. In a few cases learners accelerate their studies by joining mainstream post-16 resit classes and have achieved A grades. 

Destination data demonstrates the worth of the programme with over 80% of learners progressing onto post-16 qualifications at the college, further study, apprenticeships or employment. 
 

How have you shared your good practice?

As part of a network of institutions who facilitate Junior Apprenticeship programmes, Bridgend college shares successes and examples of processes and initiatives that work. 

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Information about the school/provider

The North East Wales Adult Community Learning Partnership was established in April 2021. It is a partnership between Flintshire County Council and Wrexham County Borough Council. The partnership employs five lead providers to deliver most of its Welsh Government-funded provision.

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

In family learning sessions, parents and their children work, play and learn together.  Sessions take place in school and community venues. They offer supportive environments for parents to help their own children learn and, in the process, become re-engaged with education, grow their confidence, and develop their own literacy, numeracy and other skills. 

In this partnership, leaders have worked closely with community groups and headteachers from local schools to identify what would work best in their areas.  The family learning offer was shared and promoted by the school and community groups, and this has helped parents to engage with the programmes. 
 

Description of nature of strategy or activity

The partnership identified two main priorities for its family learning provision – improving reading skills and outdoor education. A ‘Wellies in the Woods’ six-week programme was devised and offered to primary schools. This involved working with parents and children in local schools, making use of the very good outside spaces that many schools have. The programme focuses on the communication skills of all involved and shares exciting ways of promoting, supporting and improving reading in the outdoors. The partnership evaluates its programme throughout the year to make sure that it makes the best engagement with families and local communities. As of August 2022, 187 families have completed the Wellies in the Woods programme. 

The partnership has established a range of programmes offering different contexts for family learning, each with the aim of engaging parents and children in learning together, including:

  • ‘Unwind with Wool’, which focuses on the wool sector in North Wales, where participants learn wool felting and craft skills, incorporating literacy and numeracy, and areas of the science curriculum
  • Family history, where participants research their family’s history, improve their digital literacy and learn how to work safely online
  • Sea glass and mindfulness which focuses on improving participants’ knowledge of the North Wales coastline, craft skills and use of mindfulness techniques. 
     

What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?

The partnership’s collaborative approach to planning family learning resulted in the offer being shared and promoted well. Engagement on all courses has been good and families have been positive about the impact the courses have had on their lives. One parent commented ‘I have loved being back in my son’s school after lockdown, learning new skills and spending quality time with my son’.

With the partnership’s support, many leaners taking part in these family learning programmes have identified their next steps in learning and the partnership has put in place provision to help these learners continue to progress.  
 

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Information about the school/provider

The North East Wales Adult Community Learning Partnership was established in April 2021. It is a partnership between Flintshire County Council and Wrexham County Borough Council. The partnership employs five lead providers to deliver most of its Welsh Government-funded provision.

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

The policy of the Welsh Government has been to encourage adult learning in the community partnerships to join together into larger regional partnerships. In the case of Wrexham and Flintshire, changes to Welsh Government funding resulted in both counties having similar funding allocations.  The Welsh Government supported the proposal to combine both local authorities as this enabled more effective strategic and operational decision making while also maximising the funding for each area. The proposal was then approved by both local authority executive boards. The two authorities then adopted a staged approach to support the establishment of the partnership, including developing a procurement exercise to tender for lead providers to deliver provision

Description of nature of strategy or activity

The procurement exercises to appoint lead providers were carried out separately by both local authorities, but the authorities worked very closely together to ensure as much alignment as possible.  Online ‘meet the buyer’ events were organised to help refine the procurement process and allow providers potentially interested in tendering to find out more.

Each local authority’s contracts and procurement teams supported the process and published tender specifications on Sell2Wales. Three lots were offered, on Essential Skills provision, Employability provision and to provide a LLWR data processing service. (LLWR is the Welsh Government database on which ALC and other post-16 providers record information about their learners and programmes)  
In commissioning lead providers, the local authorities’ contracts teams used the same commissioning framework to assess suitability, including a pre-approval questionnaire. The pre-approval questionnaire included questions on policies and processes, health and safety and safeguarding. A finance evaluation was also submitted for each tender.

For potential providers to move through to the second stage, local authority management teams individually evaluated each tender against set criteria. The team then worked together to standardise scores. Results were based on 80% quality and 20% price. An overall score for each tender was then calculated for each tender and the highest scoring tenders secured the contracts. 
Organisations were informed if they had been successful or not, with a ten-day standstill. This allowed organisations to challenge the decisions made. After the ten-day standstill providers were informed of the final decisions. Across the partnership, contracts were awarded to two providers in Wrexham and three in Flintshire, with one provider awarded to a contract to input LLWR data. 

In April 2021 a management and quality committee was formed, made up of officials from the local authorities, and representatives from the lead provider and partner organisations. The remit of this committee was to work together, transparently and in partnership, to work towards the highest quality delivery and the best 21st century learning provision. A curriculum group was also formed to support the planning of provision and share good practice across all partners; and a quality committee whose aims include:  

  • promoting a culture where quality improvement is at the heart of provision
  • monitoring and evaluation of the outcomes of the partnership’s provision
  • monitoring and reviewing the partnership’s self-evaluation report and quality improvement plan 

Both local authorities retain responsibility for the funding they receive from the Welsh Government and submit separate annual service delivery plans. However, the planning and self-evaluation of the service delivery plans are carried out in collaboration. 
 

What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?

The two local authorities have quickly established an effective adult learning in the community partnership. The partnership offers a broad range of activities and describes the learner’s journey as being at the heart of all decision-making. 

The partnership’s leaders ensure that lead providers work closely together to plan the curriculum, avoid duplication, and communicate effectively to ensure the partnership can respond to need in a short space of time. 

Learners at the partnership make sound progress, make new friends and develop new skills. Through taking part in the partnership’s courses, many learners experience an increase in their confidence and willingness to go on to more formal learning.
 

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

The college has a strong commitment to continuous professional learning to enable staff to develop their skills, and to support the college’s aim to deliver an inspirational learner experience. The college’s Excellence Pathway professional learning model encourages staff to engage in self-reflection and self and peer assessment to identify areas for development in order that they can access appropriate and individualised professional learning opportunities.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

Bespoke pathways for professional Learning – Culture of Curiosity 

The college is committed to inspire curiosity in all those who work and learn in the college. The college supports staff to be innovative, creative and to challenge themselves to learn in order to inspire learners to do the same. The college recognises that in order to role model the power of curiosity to learners, staff needed to lead by example.

The college’s pathways of curiosity are a bespoke series of professional learning routes that staff can opt to take. This enables staff to access a personalised and tailored suite of professional learning activities that is closely matched to their individual needs. Following the reflective process of self-evaluation and professional discussions, staff can opt to follow a pathway for an academic year based on identified areas for development and their natural sense of curiosity. Each pathway is supported by the central teaching and learning team working in conjunction with faculty management teams and the senior leadership team. Pathways include: action research pathway, EdTech pathway, industry pathway, new starter pathway, professional qualification pathway, leadership pathway, governor pathway and a bilingual pathway.

Action research pathway 
The programme is designed to last the full academic year with each member of staff released from teaching for 2 hours a week.

Staff submit project proposals and constructive feedback is provided by a panel who support the project development from the outset. Creativity is nurtured and staff are able to take their project in the direction they feel is relevant to their practice; they are able to decide the focus, the methodology and the nature of the outcomes. Through one-to-one support staff have ownership of how the project will evolve and adapt as new learning is acquired. The programmes distinctive features include:

  • Guest speaker programme 
  • Technique workshops
  • One to one support 
  • Peer review Groups 
  • Festival of Practice and website. 
  • Supported to share and publish work.

What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?

In 2021-2022 the college’s Action Research theme focussed on Engagement and Retention. In the current climate, post-pandemic, the college target of 90% for attendance for learners was a difficult threshold to reach. In March 2022 the college wide attendance was 86% and as of May it has decreased to 84%. 

Below are snapshot examples of data that support the positive impact on attendance for those groups of learners taught by staff engaging in action research. The data was taken in May 2022 as staff completed their projects. 
The Music Technology Project utilising the Thinking Environment current attendance for groups involved in the project: Level 3 Year 1 = 92.9%, Level 3 Year 2 = 92.8%. The current attendance of the group not involved = 79.2%.

Creative Industries lecturer:

In my Year 2 group the attendance went from 83% to 92.9% which impacted engagement and successful completion of the course. Successful completion then improved from 88% to 100%, with 40% of students achieving a Distinction grade, compared to 28% in the previous year.

Giving learners the ownership of selecting their own timetable has not only increased attendance, it has improved engagement and enthusiasm. Allowing learners to have ownership of their timetable, selecting from a selection of workshops has enabled projects to become more multidisciplinary. A costume designer could select to learn welding alongside pattern cutting. This project arose to further align to the art & design world, where practitioners need to be more multidisciplinary, agile and adaptable to the economy.

Festival of Practice 
The programme culminates in the college Festival of Practice and a website is produced which gives each practitioner a platform to share their thinking and progress. The festival sessions are workshop driven and staff across the college can select sessions they would like to attend based on their own curiosity. The sessions are interactive and encourage those attending to consider how the ideas explored can be embedded into their own areas of practice. The website is an open forum where staff are encouraged to be creative in the presentation of their work through blogs, vlogs, photos, presentations, toolkits, learner and staff voice interview soundbites and formal writing.

How have you shared your good practice?

During 2021-2022, the Action Research Programme was one of two professional learning initiatives explored as part of the Welsh Government’s National Professional Learning Project led by UCU. The outcome of this project has led to the college formally sharing the development of a research culture in four partner colleges as part of the Collaborative strand of the Professional Learning fund for 2022-2023.

Information about the college

Coleg Sir Gâr and Coleg Ceredigion became an integrated college in August 2017 and is now one college, with two brands and seven campuses across Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. The two campuses that form Coleg Ceredigion are in Aberystwyth and Cardigan. Coleg Sir Gâr has five campuses in Ammanford, Gelli Aur, Jobs Well, Pibwrlwyd and Llanelli.  

The college delivers a wide range of vocational courses with progression opportunities available on most courses to the next level, apprenticeships and higher education.  Currently the college has 5,505 further education learners, of which 2,795 are full-time learners and 2,710 are part-time learners.  Of the full-time learners, 80% are learners at Sir Gâr and 20% are at Ceredigion.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Information about the school

Ysgol Gyfun Bro Myrddin is a designated Welsh-medium mixed community school for pupils from 11-18 years old and is maintained by Carmarthenshire local authority. It is situated in Croesyceiliog, Carmarthenshire. There are 912 pupils on roll and 190 students in the sixth form. Four point two percent (4.2%) of the school’s pupils are eligible for free school meals. Many (around 70%) of pupils come from Welsh speaking homes but all are able to speak Welsh.
 

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

In article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, it is stated that all children have the right to be heard in matters that affect them. The school wanted to ensure that all pupils feel that they are able to use their voice to drive improvements and whole-school plans. The school council was already involved in projects on behalf of pupils, is part of the school’s improvement plans, attends governing body meetings and contributes to appointing staff, but leaders were keen to include more pupils in decisions to ensure that everyone has a part to play in developing the ‘Bro Myrddin family’.

Description of the nature of the strategy or activity

In order to drive whole-school improvements, developing ‘Pupil Voice’ opportunities was set as a priority in the school development plan. The vision was implemented in various ways:

  • It was ensured that the voice of the school council and the humanitarian committee was disseminated across the school through relevant assemblies and various events.
  • Weekly meetings were held between the headteacher and the head prefects to hear the voice of young leaders.
  • Wellbeing forums were developed for each year at the request of the school council, under the leadership of Years 12/13, to expand the pupil’s voice and this meant setting an agenda for meetings and reporting back to the senior leadership team at the end of each meeting. Forum members were exchanged regularly to ensure a variety of views and fair and balanced representation across the school.
  •  A wellbeing post box was established, which is now used by many of the pupils so that individuals can express their worries or views directly.
  •  A specific link was placed on the school website for pupils to express their views and share their concerns confidentially with heads of year.
  •  Pupil forums were organised for each year to express their views to the senior leadership team and the pastoral heads of issues with responsibility for curriculum and wellbeing issues.
  •  Whole-school questionnaires were sent to learners seeking their views on a number of topics, including wellbeing, safety, healthy eating, online lessons and the effectiveness of curricular provision.
  • It was ensured that all departments placed the ‘pupil’s voice’ high on their agenda and pupils were given an opportunity to express their views on departments’ themes and teaching strategies.
  •  A conference by the Children’s Commissioner was attended to share good practice.
     

What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?

  • After ‘listening’ to the ‘pupil’s voice’, a number of ideas were acted upon:
  • Personal and social education plans were adapted
  • Additional wellbeing lessons were provided for Year 7 and 8 pupils and the content was led by pupils
  • The curriculum was adapted
  • The ‘sports’ lessons offer was adapted
  • More use of laptops was ensured, including a pilot 1:1 equipment scheme with Year 7 in September 2022
  • The school’s outdoor space was developed to be more pupils friendly and useful
  • The new ‘Blas tu Fas’ dining hub was developed
  • The canteen menus were adapted
  • A new study room was created for the sixth form
  • More activities were developed to raise money for causes that are relevant to pupils.

Pupils have a ‘voice’ in the school but, more importantly, the school hears the pupil’s voice and listens. This gives pupils a sense of ownership, which builds the community and environment of the whole school.

Leaders now feel, through the voice of groups, forums and specific committees, that the pupil’s voice has a prominent place at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bro Myrddin. This has all led to curricular changes and changes to the environment and daily organisation of the school. They feel that this has developed and deepened pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skills across the school and has added to their personal wellbeing. They hope that all pupils now feel part of the ‘Bro Myrddin family’.

How have you shared your good practice?

The school has raised awareness of practices through special assemblies, governors’ meetings, various social media websites and by communicating with parents. The school is also part of Welsh Government research on the pupil voice and the pandemic, which is an opportunity to share good practice.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Information about the school

Whitmore High School opened in 2018 on the same site as Barry Comprehensive school. Since then, a substantial transformation project has taken place during which the school moved from a single sex, boys’ school to a mixed comprehensive. The school moved into a new building in 2021. There are 1082 pupils on roll, including around 160 in the sixth form. Around 20% of all pupils are eligible for free school meals. The headteacher was appointed in 2019.
 

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

Whitmore High School’s philosophy is grounded firmly on the ‘four pillars’ that provide the basis for developing the whole child and which form ‘The Whitmore Values’. This philosophy is advocated by nearly all staff who work to ensure that pupils are valued and listened to, are treated as individuals, and receive consistently good teaching and extensive opportunities outside lessons. This is so that they can succeed in their learning and nurture their passions and talents.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

A whole-school learning and teaching approach has been deployed, achieved and embedded at Whitmore High School. This has been done by employing a simple, consistent and stepped approach, ensuring clarity of purpose and expectations. The Whitmore direct teaching method is not lecturing, and teachers are expected to ‘chunk’ learning to ensure that there is no excessive cognitive overload on pupils’ working memory. Following initial modelling, pupils are given structured tasks to practise applying the new skills or knowledge, culminating in independent work. ‘The Whitmore Way’ of learning and teaching is characterised as ‘modelling and scaffolding towards independence’. 

At Whitmore High School the teacher is in control of the learning intentions. They make these explicitly clear to the pupils. Teachers demonstrate by modelling, evaluate by questioning, address misconceptions and provide learning scaffolds with decreasing levels of support until independence is achieved. This blend of approaches has direct teaching as its focus. The approach to teaching and learning at Whitmore High is grounded in research and was co-created with staff. They are confident that this method produces independent and confident learners: 

Many pupils make strong progress in their learning and benefit significantly from effective teaching and assessment’ (Estyn 2022).
Leaders believe that this is a way of learning that promotes high expectations and high challenge, providing individuals with a gateway to future success. In addition, it provides a blueprint of what is required of teachers to be successful in the classroom. This clarity empowers teachers to deliver lessons that meet the high expectations of the school. By providing complete clarity for staff, the learning and teaching model allows teaching to improve at a rapid rate by enabling teachers to develop mastery of each element, as evidenced within the Estyn report. 
This clear blueprint allows staff training to be highly focused on the elements of a lesson that have the most impact. All staff training, including INSET days, morning briefings and one-to-one coaching, revolve around the key elements of a ‘Whitmore lesson’. The objective of the coaching programme at Whitmore High School is to develop a structured process to allow for meaningful discussions between colleagues based on the Whitmore learning and teaching model. This non-judgmental and supportive relationship between coach and coachee facilitates the sharing of experience and dissemination of best practice. This creates a culture of reflective practice where teachers are open to and willing to engage in learning and teaching.

In addition, all staff members are encouraged to complete their Masters in Education (Wales) qualification with Cardiff Metropolitan University (13 members of staff are currently enrolled), with all research and enquiry assignments focused on an element of the Whitmore model for teaching and learning. Due to the simplicity of the model, all staff can clearly articulate to peers what is expected, and they have a shared vocabulary of the key elements of a lesson. This shared understanding leads to useful and successful collaboration. The school-based professional learning programme underpins these non-negotiable criteria for teachers when they plan lessons. In-house master classes support teachers’ development beneficially by equipping them with the pedagogical strategies and confidence to embed the Whitmore learning and teaching model.
Quality assurance is achieved through an ‘open-door’ policy that is evident throughout the school. Frequent learning walks, a robust observation timetable and an effective coaching programme allow leaders to make robust judgements about the quality of teaching and learning in the school:

‘Senior leaders have a well-considered approach to gathering first-hand evidence about the quality of teaching. This includes formal lesson observations and frequent trips around the school to check how well pupils are engaged in their work’ (Estyn 2022). 
 

What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?

Staff welcome senior leaders and coaches into their lessons because they have confidence in what is expected. They do not feel the need to produce ‘show lessons’ that do not mirror their everyday practice. Instead, they follow the key elements of the Whitmore model, safe in the knowledge that any feedback will be clearly linked to the expected elements of the ‘Whitmore way’. 

There is a strong culture of reflective practice at Whitmore High School, where teachers are open to and willing to engage in their own learning, improving their teaching and are committed to making a difference to pupils’ learning experiences.