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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

Various groups have been established for learners to lead within the school, in order for them to express their views and have an opportunity to change threads within the school, for example through the school council, the eco committee, ‘Mêts Grêt’, ‘Ffrindiau Ffreutur’, ‘E-Cadets’, ‘Dewiniaid Digidol’ (Digital Wizards), ‘Heartstart Crew’, Welsh Language Ambassadors and ‘Chwaraewyr Da’ (Good Players).  The school council contacted the Children’s Commissioner’s office in order to work with the ‘Super Ambassadors’ project.  Because the school council and ‘e-Cadets’ already review some key policies for the governing body, it was felt that a ‘learners’ voice cabinet’ needed to be formed in order to bring representatives from all groups together each half term.  The purpose of this was to ensure a better system for sharing information between the groups and pupils within the school.  The Cabinet has been a great success.  It is run wholly by pupils, and there are purposeful minutes and effective action targets for each term.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

The various groups within Ysgol Gwenffrwd continue to meet and target their areas of responsibility; however, through the Cabinet’s activity, projects can be co-ordinated better to ensure that there is no overlap and that there are no periods that are too ‘heavy’ in terms of extra-curricular activities – through effective timing, and sharing ideas and resources.

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

The most prominent effect has been on pupils’ independence.  They are able to prepare and record meetings wholly independently, ‘push’ agreed targets and report back to their initial groups.  After doing so, this confidence often permeates their work in the classroom, outside the usual curriculum and when communicating with others, including visitors to the school.  As a result, the ‘learners’ voice’ is very prominent in all of Gwenffrwd’s successes.

How have you shared your good practice?

Visitors to the school are guided by pupils and, if there is a discussion on policy, the discussion is held with pupils.  The Cabinet holds a meeting each half term, and the door is open for anyone to sit and observe.  Representatives from the Cabinet (or sub-groups) work with governors, the parent-teacher group or the senior leadership team to discuss, adapt or make policies and procedures.

The school and pupils have worked together in this way to create the equality policy and the ‘Healthy Living’ Food and Fitness Diary, which they share with other interested pupils.

Once pupils at Ysgol Gwenffrwd have worked on policies and presentations, for example when working on the 7 Threads of the Healthy Schools National Quality Mark, they are shared with Flintshire officers – to motivate and support schools who will be ready to apply for the Quality Mark in the future.

 

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

In 2014, when looking objectively at provision and standards at the school, it was evident to leaders that although the school’s standards were high, there was a tendency to nurture pupils who worked particularly well within the limited constraints of lessons; lessons that, to a degree, expected pupils to respond in a particular way.  The school reversed the planning system, by placing more of a focus on the educational journey rather than the finished work.  Also, the national reasoning tests showed that pupils did not have the resilience to persevere with specific tasks.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

Developing independent pupils at the school starts in the nursery class.  There, careful and purposeful planning, in addition to high expectations, ensure that pupils are given opportunities to develop skills and practice in specific areas with adult intervention.  Training staff to take a step back and allow pupils to proceed has been an integral part of developing independence in the early years.

This independence is developed and deepened in the reception class, where teachers and assistants plan challenging and stimulating activities, and ensure that opportunities for pupils to work independently are a constant priority.  The outdoor area is a core part, where providing freedom and breadth creates an environment that nurtures pupils’ independence.  The staff’s willingness to encourage and motivate, rather than take too much of a leading role, develops pupils who have the confidence to venture.

In Years 1 and 2, pupils are developed further by increasing the level of challenge so that success creates a sense of pride, but more importantly raises the question of what next.  On the other hand, failure is considered to be a route towards success.  By planning work at different levels of challenge and nurturing pupils’ maturity to choose an appropriate level of challenge, this sets a firm foundation for the rest of the school.  Pupils develop the willingness to choose challenging tasks, which is key to developing their independence.  More confident pupils move freely from one level of challenge to another.  Pupils will often use the same level of challenge to practice their skills and remind themselves of the skills necessary for the task before attempting a more difficult level of challenge, in order to build towards success.

In key stage 2, procedures such as ‘fi bia’r dewis’ (the choice is mine) and ‘dewis doeth’ (sensible choice) extend pupils’ independence.  In a ‘dewis doeth’ task, pupils have the freedom to choose how to respond to a specific topic, comment or aim.  The response method is open-ended and gives pupils the freedom to respond in whatever way they choose.  Pupils often choose to respond in pairs, groups or individually.  Teachers monitor them carefully, particularly in the first years of key stage 2, in order to ensure that pupils vary their response methods.  ‘Fi bia’r dewis’ sessions give pupils time to practice particular skills and abilities in a variety of tasks.  There is a wealth of tasks in which pupils are expected to challenge themselves, and they realise quickly that one of the main objectives of the tasks is perseverance.

At the top of the school, ‘Awr Athrylith’ (Genius Hour) sessions provide free time each week for pupils to work on a personal project.  This is based on the procedures of a well-known company that gives employees 10% of their time to work on their own projects and, from the 10%, a large number of the company’s most famous developments have grown.  The golden rule of the ‘Awr Athrylith’ is that they work on a project for an audience.  Work of a very high standard has been produced during these periods, such as a handbook on learning to swim and a project to teach animation to foundation phase pupils.

Nurturing independence can be seen most prominently as pupils at the top of the school follow their own learning pathways.  At the start of a unit of work, the teacher introduces the climax of the unit to pupils, namely what the extended writing task will be, and pupils plan their pathway towards that task, with a large number of pupils succeeding in identifying which skills and personal targets they will target during the unit.  This gives pupils full ownership of whole units of work.

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

There is an obvious impact on the school’s pupils.  Standards have remained high, but pupils’ resilience and perseverance when working on a task and checking their own work and that of their peers, while preparing them to respond positively to all challenges that they face, show the effect of provision clearly.  It has also had a positive effect on pupils’ creativity, by creating an ethos of celebrating and respecting originality.

How have you shared your good practice?

GwE support advisers have identified the strength of this aspect of the school.  Practice has been disseminated widely among schools in Gwynedd and Anglesey, and a number of schools have come to observe different aspects of the school’s planning and organisation.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

The senior school contains a considerable number of English as an additional language (EAL) pupils.  About 20% of pupils are from minority ethnic backgrounds and around 25% receive support in learning English as an additional language.  To ensure that the school ethos is embedded, and that pupils make strong progress, their confidence and competency in English are of paramount importance.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

The school has one priority, to use as many well-planned strategies as possible to prioritise the complete immersion and inclusion of EAL pupils into the school community.  This is achieved by ensuring that they confidently and competently develop their English speaking, reading and writing skills at every possible opportunity.

The process begins by accurately assessing the pupils’ English language background and proficiency prior to admission.  This allows the school to issue pre-admittance support, guidance and individual subject glossaries.  Many pupils enrol for several weeks in the summer term before their planned entry and/or take part in the summer school for EAL pupils.  This combination of assessment and support informs staff more accurately, and prepares pupils more effectively before they begin their education at the school.  Allocated form tutors communicate with the family before and during admission, and specific pupil ambassadors are allocated to help their peers on arrival.  When pupils start at the school, personalised EAL support lessons are implemented, the number of which vary between two and ten a week depending on the pupil’s level of language proficiency.  English speaking is compulsory in both the school and the boarding house.  Teachers promote high levels of pupil inclusion and encourage participation in activities, such as assemblies, charity events, international day and public speaking lessons.  These opportunities encourage pupils to develop their oracy in a supportive and encouraging environment.  After-school clubs encourage interaction with their peers outside the school day, which further encourages pupils to develop their oracy skills.  The teaching of additional languages, such as Latin, is an additional avenue for supporting EAL pupils with their understanding of tenses and development of vocabulary.

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

EAL pupils quickly become confident orally in lessons and beyond.  Results in assessments of EAL pupils do not differ from those with first language English, in fact, they are often better.  Although the school offers GCSE EAL, many EAL pupils are entered for GCSE English language and literature and obtain A*/A grades.  At IB Diploma, EAL pupils have the option of English first or second language, and many choose (and excel at) the former.  Finally, the more languages pupils study, the more proficient in English they seem to become.  Confidence and competency are both so high amongst EAL pupils that they make up 40% of the school council.

How have you shared your good practice?

The pre-IB course and its focus on language development have been shared with other IB co-ordinators and IB schools both nationally and internationally.  Part-time language teachers share the school’s ideas and strategies with the other schools in which they teach.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to sector-leading practice

The governors appointed a headteacher and new leadership team in 2015.  The headteacher prioritised establishing robust and secure leadership arrangements at every level and put in place a strategy to create a high performing staff team with a shared commitment to a clear vision underpinned by shared values.  

Nature of the strategy or activity identified as sector leading practice

Senior leaders implemented a strategy to engage staff in all aspects of decision-making across the school.  They established a clear set of shared values to help staff gain a better understanding of their own professional style in order to work more effectively with each other.  

The school developed a partnership with a leadership consultancy who ran a series of whole staff INSET sessions beginning on the headteacher’s first day in post.  The aim of the sessions was to help staff to understand their own professional management style and their emotional intelligence.  Following these sessions, each member of staff received a brief profile detailing their behaviour preferences, leadership styles, personality styles and potential blind spots.  Using this information, members of staff were able to improve their understanding of their own leadership styles and were better placed to value the quality of each other’s work.

Following discussions with staff, pupils, parents and governors, the school agreed a vision statement based on the values of respect, (high) expectations, challenge, integrity, passion and enjoyment (RECIPE).

Leaders have developed this model further to ensure that staff have the skills to have challenging and purposeful conversations with each other, to ensure that provision for pupils is exceptional and that relationships remain intact.  Using this model, senior leaders have established an ethos of challenge and support within a culture that promotes results through relationships.

Senior leaders have used this information creatively as part of performance management arrangements to coach staff and to distribute leadership tasks to staff based on their strengths, aspirations and leadership styles.  The senior leadership team have since engaged in high level performance coaching, which utilises the same model.

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

The impact of this investment in the staff team has been extensive.  Staff perception questionnaires indicate marked improvements when compared with questionnaires completed during the previous two years.  Particular benefits include improved teamwork, community cohesion, consultation and communication.  Staff also note greater clarity over roles, responsibilities and accountability measures.

In addition, rates of staff sickness and absence dropped over the two-year period following the implementation of the strategy.  Increased staff confidence and a willingness to create innovative learning experiences have had an impact on pupil outcomes.

Overall, pupil outcomes and progress rates, particularly in literacy and numeracy, are the highest they have been for the past five years.  Pupil target completion percentages indicate improved progress in all core subjects.  Standards of pupil wellbeing are exceptional.  Attendance at 91% is above the all Wales average for special schools.  The number of instances of challenging behaviour has reduced significantly and there have been no fixed term exclusions in the past three years.

How have you shared your good practice?

Staff write and deliver a range of leadership courses based on this strategy to develop the leadership capacity of other schools within their region.  For example, they contribute to the ‘Future Leaders’ and ‘Leading from the Centre’ courses that support the development of leadership skills of staff from schools across their region.  In addition, the school has used the methodology to support other similar schools to develop their leadership capacity using coaching and mentoring.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

Following feedback from learners about the lack of informal learning opportunities for Entry and Foundation levels, the decision was made to provide a reading/discussion group in each area during summer 2016.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

This has proved to be successful and provision has continued to be offered over the summer.  The decision was made to provide reading/discussion groups because activities that focus only on speaking are difficult for Entry and Foundation levels due to language limitations.  The reading element evolved to be included in a ‘siop siarad’ (talking shop) in different areas, in order to be able to include Entry and Foundation levels in activities that have traditionally been targeted towards Intermediate and Advanced levels.

A reading series called ‘Amdani’ has now been published at different levels.  This will be an opportunity to encourage learners to purchase the books for reading in general and to support their learning.  They will be able to be used in the reading groups.

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

Learners enjoy the sessions and the response has been positive in terms of continuing to use and learn the language during the holidays, particularly the summer holidays as there is so much of a gap over this period.  The groups are an opportunity to socialise at all levels through the medium of Welsh during the holidays, under the guidance of experienced tutors.

A very good example of the effect that informal learning activities have is establishing the Bridgend History Society.  The society was established by members of Bridgend’s Advanced level ‘Siop Siarad’.  Members had been attending for a number of years and felt that they would like to establish something themselves through the medium of Welsh, and they did so with the support of Dysgu Cymraeg Morgannwg and Menter Iaith Bro Ogwr.  Since it was established, the society attracts those who have learnt the Welsh language and those for whom it is their first language.  They have met monthly for several years and high numbers attend.

How have you shared your good practice?

Learners and tutors receive regular e-mails about what is available to them.  The provider’s social networks are used to publish news and promote the success of new campaigns.  Dysgu Cymraeg Morgannwg works closely with the National Centre for Learning Welsh, which monitors their targets each term and receives detailed reports from the provider.  Dysgu Cymraeg Morgannwg also works in partnership with a number of organisations, such as Mudiad Meithrin, Cymraeg i Blant and Welsh language initiatives, on new projects to increase the use of the Welsh language, for example classes through the medium of Welsh, such as Mindfulness, Tai Chi, Clog Dancing, Golwg ar Gymru and Literature Appreciation.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

In 2012, Johnstown Primary School was identified as a pilot primary school for the Carmarthenshire local authority to trial a new online learning platform for Wales.  Subsequently, with the agreement of the governing body, the school established two model ICT classrooms to examine the impact that an increased digital approach would have in furthering pupils’ acquisition of skills and facilitating learning across the curriculum.  If successful, these model classrooms could then be used as centres for colleagues to share ideas and explore innovative digital workflows through peer-tutoring models.

From the initial scrutiny of the pilot project it became apparent that the opportunity to provide rich and creative experiences for pupils improved engagement and cultivated a confidence to explore ideas and themes in more creative ways.  The potential for working collaboratively using a variety of media within an online environment helped to nurture pupils’ confidence, whilst also helping to reduce the difference in the achievement between boys and girls.  In order to harness the potential benefits of the available online learning platform, school leaders developed a five-year strategic action plan to gradually improve provision and the access to digital resources across the school.

The subsequent publication of the ‘Successful Futures’ report regarding the new curriculum for Wales placed the school in an advantageous position to continue developing a creative and innovative programme of study that would succeed in engaging all pupils and also address the four purposes of the new curriculum.  School leaders offered training and support programmes to staff that motivated them to trial new ideas to foster digital competencies within their own classes.  Consequently, school staff now plan purposeful cross-curricular activities that supplement pupils’ literacy, numeracy, ICT and digital skills within a broad and balanced curriculum.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

Johnstown Primary School has continued to utilise its well-resourced digital mechanisms to successfully embed digital skills across a broad curriculum, which appropriately balances both written and digital work.  As a result, pupils are increasingly able independently to undertake purposeful digital tasks that supplement and enhance their learning, recognising the inherent benefits of completing work digitally.  At its core, the curriculum cultivated over several years is designed to adopt digital mechanisms as a vehicle to encourage a range of cross-curricular skills. 

Pupils are provided with worthwhile opportunities to transfer digital competencies across a range of hardware, such as desktop computers, tablet computers and other devices, in order to access a wider range of online learning tools through the Hwb learning platform.  Using the All Wales Learning Platform, the pupils are encouraged to use a range of devices to combine a variety of digital elements and improve their proficiency with cloud computing.  The use of mobile devices allows pupils to capture images, audio and video unaided, with the captured media automatically syncing to the pupils’ online file repository.  Consequently, the pupils have been able to share, collaborate and store their digital work within a central online location, from any device capable of connectivity.  This has accelerated workflows, with the technology purposefully used to support and evidence the acquisition of skills across the curriculum.  The process of capturing the digital media in this way has facilitated the development of pupils’ literacy, numeracy and digital skills.  Pupils have been empowered to gather multimedia elements independently, which enrich their work and make it increasingly interactive and creative.  This work sits alongside written work in the pupils books and is accessible via ‘QR’ codes. 

The school’s online learning blog, ‘The Johnstown Journal’, is one such example of this multi-skilled digital approach.  Pupils in Year 6 who are eligible for free school meals and those who are identified by the school as more able and talented work collaboratively.  They adopt the role of ‘Johnstown Journalists’, and assume responsibility for editing and validating their newspaper-styled blogs before publication to the wider school community, through the school website.  Consequently, this has enabled the school to communicate a wealth of learning experiences to its audience of pupils, parents and governors, who are able to view and post moderated comments.  Each new edition of the blog reflects the recent news and events of the school.  Within each year group, pupils create all of the digital elements and collate the written articles.  Under the stewardship of their teachers and the capable guidance of the Year 6 ‘journalists’, pupils work collaboratively to construct the articles and capture the multimedia elements needed to captivate the intended audience and meet the needs of each individual blog.  This successful project received a national accolade for ‘Best Digital Project’ during the 2016 National Digital Learning Event in Llandudno.

Furthermore, an additional national digital prize was awarded to a group of key stage 2 pupils in 2017.  These more able and talented pupils worked collaboratively, applying higher-order thinking and numeracy skills to produce block-coding algorithms to animate a poem, as part of a national competition established by Aberystwyth University. 

Ultimately, digital competencies have become integral to the learning workflows in the school.  Opportunities to harness the pupils’ skills by establishing further community links have also been a benefit to all school stakeholders.  For example, key stage 2 pupils have greatly enjoyed the experience of undertaking an inter-generational project to establish an interactive book, capturing school life during the 1950s, by using ‘green screen’ techniques to interview past pupils.  In doing this, the pupils have experienced and shared new skills with senior citizens and built strong partnerships with members of the community.

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

During the implementation period of the school’s strategic action plan, nearly all pupils have made at least good progress with the acquisition of digital skills across the curriculum.  This has also had a positive impact on enhancing their literacy and numeracy skills and improving their confidence.  Pupils at the school are now well-informed and engaged in their learning experiences, and most are able to make appropriate and independent judgements about when to adopt digital processes for tasks in order to enhance their learning.  Projects that have targeted groups of pupils have clearly reduced the performance difference between boys and girls and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.  These projects have also cultivated an ethos of collaborative learning, improving inclusivity and pupils’ key skills in ICT, numeracy, literacy and thinking skills.

How have you shared your good practice?

The strengths in the area of digital learning continues to be recognised both nationally and across the ERW regional consortium.  As a result, the school was awarded the status of a ‘digital lead school’ for the region.  This means that the pupils and teachers of Johnstown Primary School were able to deliver school-to-school support, by opening its doors to other schools, who have been keen to learn from the digital learning model.  The school recognises the support and backing of its governing body, who have sought to endorse digital learning systems and worked in partnership with the school to cultivate an ethos of lifelong skills that are relevant for 21st century learners.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to the effective or innovative practice:

The school places a strong emphasis on emotional wellbeing and security, considers the feelings of pupils throughout the school daily and responds to any concerns immediately.  In order to raise standards of behaviour throughout the school and improve concentration skills, good practice was observed in terms of yoga in a primary school in the county of Swansea.  As a result of this visit, one-day training was organised for pupils, staff, governors and parents on yoga.  The project was funded through a grant.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

Yoga sessions are held throughout the school at different times of the day to promote the mindfulness of pupils and staff.  It helps to improve concentration skills, fosters resilience and encourages pupils to engage with learning, and adds value to existing education programmes.  These transferrable skills are just as effective at home as they are at school.

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

This work has raised standards of wellbeing for staff and pupils, and raised standards of behaviour throughout the school.  Pupils calm down after yoga sessions, focus better during lessons and are aware of how to relax.  This work has had a valuable effect and has inspired pupils to be healthy, confident individuals. 

How have you shared your good practice?

Good practice is shared with parents, governors and the local community through the school’s social media.  S4C filmed the good practice in yoga for the HENO programme that was broadcast across Wales.  As a result of this programme, staff from other primary schools in Wales have visited the school to observe good practice in terms of wellbeing.  The Children’s Commissioner, Mrs Sally Holland, visited the school recently to observe provision.  She praised the school for developing a high standard of wellbeing independently without any commercial scheme.  As a result, she has invited the school to complete a special task to survey pupils’ experiences in terms of wellbeing, in the form of personalised report for Ysgol Gymraeg Brynsierfel.  The aim will be for the school to use the report to inform attitudes towards wellbeing, care, support and guidance for pupils.  The survey is based on the Commissioner’s Children’s Rights Framework.  The Children’s Commissioner will use the data anonymously to discover good practice in Wales, and also to identify themes across Wales that will help to support schools.  This information will also help to inform the Children’s Commissioner’s priorities for children and young people as part of the national ‘What Now?’ consultation.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

The school has sustained a culture and ethos that places pupil voice at the heart of school improvement.  This is firmly embedded and has a significant impact on pupil wellbeing, and standards of teaching and learning.

In line with the school’s mission to ‘Excite, Challenge and Empower’, the pupils and teachers collaborate very effectively to drive school improvement processes at every level.  The school’s culture is built upon empowering pupils to be leaders of their own learning.  The fundamental objective is to engage and enthuse pupil involvement through curriculum innovation.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

Launched in September 2015, ‘Skills learnt Holistically to Inspire, Nurture and Empower’ (SHINE), is an inclusive, learner-led curriculum which excites, challenges and empowers all learners.  This has evolved through research-driven professional learning and engagement with the Successful Futures curriculum to reflect Glan Usk’s role as a Pioneer School to take forward developments relating to the curriculum.

To launch a new pupil-led theme, teachers facilitate a day of immersion for pupils, including rich learning activities.  Whilst immersed in highly creative activities, pupils are given time to reflect and to plan the direction of future learning.  Teachers ensure that the curriculum builds systematically on pupils’ prior knowledge and understanding through a progressive and comprehensive framework of skills.  The pupils decide the theme and, using skills, build the context for learning.  On a daily basis, the pupils are empowered through direct and meaningful input into their learning experiences.  The four purposes of the new curriculum for Wales are an integral part of the planning process and pupils’ learning.  Each classroom includes a pupils’ Learning Wall, which includes the children’s planning, skills and lesson ideas.  Pupils’ planned lessons are highlighted daily and displayed clearly for everyone to see.

Pupil knowledge and understanding of the Successful Futures curriculum (the new curriculum for Wales) are exceptional.  Regular ‘curriculum assemblies’ and pupil voice days enable all learners to plan, and reflect on, innovative ideas.  The Pupil Leadership Team gives feedback from such events to the school leadership team and ideas are further integrated into the curriculum.

All learning experiences are enhanced through metacognitive strategies and bespoke personalised learning approaches.  Pupils are involved in creating resources and delivering lessons across the school to embed strategies. 

In leading curriculum innovation, school culture is focused on continual professional learning, professional dialogue and reflective practice.

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

The SHINE Curriculum empowers learners to lead their own learning.  Understanding and planning for skill development are outstanding.  Learners have an excellent understanding of Successful Futures curriculum and the four purposes within it.  Every child has a significant voice in shaping the curriculum and they are active citizens who know that their contributions are valued.  A wellbeing survey provides useful evidence of the positive impact of learner voice, metacognitive strategies and personalised learning approaches on learners’ attitudes to school and involvement in their learning.  The SHINE Curriculum celebrates pupil achievement and progress from each starting point as well as their attainment.  The school’s analysis of lesson observations shows a trend of year-on-year improvement in the quality of teaching and learning since 2016.

How have you shared your good practice?

Glan Usk is an EAS regional consortium training provider and has, over the years, provided an array of workshops with a focus on curriculum and metacognition.  The school has hosted events to share the curriculum to a significant number of professionals across the consortim and Wales.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to the practice

Our vision of serving all pupils and ensuring that each one reaches his or her full potential is at the heart of our work.  Over time, we have invested a great deal of time and resources to ensure that our staff foster an industrious, respectful and productive atmosphere in lessons and provide our pupils with purposeful encouragement and support at all times.  This has led to ensuring excellent behaviour and positive attitudes towards learning from many pupils. 

However, in 2014, we decided that more specialist arrangements and interventions were needed for an increasing number of pupils who were arriving at the school with difficulties or developing emotional and social problems as they grew.  Our relationship with specialist external agencies has been a strong element of our success over the years in order to refer pupils to specific services.  We decided to increase our internal processes in order to be more proactive in meeting pupils’ social, emotional and behavioural needs, and rely less on reactive external procedures.  To that end, two internal centres were established, namely ‘Hafan’ and ‘Encil’.  One provides support and the other allows reflective, quiet time for pupils who are unable to cope in mainstream lessons from time to time.

Description of the strategy or provision

Staff at Hafan run a variety of specialist and specific courses.  These are open to all of the school’s pupils.  Referrals come from the senior leadership team, staff, parents or the Inclusion Officer, and discussions are held regularly to decide which pupils would benefit from these courses.  Assessments are made by parents, members of the school’s staff and pupils themselves.  Scores from the verifying assessments are analysed on computer, and staff at Hafan then use the results to create short, purposeful sessions that focus on specific aspects. 

The most useful courses include the following:

Self-respect course: Small group sessions for around six pupils who work together on activities and games to develop self-respect, confidence and a positive body image. 

Controlling anxiety: Provision of coping strategies in situations when pupils are anxious or worry about things often.

Anger Management: Sessions that focus on different strategies and set anger management activities.

Bereavement Support: A course for pupils who have suffered a bereavement within the family.  

Clwb Cystadweithio: A club to support Year 7 pupils as they settle and socialise at the beginning of their school career.

Social Club: A programme for teenagers, which is used with groups of pupils who meet for one lesson a week to develop their emotional, communication and social skills through various games and activities.  There is a further programme to improve the skills of older pupils who have difficulty making and keeping friends.

Emotional Literacy Programme: An assessment and intervention programme for 11 to 16-year-old pupils.  The topics that are discussed include self-awareness, self-control, motivation and empathy.  The programme includes setting goals and work relating to feelings.  These sessions are held after school each week.

In addition to the above interventions, Hafan is a beneficial and calm area where pupils can come to reflect, read or talk to each other or staff during non-contact time.  Beneficial mindfulness sessions are organised each week for any pupils who want to join in. 

When a pupil is unable to cope in lessons and shows inappropriate or negative behaviour, they are given time to reflect in the Encil resource centre.  After a period of working with the Hafan staff on strategies to improve their attitude towards learning, the pupil will re-join mainstream lessons.  The pupil is given a ‘Hafan Report’ card in order for teachers and support staff to identify positive actions and appropriate behaviour.  This report is to record praise rather than to compel teachers to identify poor efforts.  Pupils’ fair efforts are rewarded appropriately.

The effect of the work on provision and pupils’ standards

A significant number of pupils attend the support sessions that are listed above.  Many pupils are also part of a variety of other beneficial clubs and extra-curricular activities.  The school’s pupils show pride in their school and appreciate its homely, familial atmosphere.

There have been no permanent exclusions for many years and the school has not excluded any pupils for a fixed term since September 2015.  Attendance rates over the last four years are strong and compare very favourably with those in other similar schools.  The attendance of pupils who are eligible for free school meals is very good and consistently higher than can be seen nationally.  The percentage of regular absences and the number of pupils who are absent persistently have decreased significantly over time, and the school has a very low level of unauthorised absences.

The school’s leaders and staff have complete trust in the pupils’ ability to shoulder responsibilities and undertake leadership roles.  Many pupils across the school make valuable contributions to the school’s life and work, and fulfil their duties enthusiastically and maturely.  For example, older pupils have had training to mentor and support their younger peers with reading.  A number of pupils lead various forums, such as the Eco Forum, the Welsh Language Forum and the Healthy Living Forum.

As a result of providing purposeful interventions and valuable opportunities for our pupils, they have strong social skills which enable them to develop as respectful and independent citizens.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

Over the last four years, The Bishop of Llandaff has introduced a series of successful strategies, which have led to significant improvements in provision, resulting in very high outcomes across all key stages.  An ambitious vision based on high expectations, clear lines of accountability, and a fine balance of challenge and support has fostered a highly effective environment, which nurtures the talents of students and staff alike.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

The changes seen over the last four years have been underpinned by five explicit actions, which have helped shape a transformation in school culture.

1. Establishing a clear and compelling vision of excellence

When governors advertised the position of headteacher in the autumn of 2013, the application pack stated clearly that the new headteacher was expected to help the school become the “best in Wales”.  During the months prior to taking up post in September 2014, the new headteacher was able to invest time speaking to staff, parents and students to gain a firm understanding of the school’s existing strengths and areas for development.  In September 2014, the headteacher articulated how the governors’ ambition could be realised. At its heart this focused on providing an education where all students would be expected to:

  1. achieve their full potential academically

  2. develop the skills necessary to be successful in an ever-changing world

  3. understand a sense of morality

The first two elements were clearly understood by students, staff and parents.  Children were expected to achieve in public examinations, throughout each key stage and, at the same time, develop a broad range of skills.  However, to unpick the third aspect, the school quickly began working with groups of students to identify the specific values desired to help students develop a sense of morality.  After a period of reflection and consultation, the students derived the acronym LARF, relating to ‘Love, Acceptance, Responsibility and Forgiveness’.  These values helped set the foundation of the vision and are constantly referred to in dealing with members of the community.  Furthermore, the process of establishing the values helped establish a critical mass and secured engagement from the school community.  Over time, visual images seen around the school help to reinforce and reflect these values, which form the basis of the school’s purpose.

2. Commitment to developing the quality of teaching through highly effective training

In 2011, Estyn judged teaching at the school to be adequate.  There were pockets of excellence and very good practice across the school.  However, it was too inconsistent.  It was clear that there was a lack of clarity of what constituted excellence within the classroom and, in the months leading up to September 2014, the new headteacher worked with a small team of staff to develop a framework for teaching.  This was launched on the first INSET day in 2014 and is known as ‘The Five Principles’; it became the school’s blueprint of outstanding learning and what staff would be expected to do to help achieve this.

‘The five principles’ of excellence relate to

  1. high level of challenge

  2. development of high quality skills

  3. visible progress in learning

  4. quality questioning

  5. feedback for improvement

The framework alone was not going to have the necessary impact without investment in time and clear actions.  Therefore, a systematic overhaul of staff training began.  All staff training and meetings were to focus on sharing ideas and best practice to promote the importance of learning.  The process of understanding and embedding the five key principles took the following format.  Initially, one principle would be launched at the start of a term/half-term and supplemented with a range of training opportunities, built within the training cycle with optional additional opportunities for staff who wished to develop their practice further.  Throughout the process, there would be opportunities for staff to trial ideas and then disseminate to colleagues within and across departments in the school.  Finally, each term would see a review of progress against the principle.  This review would include lesson observations of a range of staff from all departments to measure impact.  Staff who struggled to implement strategies would receive support through additional training and eventually the process became embedded.

Over the last four years, the challenge for the school has been to help increase the number of staff moving from good to excellent and help the very few move from adequate to good through to excellent.  To help achieve this, a differentiated programme of training has been introduced so that staff receive more bespoke training relative to their own perceived or identified skill level against specific principles.  This has enabled the school to utilise four levels of training (introducing; developing; embedding; excelling) to raise the quality of teaching against each of the principles.

To help engender a culture of continuous improvement, the school removed the use of judgement grades of lessons.  This was to remove the fear of a lesson observation while encouraging a culture that all staff should seek to improve because it is within their ability to do so rather than because there was a need to improve.  Regular informal observations of staff take place throughout the year and this has led to a celebration of the best practice seen throughout the school.  The school has developed its own learning and development site with numerous videos of teachers delivering specific elements of ‘The Five Principles’ to help embed practice.  As a result, the pace in which staff have improved practice has been very rapid.

3. High quality and visible leadership

The consistent message shared by school leaders from September 2014 was that teaching has the greatest impact on student achievement and the role of school leaders is to ensure that developing teaching is the number one priority.  However, to achieve this leaders needed to be competent and highly visible in leading the desired change of culture to ensure that members of the community began to embed the vision and principles.  The introduction of daily learning walks was designed to support staff and ensure that the climate of learning was as expected.  Learning walks for each period of the school day are timetabled.  These involve a member of the leadership (and now more recently pastoral leaders) visiting every classroom in the school, each lesson, every day.  The purpose was to ensure that staff and students know that leaders are highly visible in lessons to support a culture of learning.  This change in leadership behaviour also ensured that leaders developed a clear understanding of strengths and areas for development, while at the same time, where there were any issues with students, ensuring that a member of the school’s leadership could intervene to provide instant support to staff.

Coupled with a focus on developing teaching, leaders at all levels received valuable training to help them fulfil their roles effectively.  The training was based around the national model of leadership and each identified session would include input to support leaders.  Examples of training included, ‘How to have a difficult conversation’ and ‘How to identify intervention strategies from data sets’.  Between leadership team meetings and occasionally at middle leaders meetings, leaders are encouraged to read and set each other homework to ensure that leaders are more strategic than operational in their roles.  As a result, leaders at all levels became more confident and skilled in fulfilling their roles and are equipped to secure accountability more effectively.

4. Decisive leadership actions to secure change

Within the first term in 2014, it was clear that two key areas required change to help secure the necessary improvements: the leadership structure of the school and the design of the curriculum.  In 2014, two thirds of teaching staff held a teaching and learning responsibility (TLR), and a few staff held two or more responsibilities.  As a result, the lines of accountability were unclear and a number of staff held a TLR while not directly influencing the work of others.  In January 2015, the school embarked on a full consultation of the staffing structure with a view to implementing the following September.  The purpose of the restructure was to strengthen the quality of leadership to help secure improvements in provision and standards.  The school developed through consultation a mixture of faculty areas (for very small departments) and departments, which enabled the school to rationalise the leadership of the school at middle tier level.  At the same time, the process provided an opportunity to provide a more appropriate structure for support staff and the leadership team.  While this process was difficult for a few staff to appreciate, the school, including governors, spent a great deal of time carefully explaining the rationale and benefits behind restructure.  As a result, the lines of accountability are very clear, while there are now visible career paths for staff.  This has provided staff with relevant opportunities for growth and development.  The new structure has also ensured that the best possible leaders are in place and the core purpose of school improvement is not compromised by the school’s leadership at any level.

The school’s curriculum offer has not changed much since 2014.  However, the school was keen to review the allocation of curriculum time and the schedule of the school day.  Concurrent with the staffing restructure, the school embarked on modifying the school day from five one-hour lessons to six fifty-minute lessons.  The rationale behind this ensured that additional curriculum time could be allocated for core subjects (English, mathematics, science, Welsh and religious education) while maintaining the full breadth of the curriculum for non-core subjects.  The additional time in English and mathematics, in particular, has helped strengthen the foundation knowledge and skills required to access the full curriculum, while all subjects across the school curriculum remain popular at all key stages.  This change ensured that the school curriculum met the needs of students while not compromising on the basics of a broad and balanced offer.

5. Modelling of leadership activities

School leaders have been effective in modelling leadership activities to support middle leaders and classroom teachers to develop at a rapid rate and ensure that the energies of staff are focused primarily on highly effective planning and delivery of teaching.  To support middle leaders with writing self-evaluation reports and improvement plans, the school produce WAGOLLs (What A Good One Looks Like) so that staff enter the process from a position of strength, working closely with their leadership team link member to produce highly effective documents that accurately identify existing performance, as well as intended outcomes from focused actions.  Staff with leadership responsibilities have additional sections in the staff handbook, which highlight specific actions leaders should be undertaking on a daily, weekly, half-termly and termly basis; a strategic planning cycle to map out the school year; and a toolkit to support leaders in evaluating lesson planning.  These processes and actions have provided clarity to leaders at all levels and have ensured that the process of self-evaluation and improvement planning moves away from activities undertaken at specific capture points throughout a school year to an ongoing process of continuous improvement that is valued and understood.

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

Over the last four years, there have been rapid improvements in the quality of provision at the school.  Highly effective teaching across nearly all subject areas has led to outstanding outcomes for all groups of students.  Achievements at the school are consistently very high against nearly all indicators.  However, the greatest impact of the work has been the embedded culture within the school.  As a result, nearly all staff have a very clear understanding of the principles and practices that take place at the school to support each person to become the best version of themselves.  This commitment to staff development has led to rapid school transformation.

How have you shared your good practice?

The Bishop of Llandaff is a Central South Consortium Professional Hub and has developed a number of staff development programmes for both primary and secondary schools within the region to focus on the leadership of change and school transformation.

The school has worked closely with other providers to help bring about school improvement.  This has involved working with another secondary school in the local authority for 18 months.  This partnership involved sharing leadership practices and strategies to help secure change.  In addition, a number of staff were seconded to the partner school to help introduce sustained improvement practices, two of whom have secured substantive roles in the school.  As a result of the partnership, both the partner school and The Bishop of Llandaff have secured continuous improvements in provision, standards and leadership.

These approaches have helped contribute to a school led, self-supporting system.  The school regularly hosts training events and visits for colleagues from other schools.