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Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Information about the local authority

Cardiff Council is in the city of Cardiff and has a population of 369,000. The local authority maintains 126 schools. There are 101 primary schools, including 17 that provide Welsh-medium education and three maintained nursery schools. There are 18 secondary schools including three Welsh-medium schools. In addition, there are seven special schools and one pupil referral unit.

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

Cardiff has the most diverse population in Wales as it contains the largest concentration of non-white population both in terms of actual numbers and percentages of any local authority in Wales. More than 40% of Wales’s non-white population are resident in Cardiff. More significantly, some 55% of black groups resident in Wales are living in Cardiff.

Cardiff’s ethnically diverse population is due in part to its past trading connections and post war immigration. Many groups of people arrived and settled in the following decades. Cardiff has also been a dispersal area for asylum seekers for more than a decade. The council was part of the Syrian re-settlement scheme (SRVSP) before the COVID-19 pandemic and at the time of the inspection had families on the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme, waiting for dispersal. The council provides education for children who are part of these schemes, even if they are only in the city for a short time. In recent years, EU nationals have arrived, along with large numbers of students from around the world who attend local universities and bring their families. This presents challenges for schools as their population increases and becomes more diverse, often at short notice.  

The council receives additional funding through the Minority Ethnic/Gypsy Roma Traveller (ME/GRT) grant to support ethnic minority pupils and those with English or Welsh as an additional language. Since 2015 the majority of this funding has been delegated to schools. The authority maintains a small central team including five ‘closing the gap’ officers who oversee support for schools across the city and a small team of teachers and teaching assistants. Support for Welsh medium schools is through the medium of Welsh. In recent years, the central team’s support has mainly focused on supporting schools who have not traditionally had pupils who are asylum seekers refugees or migrants and have not got established expertise in working with pupils with English as an additional language.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

The decision to delegate the majority of the Minority Ethnic/ Gypsy Roma Traveller (ME/GRT) grant to schools and to maintain a small central team has supported school staff to improve their provision for pupils from a diverse range of backgrounds. Although support is still available through the central team, schools are no longer solely reliant on this external support and school staff are more confident in providing learning experiences that meet the needs of the increasing diversity of their school populations.

The central team organise regular training events and forums for school staff to support this work, for example on re-engaging with pupils who have English as an additional language (EAL) after the school closures caused by the pandemic and supporting the wellbeing of asylum seekers and refugees. The team use these events effectively to share good practice between schools. Team members provide materials and resources to support schools, including for refugee week and Black History month.

The team has produced an induction pack for schools to support the process of admitting a refugee, asylum seeker or a migrant with little English or Welsh. All new parents have support to complete admission forms and to help them to provide information on their child’s previous experiences including language background, personal interests, previous schooling and any relevant information about the family. Interpreters and translated materials are provided for families when required. This information is passed on to class/subject teachers prior to the child starting school. Schools ensure that new pupils have school uniform ahead of their first day.

Cardiff was officially recognised as a City of Sanctuary in 2014. Schools in Cardiff embrace this and have become part of the growing Schools of Sanctuary network across the UK. Schools are creating a culture of welcome and inclusion whist raising awareness of the issues faced by refugees and asylum seekers. The programme is being driven by the central team and through the local authority’s Race Equality Action Plan.

The EMTAS team works with school staff to ensure that the views of asylum seekers and refugee pupils about the school’s provision and support are considered. The central team has facilitated training on best practice in terms of family engagement and continue to work with outside agencies to seek best practice in reaching families that are hard to reach. Officers secured valuable support from Bridgend local authority about how to improve family engagement.   

Supporting schools whose demographic is changing is key to the work of the central team. Some schools in Cardiff have extremely well-established practice, others need support to establish their practice. Wherever possible school to school support and networking is encouraged. One Cardiff secondary schools in the last four years has trebled its numbers of EAL learners to 16% of the total school population with 36 known languages spoken. The headteacher has worked with members of the EMTAS to establish a small support team to ensure that bilingual learners are quickly settled into school life and are challenged to reach their full potential.

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

Many pupils who have English as an additional language achieve well when compared to their peers, particularly by the end of key stage 4.

Schools in the Schools of Sanctuary network have noted that their children have improved their knowledge and understanding about the meaning of refuge and what it means to seek sanctuary. In some instances, evidence showed that initially children viewed the concept from a position of trepidation and a focus of its impact on them and how it affects their lives. As they engaged more in exploring the meaning of refuge, so their understanding of the challenges refugees faced developed, and the emphasis shifted to one where there was a growing empathy for those seeking sanctuary.

Provision and support for individual pupils and families have resulted in pupils settling well into schools and many make good progress in learning English.

How have you shared your good practice?

Termly EAL forums are now well established in the local authority and provide the opportunity to share good practice from schools in Cardiff and from other local authorities.

The School of Sanctuary network has been established and schools have been able to share  innovative practice and their school of sanctuary journeys. Schools in Cardiff have learned from schools in England and the network is now accessible to all local authorities across Wales.

Officers have shared many aspects of our practice across authorities in Wales, shared resources and supported developments in other local authorities.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Information about the local authority

Cardiff Council Youth Service is aligned to the Education Directorate of Cardiff Council. The youth service in Cardiff provides a range of services for young people aged between 11 and 25 years of age. This includes open access youth work in communities, street-based youth work, youth mentoring support aligned to schools as well as a post-16 offer to support the Youth Engagement and Progression framework. The local authority has approximately 90,000 young people 11-25 years of age.

Youth work was a focus during Cardiff Council’s inspection in 2021. The team reported that in the 12 months prior to the inspection, the youth service developed an innovative digital youth work offer to deliver effective youth work to a broader range of young people in the city. This work is led by young people who worked effectively with youth workers and web developers to create a bespoke young person friendly website for the youth service. They collaborated with partners to determine the content and most appropriate digital platform for online activities. The local authority has recognised the value of this approach and has plans to further develop this aspect of youth work provision.

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

The onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 meant that the Cardiff Youth Service team was unable to provide its usual face to face support. It was clear that the service, in line with youth organisations worldwide, was not ready to deliver services remotely. The online offer from Cardiff Youth Service was extremely limited, consisting of a few staff members using social media infrequently. This caused concern considering young people’s use of social media and digital technology in their everyday lives. This was a challenging situation and Cardiff Youth Service responded quickly to develop a strategy to continue its youth services with young people. The first step was to invest in a digital youth work team to support the work of the Youth Work Strategy for Wales.  

The youth service team recognised that the development of any new team and new ways of working requires research. They researched the evidence base and best practice examples for digital youth work with much of this coming from countries in Europe. They used the philosophy of Digital EU which describes digital youth work as ‘proactively using or addressing digital media and technology in youth work. Digital youth work is not a youth work method – digital youth work can be included in any youth work setting (open youth work, youth information and counselling, youth clubs, detached youth work…).  Digital youth work has the same goals as youth work in general and using digital media and technology in youth work should always support these goals.  Digital youth work can happen in face-to-face situations as well as in online environments – or in a mixture of these two. Digital media and technology can be used either as a tool, an activity or a content in youth work.  Digital youth work is underpinned by the same ethics, values and principles as youth work. Youth workers in this context refer to both paid and volunteer youth workers.’

Description of nature of strategy or activity

The digital team and wider youth service gathered the views of young people in communities. This ranged from formal consultation to informal discussion in youth work settings. From this work, youth workers identified a need for information about the services that Cardiff Youth Service offered as well as information on wider youth support services to be easily accessible to all in a single online site. Young people told youth workers that they wanted opportunities to develop digital skills including filming, photography and editing and to communicate with youth workers through access to social media and safe digital spaces.

To ensure that young people’s needs were being met the youth work team ensured that staff members  had appropriate equipment and support to be able continue to communicate with young people through social media. To stay up to date with latest platforms young people are using there was need to review existing methods of communication and social media policies and develop and update a social media and digital media guidelines and procedures document for all staff members. One staff member noted that 85% of their engagement with young people in their role as a youth mentor is through social media due to young people being able to use Wi-Fi at little cost.

Young people have been central to digital developments in the service. They established quickly that the information about the Youth Service area on the corporate council website required updating. A website development group was set up and group members met weekly online to explore other websites and generate ideas about important features and site design. The group met with the web developer to outline their views, opinions and vision for the site. The site was improved and now contains useful information about Cardiff Youth Service, including a meet the team section, resources, membership forms, information about wider youth support services and a blog feature. The site can be accessed here. To ensure that young people can access the site, the street-based team explored how this can be done through QR codes.  This system has been adopted throughout the service with the codes on posters and business cards.

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

One young person has shared his experience of being involved in the website development group and discusses the impact it has had on him here. As a result of the website development, the young creator’s group was formed to enable young people to create and develop content for Cardiff youth services’ website, social media channels and to help them to develop new skills.

The young creators group has provided opportunities for the service to explore other forms of digital youth work. The digital team offered weekly online opportunities for young people to learn new skills in graphic design, blog writing, videography and editing. These have given young people the skills to express themselves confidently and share their views on matters that are important to them  in addition to improving their skills in creating online content. Some of the work that the group has produced can be found using the following links.

Day in the Life Of the Class 2020/2021 – YouTube

https://youtu.be/VTZKHITcKoc

Pride Month (cardiffyouthservices.wales)

The group has been in existence over a year now and members continue to meet weekly at Butetown youth club. Nearly all the young people that have engaged with this project are new members of Cardiff Youth Service. One young person provided the following feedback about his involvement of the group.

‘I found out about Cardiff Youth Service’s Young Creators from an email my headteacher sent out to the whole school. The things listed in the email included various topics of content creation, such as video editing, graphic design and blog writing – I was quite interested in the latter two at the time, so I signed up. That was exactly a year ago. 

My time at the Young Creators has helped me to develop my skills in a wide variety of media – if it weren’t for this club, I probably would never have used a professional camera, edited using specialist software, written blogs for a website, hosted social media takeovers, interviewing members of the public – the list goes on.

Alongside this, I’ve also boosted my confidence slightly and made some new friends – and those are never bad things. Since I joined in November 2020, I have also volunteered to work for Cardiff Youth Service’s Gaming Club and have since produced a promotional video for them’. (Young Person).

This project was a catalyst for other work with young people. The youth service has offered opportunities for young people from different areas of Cardiff to get involved with similar projects.  The youth service has many example of this work that young people are willing to share.

Members of the young creators group have volunteered to support others at a gaming club run by Cardiff Youth Service. The club provides a safe space for young people to meet up with like-minded people that were socially isolated from their peers. Through this young people have built relationships with others and improved their communication and teamwork skills while receiving support from youth workers. This online work has developed into face to face activity held at a bespoke gaming facility in Cardiff city centre. The club runs weekly at the venue and is accessed by a wide range of young people, including those who have physical disabilities, learning difficulties and emotional health issues. All current members are newly involved with Cardiff Youth Service. Referrals to this provision are made from wider youth support services for young people they work with.

How have you shared your good practice?

Throughout this time of exploring digital youth work approaches with young people there has been increased demand for sharing youth work practice to further develop youth workers and wider youth support services skills and abilities as well as being able to offer digital services and opportunities with young people.

Cardiff Youth Service’s digital team coordinated two events ‘digital spaces and approaches’ that consisted of a range of presentations focusing on digital youth work from our national, local and regional partners that covered the following themes: expressive arts, health and wellbeing, employment education and training, digital tools, QR codes, Gaming, Digital citizenship and wellbeing. The presentations covered their approach, outcomes, learning from their pieces of work and opportunities for questions and answers.

Two digital conferences took place, the first for the youth support services in Cardiff and then this was followed up regional partners and was attended by 174 professionals. One attendees feedback from the day ‘Online content, the struggles of engaging young people during a difficult time (it was nice to hear that others were faced with the same barriers as working from home you can sometimes feel you are the only one) ideas for engaging young people digitally and widen knowledge of support in other areas’ (Youth Worker). https://www.cardiffyouthservices.wales/images/pdf_doc/Digital_spaces_and_approaches_for_young_people_report-7-compressed.pdf 

and the resources from the events can be found here

Digital spaces and approaches event 14/01/2020 / Digwyddiad lleoedd a dulliau digidol 14/01/2020 (padlet.com)

In addition to this event the service has also offered staff members opportunity to develop their digital skills through learning how to use ‘Mentimeter’, ‘Quizzes’, ‘Canva’ all great digital engagement tools that are available for free. We have also been able to work with ‘Wise Kids’ to offer all staff training in digital citizenship and wellbeing. Next financial year there is an on-going commitment to further develop teams’ skills and capacity to develop digital youth work and we will be building upon our existing relationship with ‘Youth Link Scotland’ to offer a range of training opportunities in addition specialist support our digital team can offer teams and individuals.

Further information and references

Children and parents: media use and attitudes report 2020/21 (ofcom.org.uk)

DFI-Youth-Report.pdf (nominet.uk)

NC0218021ENN.en_.pdf (youth.ie)

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

Ysgol Bryn Teg serves the Llwynhendy area, Llanelli, in Carmarthenshire. It is an area of high deprivation (WIMD 2019): in the top 10% most deprived areas for income, employment, health and education. It is also in the top 30% for community safety. The attainment and on entry baseline is well below expected age related outcomes for 2020 and 2021 cohorts.

There are approximately 280 pupils on roll. The school has over 40 % of pupils receiving free school meals, and a high level of low income families requiring additional support. Twenty per cent of pupils are identified as having special educational needs, with a speech and language specialist setting that caters for pupils from across the local authority.
 

Description of nature of strategy or activity

This close-knit community school believes in the value of the family and the community, placing great emphasis on the partnership that exists between the home, the school and the community. The foresight of the headteacher to employ a Family Inclusion Officer (FIO since 2017 has gone a long way in supporting this vision). 

Increasing need for mental health support was identified by school staff and the educational psychology service through lockdowns. Increasing demand, difficulty accessing support for children’s mental health and counselling services led to the headteacher looking to employ a Mental Health Practitioner (MHP).
 

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

The MHP has become central to pupil mental health and well-being in the school, despite being relatively new. Seven pupils access weekly 1-1 session with the MHP. Pupils attend sessions with the MHP during playtimes and lunch with 26% of pupils across the school attending. Two pupils have completed sessions with five children receiving greater number to support the needs. 

Bespoke support for the most challenged families has been provided through the MH family practitioner. One family has been supported with weekly sessions and a second family is now in process. The MHP has provided training and supervision for staff including trauma informed training.

The FIO and MHP counsellor have delivered parent sessions in school to support children’s mental health with 11 parents attending the first session. Sessions on self-regulation for parents to support pupils and parents’ mental health continue.

The PASS Survey is administered biannually to identify children who need support. The school leads, i.e. the headteacher, the additional learning needs co-ordinator (ALNCo), the MHP, and Health and Well-being lead, meet to review the findings. Pupils of concern are referred to MHP for 1-1 sessions. Pupil Attitudes to Self and School (PASS) survey results identified that many (88%) foundation phase pupils have a high regard for Learner self-worth. A Majority of Key Stage 2 pupils (60%) have a high self-regard as a learner. Strategies to support learner self-worth have been shared with staff to support pupils.

During lockdowns, the FIO delivered several online parenting workshops to support parents and families through mental health. Establishing routine and promoting positive behaviour strategies resulted in seven parents attending. Seven referrals have been made by the FIO to Teams Around the Family (TAF) since December 2021. Questionnaires have been completed with parents by the FIO to establish their priorities for further support sessions. Follow-up surveys allow for feedback, with opportunities taken to include mental well-being.

Since returning, the FIO meets the school community each morning during pupil drop off times. This provides early and informal support. The school has forged strong relationships with both the private nursery, Camau Tirion and the Flying Start provision in the Integrated Children’s Centre, ensuring that families are well supported from the very start of their journey at Ysgol Bryn Teg. The FIO has lead multi agency fayres, allowing parents to access vital information, resources and support in their community, such as Womens Aid. The school also worked in partnership with the Integrated Children’s Centre, supporting Summer Holiday Enrichment Programme (SHEP) where 40 pupils in 2021, and 87 pupils in 2019, benefited from the three week programme. 

Close working partnerships with the community governors have ensured ongoing support for families during times of hardship such as COVID-19 and Christmas. Financial donations have been made to the Llwynhendy/Pemberton Foodbank, where parents/carers can access essentials when needed. During the 2021 Christmas, the school supported 20 families with Christmas food hampers. Families in need are supported locally. Local businesses have provided gifts for the last five years. The school worked with a local department store, this partnership enabling the school to provide gifts that are hand delivered by staff each Christmas. In 2021, 47 children benefited from this partnership. Parents reported being very happy and appreciative of the kindness shown. The above has yielded the following results:

  • There have been improved standards in reading and writing across the school. In 2018-2019 around half of pupils were making expected progress in reading and writing; now, nearly all pupils are making at least good progress. For example, a minority of pupils were able to write basic sentence patterns in Key Stage 2. However now many pupils are using a wide range of writing techniques and adventurous vocabulary.
  • A significant reduction in the number and duration of exclusions has ensured that nearly all pupils are accessing education. This is underpinned by the school’s highly effective relationships policy, highly successful inclusion practice and valuable collaboration across the school community. 
  • There have been significant improvements to pupil well-being and standards. 
     

How have you shared your good practice?

  • The FIO has shared best practice with staff from local schools on the Nurture provision.
  • Our ALNCo has shared good practice through meeting other ALNCo’s in cluster. 
  • The school links with other schools/organisations/professionals and local agencies.
  • The headteacher works on local authority and national mental health forums.
  • The health and well-being lead has collaborated with cluster schools in developing the new curriculum and sharing good practice of the school’s whole school offer to support mental health and well-being.
     

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Information about the setting

Cylch Meithrin Cynwyd Sant is a Welsh medium non-maintained setting based in the local Welsh primary school in Maesteg. It provides full day care for children aged two to five years, who will eventually transition into Ysgol Cynwyd Sant. The setting operates five days a week between 9am and 3pm. The majority of children come from English speaking homes and, at the moment, rarely hear Welsh spoken outside the setting within the local community.

The setting is a strong and supportive learning environment and the children’s well-being is always its highest priority. Leaders have established a positive ethos throughout the setting, ensuring a welcoming, safe and rich learning environment that stimulates children’s play and learning highly successfully. Both members of staff have a very strong vision based on creating a homely and stimulating environment with rich opportunities to develop the children’s curiosity and independence. They share the same vision and have high expectations for themselves and all the children.

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

Practitioners have high expectations for all children and identify their learning needs exceptionally well. They encourage perseverance when the children face obstacles in their play and take excellent advantage of every opportunity to develop this. Individual interests and needs are considered by observing children playing and intervening skilfully at appropriate times to extend children’s knowledge, understanding and skills. When practitioners want children to develop specific skills, they begin the activity themselves and wait for children to show interest and join in with the activity. Staff provide frequent opportunities for children to make choices and solve problems and only intervene when they feel that there is a good opportunity to expand children’s understanding. Leaders use very effective strategies while interacting with children and always encouraging them to do their best.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

Practitioners always take account of children’s individual interests and needs. They take time to observe children playing to understand their individual needs and then provide learning experiences of a high standard. They ensure an effective balance between activities that develop children’s knowledge and understanding and rich opportunities for children to experiment and pursue their own paths in learning, through uninterrupted play. Staff are excellent role models. They provide stimulating learning areas both indoors and outdoors to spark children’s curiosity, enabling them to be completely independent in their play. They understand the importance of playing alongside the children, stepping in only when necessary to encourage and support.

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

Practitioners provide a rich stimulating learning environment both indoors and outdoors, which engages children’s interests exceptionally well. The environment and resources ignite children’s imagination successfully and enable them to take risks, explore, discover, and solve problems. Leaders have planned all areas to give purposeful opportunities for all children to develop a wide range of skills whilst giving staff perfect opportunities when needed to enhance their learning. Practitioners ensure that all resources and equipment both indoors and outdoors are at child level, enabling them to access everything they need to play independently.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

The school was part of the ‘Schools as Learning Organisations’ (SLO) pilot scheme and, by developing this mindset at all levels across the school, staff were seen to be able to move as one in several contexts and with several aspects of their plans.

As a lead school in developing the Curriculum for Wales (CfW), a presentation was provided for headteachers in the county’s catchment area. The feedback was extremely positive during a period of major changes at local and national level. The principles and advantages of this method of working were seen to be a powerful tool in developing co-operation between the schools in the catchment area, with the aim of ensuring a level of consistency for pupils in the catchment area, whichever school they attend.

The catchment area has now been working closely together for several years and continues to share and emulate effective practice.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

By using the document ‘The journey to 2022’ as a framework, the SLO methods and mindset and pupil participation forums, the school has succeeded in developing a shared vision for the CfW with the voices of all stakeholders being clear and prominent.

The following groups have been organised within the school and the catchment area to develop priorities, to promote the development of the curriculum and to focus on developing learning strategies:

School Staff Level:

School staff AoLE groups – all of the school’s staff, whether teachers or assistant, are divided according to Area of Learning and Expertise (AoLE). There are now no subject coordinators but instead teams with responsibility for developing the areas. The school has a priority, which is the responsibility of the deputy headteacher, to develop pedagogy within the school. A CfW Google Classroom has been developed for all staff to drive the priority throughout the year and create a resource that is easy to access and collaborate on. This resource facilitated whole-school action, sharing information and ideas, seeking views and monitoring different aspect of the pedagogical principles. Firstly, ‘Microsoft Forms’ software was used for all teachers to self-evaluate against all strands of the 12 principles, before transferring this information to a whole-school tool for analysing the 12 pedagogical principles. This allowed us to identify areas for development.

The following strands were identified for action:

  1. Evaluate current provision against the 4 purposes
  2. To what extent has the school included all stakeholders in shaping the vision to enable all pupils to achieve the 4 purposes
  3. Learning walls

INSET evenings were held to share the findings of research and set termly targets for action jointly, namely – developing living learning walls across the school and raising awareness of the 4 purposes among pupils and parents.

Following this, there was a trial period in the classroom with staff feeding the Google feed and including what worked effectively. An aim was set by the end of the trial period to create a digital learning journey ‘What worked well for me…?’ There was a follow-up INSET for all teachers to present their slides to the remainder of the staff. Following this, we were able to agree as a school on a particular order for our learning walls, which is now suitable for the pupils’ ages and consistent across the school. This in turn has had a direct effect on methods for improving work in all classrooms and intertwines with the formative assessment procedure. The whole process follows the ‘SLO’ principles and will continue to evolve.

School children level:

Pupil participation groups have specific responsibilities and produce an action plan each year, which is an integral part of the school development plan (SDP). One group works closely with the deputy headteacher to develop pedagogy at the school e.g., by developing the feedback policy, developing the whole-school vision and creating mats for the 4 purposes. The pupil’s voice is evident in all aspects of school life.

Catchment area level:

Catchment area priorities are produced by one member of each school in the catchment area planning the basics of the priority jointly and then personalising it at school level e.g., pedagogy group, ICT group, ALN group. This is a natural extension of the individual school’s SDP, by identifying shared priorities and identifying a school/schools who will be able to lead the priority across the catchment area so that all schools move in the same direction, recognising that individual school are at different places with regard to the priority. This, in turn, leads to extensive and valuable opportunities for the school’s staff to develop professionally, to lead staff and have a highly positive influence on the school. This has also changed the mindset of schools in the catchment area to consider what is important to the catchment area, in addition to what is important to individual schools.

The ‘logic model’ is used to plan priorities – a specific model and approach to planning expenditure. The model is divided into four parts – resources, activities, input and output – and is an effective means of sharing with stakeholders what we want to achieve, how we intend to reach our targets and how we will track progress. Logic models help practitioners and evaluators to understand the mechanism and structure of our improvement programme and leads to improving working methods and standards. To support this method of working, catchment area meetings are held each half term to monitor the priority’s progress, adapt when necessary, share further ideas and maintain momentum across the catchment area. As a result of this method of working, there have been several positive outcomes e.g., a regional blended learning website and international presentations.

AoLE groups have been established across schools in the catchment area (primary and secondary) and are led by primary teachers to interpret and understand content, take advantage of expertise and develop the curriculum consistently in the interests of the wellbeing and education of pupils across the catchment area. A website for sharing resources has also been created and established so that all members of staff in the catchment area are able to access it. This, in turn, has ensured that staff expertise is shared across the school and the catchment area as they present stimulating activities on the digital platform. The school’s staff and staff in the catchment area are now moving in the same direction, have the same mindset and are beginning to develop consistent learning strategies. 

Following training from Ysgol Corn Hir, the ‘Cyngor Ysgol Cefni’ group, which is a representation of all schools in the catchment area (primary and secondary), has created a new motto, “Ein Dysgu, Ein Dyfydol” (“Our Learning, Our Future”), which aligns with the new curriculum. Representatives of all of those schools have then come together to share their new mottos and crate one that is suitable for the whole catchment area.

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

The school is on track to ensure that all members of staff understand the requirements of the CfW and are equipped with the most suitable strategies to introduce the curriculum in the most effective manner. For example, working walls are used purposefully and consistently across the whole school to deliver and develop literacy and numeracy skills of the development of the 4 purposes mats.

The voice of learners and stakeholders is strong, not only in curriculum planning but also in the strategies that are used to deliver and develop the curriculum. A good example of this is the methods used to gather the views of parents and pupils electronically and weaving these ideas into the class’s scheme of work.

Pupils’ participation in lessons and their desire to learn are excellent – they take ownership of their learning and see themselves as part of the school team.

How have you shared your good practice?

The practices of the catchment area and the school e.g., creating catchment area priorities or training sessions and reflection clinics at the school, in addition to the work of the catchment area school council to improve the transition from primary to secondary, are shared through local forums e.g., Anglesey good practice forum, through half-termly catchment area group meetings and through the improvement advisers or education officers. The strong partnership within the catchment area means that all schools are willing to share. The school’s work and implementation methods have been shared through referrals from the regional consortium, with several schools coming to see our effective practice, both inside and outside the county. The work on feedback has been used by officers in regional and international conferences.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Information about the school:

Cathays High School is a multicultural, multi-lingual and multi-faith school in the centre of Cardiff. Around 42% of pupils are in receipt of free school meals. There are over 50 different ethnicities represented in the school community and 67 different languages spoken. Around 27% of pupils are categorised as being ‘below competent’ in English. Mobility rates are significantly higher than in nearly all other schools in Wales and around 60% of pupils come from outside of the catchment area. 

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice:

Whilst Cathays High School’s leaders have a clear focus on recognising and celebrating their school’s diversity, they also ensure that they create a sense of belonging to one community. This sense of ‘cynefin’ pervades all aspects of the work they do to support pupils to progress, the curriculum offer and the provision for the well-being of pupils.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

Through a robust consultation exercise with stakeholders, leaders established the explicit culture of the school focused on the mission to provide ‘Opportunities for All’. They identified three core values for pupils: Prepared, Respect and Pride. These values provide clear expectations for all pupils to be positive members of the school community. The mission and values are used explicitly in the positive relationships policy and are consistently referred to by staff throughout the school. As a result, they are well-understood and exhibited by pupils. The values form a key part of the school’s vision for the new curriculum and the development of the new school site and pupils reflect on them biannually through the pupil well-being survey.

Pupil voice was a key element in developing the school’s mission and values. It has also helped to create and sustain an inclusive and engaging environment where pupils’ opinions have an impact on school improvement, for instance on the development of the well-being provision. This has been further enhanced by the school’s quality assurance processes. These processes embed the feedback of pupils in first-hand evidence gathering, such as feedback on learning as part of the work scrutiny process. In addition, pupils are asked what excellent teaching and classroom culture should look like and their responses have helped to develop classroom routines. Consultation with pupils and other stakeholeders has contributed importantly to the sense of belonging and kinship where all members of the community feel they are valued and treated as individuals. The information gathered has also helped to influence the bespoke professional learning offer for all staff.

The school has developed an effective and extensive curriculum offer that values and meets the needs of all pupils, from the most able to the most vulnerable. The school has focused diligently on developing curriculum experiences across all learning experience areas that reflect its community whilst ensuring that all pupils have the knowledge and skills they need to be successful in school and in life after school. For example, it has a bespoke provision for young people at risk of disaffection or underachievement in Key Stage 4, which provides additional support and opportunities but importantly keeps them as part of mainstream. Whilst the pupils identified for this provision may access qualifications with outside providers and have a more bespoke timetable, they still attend core subject lessons and form tutorials with their peers. In addition, pupils who are new arrivals to the UK and have limited English have a highly effective curriculum offer that supports their development of English, orients them in being part of a school in Wales, and rapidly integrates them fully into mainstream classes when they are ready. As a result of the inclusive nature of their curriculum offer, the progress and outcomes of all groups of learners are strong whatever their starting points and whenever they join the school community.

Effective relationships with teachers are vital when developing resilient and capable learners. This is an important element of cultivating the school cynefin. Pupils feel valued and respected in the classroom, which contributes to a positive working environment and a strong sense of belonging. Cathays High School has highly effective processes and provision to support the individual needs of all pupils, including those with additional needs and those requiring support for emotional challenges. For example  the wellbeing surveys are used to identify individuals and groups that require emotional support from the school’s “Safe Tŷ” provision. There is support to improve the academic and/or social progress of students with additional learning needs whilst they still attend as many mainstream lessons as is appropriate. This support is bespoke and contributes to the pupils’ feelings of being respected and valued by all adults in the school and a sense that they belong to a community that cares for their academic progress and their well-being.

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

Pupils recognise the value of the provision and its impact on their progress and well-being. Many pupils identify a strong sense of pride in belonging to Cathays High School.

Pre-pandemic outcomes at Key Stages 4 and 5 were strong and improving in nearly all indicators and particularly in value-added measures.

Pupil attendance was strong for three years prior to the pandemic and is recovering well since the return to full-time school.

How have you shared your good practice?

The school has been part of the regional consortium’s School Improvement Group and has shared its practice with other schools through this forum.

It has also built relationships with other schools with whom it has shared its systems and processes.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Information about the school

Cathays High School is a multicultural, multi-lingual and multi-faith school in the centre of Cardiff. Around 42% of pupils are in receipt of free school meals. There are over 50 different ethnicities represented in the school community and 67 different languages spoken. Around 27% of pupils are categorised as being ‘below competent’ in English. Mobility rates are significantly higher than in almost all other schools in Wales and around 60% of pupils come from outside of the catchment area.

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

Cathays High School has a clear focus on supporting the career development of all their staff. Leaders ensure that they develop people with the right values and who believe in and promote the culture of the school. This has had a significant impact on the quality of teaching and pupils’ learning. Introducing evidence-based, bespoke professional learning for staff across all roles in the school has helped all staff to develop their skills and experience and have a positive impact on the learning and well-being outcomes of students.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

Through consultation with all stakeholders, Cathays High School developed their school vision based on the mission of ‘Opportunities for all’ and the three core staff values of: collaboration, ownership, and team-first. Through this they developed an effective approach to professional learning. This supported the school well to set clear expectations for all staff. This culture, where all staff consider the development of the whole school as a matter of course also refined the school’s vision and approach to Curriculum for Wales. In addition, the school adopted a leadership restructure to expand the scope and expertise of the wider senior leadership team to provide them with a more holistic view of the school.  

At the outset, the senior leadership team focused on improving the leadership skills of all middle and senior leaders. They remodelled the purpose of wider senior leadership team meetings from information sharing to experiential whole-school development activities. For example, they work in smaller groups to review and evaluate progress towards the priorities in the school development plan. Furthermore, they conduct sessions on developing leadership skills for all TLR holders to ensure that they focuse the work with their team on improving their impact in the core aspects of their role i.e. teaching and learning or well-being. The Raising Standards Leaders (faculty heads) are trained in leading the development of teaching and learning, which gives them the skills and confidence to lead sessions in team meetings. As a result, the new structure and focus of wider senior leadership meetings help all staff to gain a better understanding of the school and the progress made towards the school priorities through the year.

Improved self-evaluation and improvement planning processes ensure that leaders continuously monitor the impact of the school’s work. First-hand evidence is analysed by senior leaders, the wider senior leadership team and at area team level so that everyone is involved in identifying and sharing the strengths and areas requiring improvement. As a result, staff in all roles are part of the process to identify priorities and actions for improvement and team leaders understand the areas they lead in detail. This ensures that team leaders identify accurately the improvements required by every individual and consequently ensures that all staff undertake their role more effectively.

Professional learning is matched closely to whole-school, team and individual staff needs. This enables the school to provide a wide range of bespoke support.  Leaders also match staff closely to each other to share and develop strong practice across the school. Professional learning to develop leadership across the school is highly effective. The school develops leadership capacity comprehensively by providing existing and aspiring middle and senior leaders with professional learning opportunities on a two-year cycle. As a result, many leaders have taken on increased responsibilities over time.  The Strategic Development Groups, which are usually led by a TLR holder, support this work by providing opportunities for all staff to work on a whole-school priority.

Leaders are effective in identifying and supporting staff to make a significant contribution to school improvement. A number of staff have been supported into teaching roles, through a variety of routes, after having started as teaching assistants or in pastoral roles. The school actively supports staff to take up leadership positions across a range of roles to develop their understanding of the whole school. Consequently, a number of senior management team members who have curriculum responsibilities have also had previous responsibilities in the pastoral structure. As a result, the senior leadership and wider senior leadership teams work in a very collegiate and empathetic way to overcome the barriers to learning for all pupils.

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

There has been an improvement in the recruitment and retention of staff, which has limited the impact of the pandemic on pupils’ well-being and learning. As a result, the school has re-established routines and processes quickly and pupils have made strong progress in their learning this year.

Prior to the pandemic, outcomes at Key Stages 4 and 5 were very strong and continuing to improve, particularly when looking at value-added performance.

Teaching, preparation for Curriculum for Wales, and the provision to support the learning and well-being of learners are strong and mean that Cathays High School is well-placed to continue to develop effectively as a community.
 

How have you shared your good practice?

The school has been part of the regional consortium’s School Improvement Group and has shared their practice with other schools through this forum.

It has also built relationships with other schools with whom it has shared its systems and processes.
 

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Information about the school

Clwyd Community Primary School is located on the edge of the large Community First area of Penlan, which is part of the Penderry district.

School context:

  • 382 pupils on roll
  • 56% free school meals, against Wales average of 21%
  • 93% of pupils from 30% most deprived areas in Wales
  • 17% of pupils have English as an additional language (EAL)
  • 49 statements and four Specialist Teaching Facilities (STF) for children with ASD and MLD

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

The school strives to develop and inspire pupils by providing a wide range of additional opportunities to enrich their school experience. In 2016, staff in the STF observed that many of the pupils were interested in football, but found it challenging to join in with their mainstream peers. This led to staff playing football with the pupils during playtimes. Staff soon observed that this had a marked impact on the pupils’ levels of engagement. Pupils enjoyed playing and grew in confidence.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

Following this, staff developed the idea of establishing a football league specifically for children with additional learning needs (ALN). The original idea to set up the league came from a member of the teaching support staff in the STF with a particular passion for sport, inclusion and supporting pupils with ALN. This initial idea has had far reaching and positive consequences for many children and their families. 

The vision of the Super Teams Football League was to give pupils opportunities to represent their school whilst playing competitive football against other teams of similar ability and understanding. The aim was to develop their self-esteem as well as their physical and social skills. By celebrating the pupils’ performances and results the school could see that the profile and standing of STF pupils within the school increased. The league also gives pupils’ parents an opportunity to watch their children compete for the school.

There were some practicalities to consider, Firstly, the school had to find a suitable location. Playing on open, marked pitches was not always appropriate for most of the pupils. The decision was made to hire pitches at the local small-sided football facility. This was ideal, as the ball always remained in play and, once in, pupils were safe and secure. From this, Clwyd’s key stage 2 STF began to play friendlies against other STF in Swansea. The observations and feedback from other schools highlighted that the venue and concept of the games were successful and had potential for growth.

Later in 2016, staff from the STF launched the league at a STF Network Meeting. They invited teachers to join a group on HWB. There was a good response and the league began. The league went from strength to strength. Pre-COVID, there were 200 children from 14 schools taking part. Currently and post COVID the league has recommenced and the numbers participating are rising.

All staff regularly observe pupils playing. This has resulted in useful feedback for the STF staff who have made refinements and adaptions, for example to the organisation of events and ‘rules’, to meet the needs of all the pupils. There are now two divisions for pupils aged 7-11 and a ‘football experience’ pitch to maximise opportunities for inclusion and participation. Division 1 is for pupils who understand the concept of a match and how to join in. It is for children who are physically confident. The games are competitive with minimal adult intervention. Division 2 is for pupils who have a developing knowledge of how to join in a game of football. Supporting adults can be on the pitch to ensure that all of the pupils engage and kick a softer ball. The Football Experience Pitch is an unstructured pitch with a range of different sized balls and sensory equipment. It is for children who do not yet have a concept of a match. Adults facilitate the exploration of the equipment and skills related to football. This can be accessed at any time by any pupil. This is helpful should a pupil need time and space to ‘cool off’.

Staff have also developed a foundation phase section of the league for younger pupils. The rules are simply, for example, to stop when the whistle blows, to try not to handle the ball and to shake hands afterwards. The referees double-up as coaches. They run the matches but also teach the pupils elements of the game (depending on ability). Before each session, the rules and a skill are demonstrated by the staff. There is an emphasis on fair play, teamwork and winning and losing well. The games are approximately 10 minutes long and the school aims for 6 aside. Both are flexible depending on numbers of pupils and level of fatigue.

The league is celebrated each year in July during a key stage 2 festival. This includes matches, parachute games, crafts, Kerling, and a bouncy castle. It is also a time for every pupil to receive a medal and the division winners a trophy. As well as the annual key stage 2 festival, the school has fixtures every half term, meaning that there are six events each year. It is affiliated with the Swansea School’s Football Association. Looking ahead, the school would like to help other counties set-up similar leagues and set up a representative side from ‘Swansea STF’ to play other representative sides.

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

Staff at Clwyd primary believe that the project has been an amazing success, with pupils looking forward to all the football events. The differentiated experiences help the school to meet individual needs and have made a significant and very positive impact on the pupils’ confidence, engagement, resilience and skill development.

Feedback from an STF teacher of Cadle Primary School, Swansea:

You have created something really exciting that promotes inclusion for our children and also makes us as a staff feel part of something bigger…the impact is immeasurable. I had a child in my class last year who cried all through his first match in the league because he wasn’t ‘having a turn’; he now plays rugby and football in his comprehensive school…honestly my class only play football in the league and I have never seen them work together in the way they do on the pitch.

Some quotes taken from the pupils:

  • ‘I make new friends.’
  • ‘I like to I love being involved.’
  • ‘I kicked the ball to my friends.’
  • ‘I love football because you teached me to play football.’
  • ‘I scored 3 goals.’
  • ‘I love wearing the school kit.’
  • ‘I feel confident in the games and I don’t mind if we win or lose.’

How have you shared your good practice?

The school uses its Twitter account to celebrate the league, and has a hashtag of #superteamsfootball. Staff were invited to speak about the league in the 2017 ERW ‘Closing the Gap’ conference. The focus was to share good practice that increased the engagement levels of stakeholders and raised standards in pupil attainment. The concept of the league was well received by the delegates. The league has also been featured in the Swansea Evening Post and Western Mail newspapers. A PE teacher at the school was awarded the South Wales PE Teacher of the Year award in 2018. This reward was in recognition of the impact of the league and the work done by the founders of the league.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to the practice

Clwyd Community Primary School is in Penlan, Swansea. It serves an area with a high level of deprivation and unemployment. Over 90% of the school’s 365 pupils live in the 20% most deprived areas of Wales. Approximately 56% of the pupils are eligible for free school meals. These statistics are well above the national averages. The school also hosts four specialist teaching facilities to support pupils with additional learning needs from across the local authority.

Description of nature of strategy or activity identified as effective or innovative practice

The school places great emphasis on developing and encouraging pupils’ aspiration for future achievement and employment. This aspiration leads staff to arrange frequent real life, purposeful learning experiences that broaden the pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the opportunities they might encounter in the future.

Annually, the school provides the pupils with the opportunity to experience working with employment advisers from Jobcentre Plus. They provide a morning workshop, curriculum vitae planning and mock interviews. This enables pupils to have first hand experiences with potential career planning, job seeking and future aspirations. This is directly linked to the school’s ‘Meet the Worker’ event. This is an organised occurrence where the pupils are asked to suggest possible careers that they aspire to experience. The school then invites representatives from these careers into school and the pupils ask them questions that interest them in a ‘round robin’ format. This has developed into a large event that is recognised as innovative practice and has allowed pupils at Clwyd to meet dozens of workers from a wide ranging group of professions including: doctor, firefighter, solicitor, actor, welder, engineer, police officer, midwife, vet, scientist, footballer, bricklayer, hairdresser, entrepreneur, paramedic, armed forces, librarian, bank worker, accountant, plus many more.  

The pupils have the opportunity to apply for some of these jobs and experience a one to one interview in front of their peers. Feedback from the interview is given to the candidates by school staff, the employers and other members of the panel. This has been a very powerful way of preparing pupils for future challenges they may face. It has also highlighted to them the skills that might be required to gain future employment.

Putting the skills into action has then been a focus. Clwyd Pop Up Shop is organised, stocked and supervised by pupils. This is an opportunity to work in and run a local shop unit within the community. They design and make most of the stock and man the tills, create rotas, problem solve and advertise. This also gives pupils the opportunity to think creatively to design products. As part of planning for the Curriculum For Wales, the pupils calculate budgets, profit and change, and develop real life, purposeful lkiteracy and numeracy skills. Every year, this has developed a range of different and essential life skills that fit in perfectly with the skills discussed during ‘Meet the Worker’ day. The rewards and profits from their hard work in the Pop Up Shop have resulted in the school being able to afford to buy a school minibus. A real, practical example of pupils’ hard work paying off.

In addition, and on a yearly basis, Year 5 and Year 6 pupils participate in The South West Wales Reaching Wider Partnership (SWWRWP). This is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales. The aim of the programme is to raise the aspirations and further and higher education awareness of young people who are currently underrepresented in higher education. This is done through activities and workshops, which take place at higher education institutions, colleges, schools and community settings. Pupils attend Junior ACE days and Subject Taster Days at Singleton Campus, Swansea University. Pupils also work with student leaders to undertake a series of group activities.

To help determine whether the activities are helping participants move on from school into further education, higher education and employment, the programme records information about the outreach activities and the pupils who take part in them so that they can track the educational journey of the outreach participants into university and beyond into employment.

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

  • All pupils asked agreed that they had benefited from ‘Meet the Worker’ day and that it had developed their thinking towards future career options.
  • Nearly all pupils have a clearer understanding of future education and employment possibilities that exist in their locality and the wider world.
  • Nearly all pupils have a greater understanding of what they need to do to achieve their aspirations. This has a positive impact on attitudes to learning across the school.
  • All pupils have the opportunity to experience activity related to the world of work.
  • Analysis indicates that pupils’ future aspirations have risen significantly.
  • The school has positive, enduring and beneficial partnerships with a range of employers and education institutions.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to excellent/sector-leading practice

LWNW has been at the forefront of Welsh for Adults providers in Wales in its continuous emphasis on research that underpins developments in the field. A further strength of this work is that it is based on working with various academic schools within Bangor University and bringing expertise from different disciplines together for the benefit of the field.

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

Recent academic research that has been conducted includes the following:

Changing behaviour

PhD research in co-operation with the School of Psychology on changing the behaviour of passive Welsh speakers. From this research, LWNW has been able to apply the findings to ‘Confidence Building’ courses with the public in Bangor, in co-operation with the National Centre for Learning Welsh, and more recently with Menter Iaith Bangor with businesses in the city. This led to producing a guide on running confidence building courses for the other Welsh for Adults providers. At the National Centre’s request, national pilot confidence building sessions are being held at Gwynedd Council.

e-Learning

PhD research into e-Learning and the effectiveness of e-Learning in comparison with face-to-face approaches when acquiring language. The research includes measuring the effects of Welsh learning apps developed by LWNW. The findings are intended to be used to feed into LWNW’s online offer in 2022/2023.

Difficulties with pronunciation

PhD research into Linguistics that focuses on the main difficulties faced by Welsh learners. The National Centre contributed to sponsoring this scholarship. The evidence from this research will be able to contribute to changes to the content of coursebooks/guidance for tutors, in addition to the content of national training for tutors.

Strategic management of language training in the workplace

PhD research initially, which has led to further studies (as can be seen below). The findings of this 

research have led to changes to the way in which LWNW discusses and plans language training with workplaces (including staff at Bangor University), so that there is a much greater strategic element to the way in which learners are ‘selected’, but also to the way in which training is managed to assure active users of the Welsh language.

Other applied research projects include the following:

  • A European grant was obtained from NPLD (Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity) to lead a project with partners in Italy, Spain, and Scotland, paying particular attention to online learning. The work will be completed in the autumn term 2022, with an international symposium being organised to share findings and good practice, in addition to lessons that different counties in Europe can learn from each other. This study also includes a comparison of arrangements and quality management techniques, training tutors and producing learning materials. As part of this study, LWNW is working closely with Conwy County Borough Council to research the effectiveness of its staff’s language training (as part of the Work Welsh scheme).
  • A similar study to the one conducted with Conwy County Borough Council is also being conducted with Gwynedd County Council, which is looking at the effectiveness of planning and application from the perspective of staff and managers.

The importance of this work with workplaces is to provide a toolkit to the National Centre and its providers, and the Welsh Language Commissioner, in order to ensure that language training in the workplace is as effective as it can be for the organisations, new learners and the public who receive a service from them through the medium of Welsh.

Sharing research findings

LWNW is very keen to share its findings with the field in Wales and beyond. To this end, in addition to the symposium that was held in 2019/2020 and the international conference that will be held in 2022, the following recent / ongoing publications also share detailed information and findings about Welsh in the workplace:

  • An article in Current Issues in Language Planning
  • An article in Gwerddon
  • A chapter in Y Gymraeg a Gweithle’r Gymru Gyfoes, a volume published by University of Wales Press

LWNW has also published a chapter (‘Addysgu dysgwyr ail-iaith’ – Teaching second language learners) in the volume published by Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol (2020) entitled Cyflwyniad i ieithyddiaeth (Introduction to linguistics).

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

A notable feature of the research is that it is applied research. This means that the findings are applied and used to underpin teaching and learning strategies in the day-to-day work of LWNW and the sector and, as a result, have a direct, positive effect on learners’ standards.