Chapter 4 of this active and experiential learning film looks at teaching and assessment in the foundation phase.
Chapter 1 of this active and experiential learning film looks at standards in literacy and numeracy in the foundation phase.
Chapter 2 of this active and experiential learning film looks at pupil voice and independence in the foundation phase.
Chapter 3 of this active and experiential learning film looks at provision for literacy and numeracy in the foundation phase.
Chapter 5 of this active and experiential learning film looks at leadership in the foundation phase.
Ysgol Y Deri is a residential special school maintained by the Vale of Glamorgan local authority. The school opened in November 2014 following the amalgamation of Ysgol Erw’r Delyn, Ysgol Maes Dyfan and Ashgrove School. The school shares a site and facilities with a mainstream secondary school. Currently there are 246 pupils on roll aged between three and nineteen years. All pupils have statements of special educational needs for severe learning difficulties, profound and multiple learning difficulties, moderate learning difficulties or autistic spectrum disorders. Pupils are drawn from the Vale of Glamorgan as well as from the neighbouring local authorities of Cardiff, Newport, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Rhondda Cynon Taf and Swansea. Nearly all pupils have English as their home language. Thirty-five per cent of the pupils are eligible for free school meals. The headteacher has been in place since the school opened.
The school caters for a range of ability from ‘Routes for Learning’ to ‘A’ level, making it unique in Wales. It has 240 staff on site. The school is a new build that opened in November 2014, less than two years before its inspection.
In 2009, the local authority formulated a plan to amalgamate its three special schools into one, co-locating the school on a shared site with a mainstream secondary school next door. When the decision to amalgamate was made, there were three headteachers in place and, once the shadow governing body was established, four governing bodies.
Two of the headteachers decided to retire and the governing bodies agreed to federate. The remaining headteacher was appointed to the new school and took up post initially as the Executive Headteacher of all four schools. A leadership team was then established for the new school comprised of members of the existing teams. In total, it took five years to plan and build the school.
The three schools had very individual and distinctive cultures. The challenge for the leadership team was to bring the staff together and to do this with a shared vision and a shared sense of ownership, thus ensuring that the new school became one school with its own distinct identity.
The leadership team were clear about the challenges ahead and were well versed in the research behind successful change management, including work by Professor Michael Fullan amongst others. The team’s key priority was to put in place suitable strategies to ensure that pupils, staff and other stakeholders had equal voices in the design of the new school: its facilities, curriculum, vison and ethos.
Four key areas were identified:
1. The management of change for the staff
2. The design and provision within the new school
3. The curriculum for the new school
4. The understanding and management of the pupils by the staff and how they would come together
It was decided that the staffing and pupils would be ‘mixed up’ from day one of the new school. The first task was therefore to enable the staff teams to meet each other. Team building exercises were organised on joint INSET days to enable the staff from each of the three schools to get to know each other.
Specialist teams were set up with representatives from all schools and across support and teaching staff to design and advise on all aspects of the new build, the provision, the curriculum, and to identify training needs. Everyone who wanted a role was engaged and several media for circulating the outcomes were used, including email and Yammer.
The teams involved in the building design worked with pupils and architects to ensure that the building would meet the needs of staff and learners. These teams were encouraged to think imaginatively so that the school did not simply re-create what already existed. The project also initiated the concept of ‘Construction Ambassadors’. These were two pupils from each of the four schools involved with the project (including the mainstream school). They visited the site regularly and reported back to their peers in the schools through verbal reports, presentations and video.
As the curriculum was designed, it was trialled in the three schools, and pupils were consulted on its suitability. A process of feedback then ensured that the curriculum developed according to the needs of all pupils. Qualification routes for 14-19 learners were established and assessment and recording procedures were standardised. New staff uniforms were purchased, with the new uniforms for the pupils designed by pupils and parents.
A planned series of staff exchanges took place over the two years of the build. This involved pairs of staff working for two week periods in the schools they had no experience of. Every member of staff spent at least two weeks in one of the other three schools. This helped to identify training needs and provided opportunities for staff to share experiences.
The senior leadership team also exchanged across the schools, although their ‘swaps’ were of a much longer duration to ensure that they had a firm understanding of the needs of pupils and staff. It was also important to get to know the staff in each school and establish a rapport early on. Pupils in the 14-19 age group also went to different schools to take part in an options day every week. Great care was taken to ensure that no one school led the others and that everyone had an equal stake in the new school.
Staff and pupils were well prepared for the new school. They were familiar with the building and had met new teachers and school friends. There was a shared understanding of the needs of the pupils, and staff were well prepared to meet their physical, emotional and educational needs.
The school could deliver a cohesive curriculum, qualifications and assessment framework to ensure that achievement and standards were high from the beginning. All pupils in the first year of opening met their targets and all leavers left with at least one recognised qualification. Nearly all pupils’ wellbeing was assessed as good or excellent.
The building supports a highly effective, extensive and varied curriculum. It has a wide range of provision, including a television studio and a professional kitchen, to ensure that the wide range of needs of learners are fully met. Provision for ICT is a particular strength. Pupils make extensive use of information and communication technology across the curriculum and nearly all pupils across the school make strong progress in their ICT skills.
The Construction Ambassadors spoke widely beyond the school, including to politicians and the building industry, and received awards for their work. The Ysgol Y Deri ambassadors won the Speaker’s Award for School Councils and went to the Houses of Parliament to address MPs. The impact on their confidence, self-esteem and wellbeing cannot be overstated.
The school has hosted visits from across the UK and internationally. Frameworks for the 14-19 curriculum are used in other schools. Other schools are supported in their ICT development journey in provision, learning and teaching. The school is also working alongside the Welsh Government, supporting and advising local authorities on new school buildings and sharing ‘lessons learned’.
‘The curriculum at Fitzalan High School is highly flexible and responsive to the needs of individual pupils.’ Estyn 2017.
Fitzalan High School is an English-medium mixed 11 to 18 school maintained by Cardiff local authority. There are currently 1,721 pupils on roll, including 344 in the sixth form, compared to 1,440 pupils, including 254 in the sixth form, at the time of the last inspection.
Key stage 3
Curriculum provision in Fitzalan High School is differentiated according to the potential, progress and ability level of each pupil. The school aims to meet the needs of all pupils; to be flexible and responsive; provide breadth and depth, and secure the best possible outcomes for all. The dynamic nature and flexibility of the curriculum mean that staff can respond to individual circumstances and pupils’ needs throughout the academic year. This is particularly important in Fitzalan, as pupils come from an extremely wide range of linguistic backgrounds and with different levels of prior education. There is also a very high level of mobility within each academic year. The school’s curriculum therefore needs to adjust to match the needs of pupils who are new to schools or new to Wales.
In key stage 3, the most able pupils study Latin and Spanish in addition to French, and all other core and foundation National Curriculum subjects. Pupils with literacy or numeracy deficits have specific ‘project’ lessons on their timetable where they improve their skills through thematic lessons that are linked to curriculum areas such as history or science. Those with significant challenges have daily timetabled lessons to improve their reading and writing skills, including a focus on phonics to ensure that they attain functional literacy. These pupils also follow an integrated humanities course and have a reduced number of teachers.
The school’s ‘Curriculum Access Team’ leads additional interventions: small group intervention groups focus on pupils with specific learning difficulties, visual impairment, speech and language needs, and emotional needs. Pupils in all years who need nurture have timetabled sessions in ‘Cartref’ to improve their ability to manage their behaviour and emotions and to thrive in social situations. From Year 8 onwards, pupils with significant behavioural needs are integrated into an ‘extended opportunities’ programme as part of a ‘graduated response’ to their behavioural needs. Pupils on the extended opportunities programme follow a full curriculum. They are taught by subject specialists and receive intensive behavioural support from BESD specialists.
Pupils who are new to learning English are taught in specific induction groups for most of their subjects, with an emphasis on developing their English language skills. To help these pupils integrate into the school as a whole, they have form time, physical education and mathematics lessons with the rest of the year group. Pupils who are new to learning English, but with good maths skills, are able to move quickly up through the maths sets while still receiving the support they need to gain a basic grounding in English.
Pupils of all ability, including those on the extended opportunities programme, are offered coaching in their own language and, where there is an appropriate examination course, the opportunity to gain external accreditation. In addition, the school has recently introduced a ‘creative option’ into Year 9: pupils choose a music, drama, technology or art based course. This was introduced to support creative examination courses, to keep pupils motivated throughout Year 9 and to make sure that all pupils develop the skills needed to study for and gain external accreditation.
Key stage 4
In key stage 4, a combination of free choice options and differentiated pathways mean that the curriculum is stimulating and aspirational, and that it meets pupils’ interests. A wide variety of traditional GCSE and vocational qualifications are available and pupils start their key stage 4 curriculum in the summer term of Year 9.
To ensure that all pupils have breadth, depth and a balance between core subjects and option choices, the school runs a fortnightly 60 period curriculum plan. The more able pupils in key stage 4 are offered four option subjects, including Latin, ancient history and computer studies. All pupils have the freedom to make choices that appeal to them and receive individual guidance to support them to make the best choice and reach their full potential. Almost all pupils sit an external examination in English literature, including pupils on the extended opportunities programme and pupils new to learning English. Most pupils achieve external accreditation in full course Welsh and full course religious education. Differentiated pathways and a focus on skills development have enabled pupils’ outcomes to remain high, particularly for those crossing the five A*-A, level 2 plus and level 2 threshold.
Pupils who are new to learning English or developing their competency in English undertake the school’s ESOL programme. They follow externally accredited GCSE and vocational courses with an emphasis on developing and improving their English skills.
Sixth form
A free choice options process means that pupils can choose a wide variety of subjects, some offered in partnership with other schools, or with Cardiff City or Glamorgan Cricket Club. Each pupil’s offer is based on their key stage 4 outcomes. Pupils can follow an AS/A2 and Welsh Baccalaureate programme, a level 3 Vocational programme, a level 2 programme, or a mixed provision, which is a combination, tailored to each pupil’s ability.
At Fitzalan, the curriculum provision combined with the commitment of staff, the support of parents and high levels of pupil engagement have all contributed to the school’s success. In Fitzalan, pupils ‘learn together to be the best that they can be’.
Over the last four years, at key stage 4, the school’s performance places it in the upper half of similar schools in most indicators, and in the top quarter in the majority of them. More able pupils, pupils eligible for free school meals and pupils with additional learning needs achieve very highly. In lessons, many pupils make strong progress in their knowledge, understanding and skills.
Most pupils demonstrate exemplary behaviour and high levels of engagement in their learning. Rates of attendance are exceptionally high.
Pembrokeshire College is the county’s largest provider of post-16 education and training. With its main site at Haverfordwest, the college has approximately 1,800 full-time and 12,500 part-time students including vocational, A levels, apprenticeships and degrees routes.
Health and Engineering are key curriculum areas for the college and this case study relates in part to the enhancement and extension of opportunities for learners who wish to study in these areas.
The college is to open a new A level centre in 2017 to accommodate pupils from the two schools in the north of the county. The college and the Welsh Government jointly fund this new facility.
Regionally, the college plays a significant role through the Swansea City Bay deal and through the emerging project focusing on the development of a marine energy centre on the Milford Haven waterway. The college works closely with the Milford Haven Port Authority and Swansea University to ensure that opportunities to develop marine and sustainable energy generation are fully exploited. More locally, the college has been a leading partner in the post-16 reorganisation in the north of the county, working with schools and the local authority to improve learners’ access to A level provision and improve learners’ breadth of choice of vocational courses.
The principal and the senior leadership team have been effective in ensuring that the college is a leading member of partnerships promoting economic regeneration within Pembrokeshire. Through their membership of a range of regional bodies, such as the Haven Waterway Enterprise Zone Board and the newly-formed Regional Learning and Skills Partnership for South West and Mid Wales, the college is at the heart of the key decision making groups in relation to the development and investment in skills in the region.
On a local basis, the principal and senior leadership team have worked closely with schools and the local authority to strengthen partnerships and communication in order to improve the choices available to young people in Pembrokeshire. The principal has led the college’s work with the local authority director of education and the head teachers of Ysgol Dewi Sant and Ysgol Bro Gwaun, resulting in the development of a new centre for post-16 education. A levels will be delivered in this centre, which has been financed jointly by the college and the Welsh Government. The centre opened in the summer of 2017, overseen by an A level centre committee which contains representation from the school head teachers, the principal and the director of education, along with school governor representation and members of the college’s governing body.
The college works well with a wide range of community partners to engage hard-to-reach groups, such as Gypsy and Traveller communities, those at risk of dropping out of education and the economically inactive. The college works very effectively with the local special school to support the transition, integration and progression of learners on independent living skills programmes.
Overall, the standards that learners achieve at the college are good.
The college uses its links to its work-based learning partnership effectively to allow progression between further education and work-based learning programmes, or opportunities for employment.
A positive outcome of the holistic approach to partnership working has been the enhanced opportunities for groups of vulnerable learners. The excellent range of multi-agency partnerships support these more vulnerable learners very well during their programmes.
Grŵp Llandrillo Menai (GLlM) is a further education (FE) college formed in 2012 through mergers between Coleg Llandrillo, Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor and Coleg Menai. The Grŵp has approximately 21,000 learners, of whom 6,000 study full time programmes delivered on 13 campuses across the counties of Anglesey, Conwy, Denbighshire and Gwynedd. Communities served by GLIM range from areas with the highest Welsh speaking populations in Wales (Caernarfon, 87%) to those in Conwy and Denbighshire where fewer than 20% of the population speak Welsh.
The college provides an extensive and broad range of effective Welsh-medium and bilingual provision. The college leads nationally through its very effective Sgiliaith provision that supports bilingualism across the FE sector. GLlM operates a comprehensive Welsh language strategy and Welsh language scheme that sets challenging targets which supports learners’ progress during their study.
The recently introduced Seren Iaith is an innovative and sector-leading initiative that challenges learners’ attitudes towards the use of the Welsh language and promotes the social and academic use of Welsh. As a result, an increasing number of learners undertake learning and assessment using Welsh.
The Grŵp’s approach is based on coherent curriculum planning to enable an increase in the resources and the number of courses where bilingual-medium learning is available. All learners who have undertaken GCSE Welsh first language undertake the Welsh Essential Skills Toolkit (WEST) literacy assessment in Welsh. This enables tutors to accurately plan to meet the linguistic needs of these learners and sets targets for learners to improve their Welsh literacy skills. The staff are supported through the Sgiliaith team, which supports bilingualism across the FE sector and is located at Coleg Meirion Dwyfor within the Grŵp.
The above approach identified the need to increase the use of Welsh outside the classroom and in a social context. As a consequence the Seren Iaith initiative has been developed to increase the social use of the Welsh and raise awareness of the cultural aspects and opportunities of the language.
The aim of the Seren Iaith Programme is to assess and increase the current social use of the Welsh language amongst learners and to measure attitudes towards the language. Learners undertake a Seren Iaith survey at the start of their course. The survey is made up of ten statements to which learners respond by indicating the level at which they agree or disagree with those statements. A tutorial programme supported by high quality interactive resources is then used to encourage learners to use the language on an informal and social basis. The result is that learners are much more aware of their Welsh culture and have a much wider appreciation as to the relevance and use of the Welsh language. Learners are actively encouraged to develop their Welsh language skills and are aware of the importance of Welsh language skills in the workplace.
Further developments are based on developing support materials and activities that directly underpin the statements e.g. materials that encourage learners to use the Welsh language on social media.
The Seren Iaith gives an immediate measure of the impact of activities that the learner has undertaken during the academic year to increase and continue the use of the Welsh language in their college life.
The Seren Iaith initiative has contributed to success rates achieved by Welsh speaking learners that are three percentage points higher than the Grŵp average. Learners undertaking studies in a bilingual setting also show high levels of ability in translanguaging (trawsieithu, or the use of different languages together) during teaching sessions. The majority of learners who have undertaken the Seren Iaith have an increased understanding of the importance of bilingual skills in gaining employment.
Bryngwyn and Glan y Môr were formally federated in September 2014 becoming the pilot for secondary federations in Wales. They are 7 miles apart. Bryngwyn School is an 11-16, mixed, community school. It is situated in Dafen, on the north-eastern side of Llanelli, Carmarthenshire and draws its pupils from parts of the town centre and from a number of outlying villages. There are 1,050 pupils on roll, and around 20% of pupils are eligible for free school meals.
Glan y Môr is an 11-16 community focused school in Burry Port, Carmarthenshire with 480 pupils on roll of whom approximately 30% are eligible for free school meals. Both schools not only work in partnership with each other but also work in close partnership with cluster primary schools, other secondary schools in the area and the local FE college. Both schools are pioneer and lead creative schools
Leadership is a key driver in any a school improvement journey, even more so in the context of federations where there is an expectation that leaders across institutions act autonomously. New federations provide valuable opportunities to share best practice with new audiences, develop different perspectives and provide new impetus for change. The effective management of federations requires developing truly distributed leadership at all levels and most importantly, throughout and across institutions. It is this distributed model of leadership that has allowed rapid progress across the shared provision. Over time a dynamic and collaborative leadership model has evolved. Within both schools, there is ambition and drive to secure improved outcomes and strong levels of pupil wellbeing and the correct skill set to bring this about.
The initial challenge for the two schools was to develop new senior leadership structures that would enable the effective leadership of each school while meeting existing demands at whole-school, local and national levels. To address this, all leaders took on cross federation roles alongside their school based roles, with all members of the senior leadership team having “umbrella” federation responsibilities. Over time, the challenge of operating across two sites has prompted the school to become more pragmatic in its leadership approach. For example, line management duties that were once distributed across all SLT and across both schools sites have evolved so that middle leaders have greater access to SLT links who are resident on their site.
For federation to work it was also essential to create a culture of innovation and accountability at middle leader level. Key to this has been the opportunity created by federation for greater partnership working and the unique privilege for staff to work across schools and to share pedagogical ideas and experiences. To date, in the first three years of federation, 34 members of staff have benefitted from assuming additional leadership responsibilities at departmental, whole-school and federation levels, leading to significant new opportunities for CPD. This has increased the school’s leadership capacity and enhanced its resilience to manage change effectively in the future.
It was also important to ensure that the federation’s governing body provided the school with a consistently high level of challenge and support and to develop robust, innovative governance that would provide strong strategic direction and accountability for the federation. It was imperative to create mutually supportive yet locally autonomous governance for both Bryngwyn and Glan y Môr. This would enable the schools to flourish while preserving the unique characteristics of their respective communities and the populations they served.
To achieve these aims the school has developed a model of leadership that focusses on the “6Cs”:
1. Consistency – ensuring quality of provision, access to resources and developing specialist support across the federation has reduced in-school and cross-federation variation.
2. Collaboration – as working together becomes more natural and embedded, the school works smarter, and improves its practices.
3. Challenge – using context and data to set challenging targets that move the learner forward while never forgetting the need for pupils to enjoy their experiences at school. The school’s mantra for both pupils and staff is simply ‘to be the best that they can be’. Rigorous, robust and meaningful self-evaluation and improvement planning across the federation has secured outstanding improvements to standards, learning experiences, and led to sustained, high quality teaching.
4. Capacity –by using the combined skills and expertise of all staff to share good practice and encourage a dialogue on pedagogy, the school enhances the experience of the learner and practitioner. The school constantly seeks to change and improve, while anticipating what is over the “horizon” and trying to plan for it calmly, analytically and effectively.
5. Climate – Fundamental to the school’s success has been the promotion of a culture of “Trust and Dialogue” across the federation. All colleagues care passionately about what they do and understand the importance of working together in the pursuit of improvement for all learners. This extends across both academic and pastoral areas. The school’s simple ambition for its pupils is that they will help them to ‘build a life’ for themselves.
6. Competition: healthy and friendly competition exists between schools and across department within the federation and has helped to drive standards. Standards in both schools are high. Glan y Môr has seen significant improvement in outcomes year on year since federation while Bryngwyn has maintained its standards, achieving some of it best ever results in the last 4 out of 5 years.
In addition to the improvements in pupils’ outcomes noted above, the federation has developed an innovative approach to rewards and sanctions which has led to significant improvements in pupils’ wellbeing and positive attitudes to learning. Collaborative working, involving joint meetings and the observing and sharing of best practices and resources has acted as an impetus for improvements across the curriculum, which have in turn been key drivers for engagement and improved outcomes for groups of learners. Pupils, parents, staff and governors now have a strong sense of belonging to the federation and each school with a genuine pride in their collective achievements. The school’s motto ‘yn rhoi o’n gorau’ (‘giving our best’), captures the determination of both schools to achieve excellence but also expresses its focus on each individual giving their utmost to realise their potential.
Good practice is shared through honest and open dialogue based upon thorough self-evaluation which celebrates strengths whilst increasing the ambition to improve further. Staff at all levels analyse their strengths and areas for development with line managers. A highly personalised coaching and mentoring programme is in place for all staff: teachers are carefully matched with lead practitioners within and across the federation. Teachers at all levels are encouraged to take a lead role across the federation in the form of Teachmeets, INSET events and teaching and learning forums where staff engage in animated professional dialogue while sharing strategies that range from classroom-based practice to the habits of effective leadership. Digital forums are used to embed good practice and continue sharing with further staff over time.
Where possible, opportunities are also explored beyond the federation as staff are encouraged to share their strengths with colleagues from other schools both within the family of schools and across the region.