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Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Information about the school

Blaengwawr Primary School is in the village of Aberaman near Aberdare.  There are currently 193 pupils between the age of three and eleven years at the school.  There are two single-year classes, including a full-time nursery, and five mixed-year classes. 

Over the last three years, the average number of pupils eligible for free school meals has increased to around 31%, which is above the national average of 19%.  About 24% of pupils have additional learning needs, which is around the national average.  No pupils have a statement of special educational needs.  Very few are in the care of the local authority or from an ethnic minority background.  No pupils currently receive support in English as an additional language or speak Welsh as a first language.  The headteacher took up her post in April 2011 and the last inspection was in May 2010. 

Context and background to sector-leading practice

The school bases its procedures and arrangements firmly on the philosophy and principles of the Foundation Phase.  Consistent planned provision across the Foundation Phase ensures a child centred learning environment and challenge for every pupil.  All classrooms and outside areas promote independent, child-centred learning activities extremely well through effective focused tasks, and enhanced and continuous provision. 

Description of nature of strategy or activity

Teachers and support staff in the Foundation Phase hold weekly planning meetings.  This ensures that focused teaching tasks have clear aims and learning objectives, and cover all the relevant skills in a varied and imaginative way.  Tasks include the use of different “Wow Starters”.  As a result of the Foundation Phase Leader attending the Outstanding Teaching Practice training, staff have extended and embedded these ideas in to their practice effectively.  The school has gathered and shared ideas, and created a bank of suitable and creative starters from which staff can select.  Staff use these various ideas well throughout the school to provide pupils within all learning groups with stimulating and interesting activities.  They excite and inspire all learners to learn, and include challenging tasks and opportunities for child-led assessment strategies.

Three examples include:

Focus Task 1 
To encourage pupils to:
• express their opinions, give reasons, and provide appropriate answers to questions
• respond to a wide range of stimuli
• use persuasive language, extend their choices of vocabulary and use previous knowledge to justify their opinions

Focus task 2 – Outdoor classroom – a large environmental area
To encourage pupils to:
• estimate measurements in terms of length, height, and capacity
• use standard units of length to record their measurements
• work as a team member
• value opinions of others
• develop problem solving skills

Foundation Phase pupils use the outdoor classrooms daily with planned activities forming part of the weekly focused, continuous and enhanced tasks.  Staff plan ‘I Can Explore’ (ICE) activities for them in the outdoor classrooms.  The pupils themselves lead these challenging ‘ICE’ activities.

Focus Task 3 – Literacy in the outdoor classroom
Using a story starter such as ‘When we were going on a bear hunt’….
 
Staff extend the provision within all classes into three further outdoor classrooms, two of which are within playground areas and designed to offer high quality continuous provision.  The third area is a large green field bordered by a garden pond, trees, shrubs, wild flowers, wooden climbing structures, benches and raised planting beds within which pupils grow their own vegetables.  There is also a polytunnel at the far end of this area that members of the school gardening club and pupils from all classes use to support their literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum. 

The school has adopted and developed the ’Pupil Voice’ system, which is now embedded across the school.  This is a fundamental aspect of the classroom environment and includes the outdoor learning areas.  It has impacted greatly on the levels of pupils’ independence, and child-centred learning. 

The pupils are aware of the different areas of learning and, as a result, are able to challenge themselves and further extend their ideas in a collaborative manner.  Staff ensure that a balance exists between Pupil Voice and enhanced provision.

The roles of the support staff are clearly defined, and effective teamwork is a prominent feature of the school’s work.  Collaborative teamwork ensures that staff encourage pupils to use their individual and specific skill-sets effectively.  This well-established routine ensures a positive and purposeful learning experience for all pupils. 

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

Leaders acknowledge that:
• Most pupils make good progress in their skills within the six areas of learning
• Most pupils have developed very effectively to be independent learners
• Nearly all pupils make very good progress from their starting points, by recalling prior learning and applying their skills very well in a variety of situations successfully
• Pupils’ literacy skills, particularly verbal, are very solid and penetrate into the writing levels within each class

The quality of pupils’ oracy and writing has improved, resulting in an upward trend and a higher number of pupils achieving the higher outcome 6 (O6) than in previous years (around 40% of pupils achieved O6 in 2016).
 
Nearly all pupils have positive attitudes towards learning, show interest in their tasks and work diligently for appropriate periods. 

Pupils’ social skills are excellent.

Staff organise the learning environment and resources effectively to create an excellent balance between adult-led and pupil-initiated learning.  This ensures that pupils are engaged well in their activities and become independent and inquisitive learners. 

All classes make very productive use of the outdoor learning areas.

There is a huge emphasis on the understanding and use of success criteria within all age groups.  This has ensured a far more accurate self and peer assessment system.  The additional challenges have shown an increase in the independence of pupils.

How have you shared your good practice?

Staff of the Foundation Phase have shared their practice with a number of local schools and groups of teachers.  Teachers, senior leaders and support staff have visited the school to shadow staff, and observe activities and strategies in practice, including the ‘Wow starter’ sessions.  They have observed how the school develops its provision for pupils in both the indoor and outdoor classrooms.  The school has completed a co-coaching programme.  This has allowed all teachers to teach a specific year group in their own school and that of their partner teacher in their school. 

Staff shared the outcomes of the Outstanding Teaching Practice training with colleagues and worked together to produce a list of ideas that would enhance, stimulate and ensure progression and quality of work for pupils in all classes.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Brief contextual information about provider/partnership

Priory College South Wales is an independent specialist college for young adults aged 16 to 25 with Asperger syndrome, autistic spectrum disorders and associated conditions.  It is situated on the Coleg Gwent campus in Pontypool and works in close partnership with the further education institution (FEI).  The majority of learners attend the mainstream college with support from Priory College.  The remainder are taught in-house before transitioning into further education, higher education, supported living or employment.

Priory College South Wales opened in 2010.  Strong partnership with Coleg Gwent means that learners are able to access courses on the Pontypool, Usk, Newport, Cross Keys and Ebbw Vale campuses.  All learners have the opportunity to access any mainstream course provided by the FEI with support from learning support workers who are trained in working with young people who have autistic spectrum disorder. 

Context and background to excellent/sector-leading practice

Strong partnership working is vital to learners’ success.  Priory College employs an ‘Autistic Spectrum Lead’, who delivers training to the FEI.  At the start of the academic year, a detailed plan is drawn up and shared that identifies all collaborative partnership meetings.  ‘Review and Transitional meetings’ take place three times a year.  These involve a wide range of partners including Careers Wales, college tutors, the additional learning needs manager and speech and language therapist, as well as parents.  These robust meetings contribute to a smooth transition for learners between settings.

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

Priory College support workers have a clear knowledge and understanding of the learners’ needs.  While supporting learners in class, they also provide support and advice to FEI tutors.  If behaviours are impeding learners’ progress, the Priory College specialist team will work with FEI staff to identify appropriate strategies to enable the learners to continue their learning.  Due to the close working relationship with the FEI, strategies are shared and discussed, minimising any loss of study time.  When a learner feels unable to work in the mainstream college, staff across the two settings agree an appropriate way forward, allowing the learner to continue their study at the Priory base. 

The sharing of information between Priory College and Coleg Gwent is a strong feature.  All personal tutors receive a copy of the Student Support Guide, which provides information about the learner’s main strengths and weaknesses, the level of support they require and their short and long term goals.  Priory College and FEI staff regularly share information on learner progress.  This includes tutor progress reports and ACE (Achieve, Celebrate and Excel) reports, which are updated every six weeks. 

Priory College staff also liaise with Coleg Gwent tertiary staff in order to secure work experience placements for learners in the mainstream college.  In addition to academic studies, Priory learners are also encouraged to be involved in mainstream college activities.  In recent years, learners from Priory College have taken on important responsibilities within Coleg Gwent, as student union and learner voice representatives.  All learners, whether in-house or attending the mainstream college, have access to the canteen facilities and learner resource centre.  This helps learners to develop their social and communication skills and increase their confidence and self-esteem.

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

The strong relationship between Priory College and Coleg Gwent enables learners to have a smooth transition into mainstream further or higher education after leaving Priory College South Wales.  It also ensures that nearly all learners achieve a recognised qualification before progressing onto their chosen destination.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Information about the school

Ysgol Gymraeg y Fenni is situated in the town of Abergavenny in Monmouthshire.  The catchment area serves the town and the nearby villages.

There are 252 pupils between 3 and 11 years old on roll, which include 30 part-time nursery age children.  They are divided into nine classes, which include three mixed-age classes.

Eleven per cent (11%) of pupils are eligible for free school meals, and 18% of pupils have additional learning needs.  Very few pupils come from Welsh-speaking homes or are from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Context and background to sector-leading practice

‘Learning as a family, growing as a community’ is the school’s mission statement.  This is at the heart of all of its activity.  Most pupils come to the school from non-Welsh speaking families and live in communities in which the Welsh language is not a natural part of the community life.  The school encourages its pupils to appreciate their Welsh heritage, enjoy Welsh culture and take pride in using the Welsh language confidently. 

Over the last few years, the school has performed strongly overall in the areas of reading and writing, but not as well in spoken language.  Teachers’ end of year assessments across the school last year confirmed this.  It was important to ask why pupils were not attaining higher levels in oracy.  The school felt that perhaps it needed to re-visit assessment procedures, teaching strategies and the opportunities that are provided to pupils within the curriculum. 

A description of the nature of the strategy or activity

The school was already aware of the importance of assessment.  As a result, a series of self-assessment leaflets were developed for pupils in the Foundation Phase and key stage 2 to ensure that they develop a good understanding of standards and expectations in oracy.  After introducing the leaflets in September 2016, they are now a core part of the school’s work, and pupils use them confidently to identify their own strengths and those of their peers when assessing the standard of their oral work.  This provides an easy way to gather evidence of oral tasks in pupils’ portfolios.  In addition, oral evidence files were introduced in order to record pupils’ individual development, and also to increase teachers’ confidence when assessing their oral tasks. 

The school has introduced a successful strategy to raise oral standards across the school by using physical gestures to reinforce language patterns and phrases.  The gestures act as an ‘aide memoire’ to remind pupils of powerful phrases and vocabulary to use during public oral presentations.  By using actions to accompany the pattern drilling activity, pupils’ use and grasp of these phrases are more secure.  The effect of this work can be seen when listening to pupils discussing maturely within a group, and when giving skilful presentations in front of different audiences.  The next step for the school is to create a record of the gestures in order to use them alongside new actions next year, to ensure that pupils develop as effective and confident communicators.  The practice is similar to oral ‘makaton’ for the Welsh language. 

In addition, the school’s long-term plans in language and literacy across the areas of learning and curriculum subjects have been developed to map robust opportunities and stimulating contexts to develop pupils’ oral skills.  Commercial programmes are used confidently by teachers and pupils to evidence these activities. 

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

Since 2013, pupils’ oral standards have increased gradually, and most pupils’ oral skills at the end of key stage 2 are now robustly strong.

In the Foundation Phase, at the higher than expected outcomes, over a period of four years in comparison with similar schools, the school has risen from the bottom 25% in all areas to the top 25% in their Welsh literacy and communication skills. 

In key stage 2, at the higher than expected levels in Welsh, over a period of four years in comparison with similar schools, the school has risen from the lower 50% to the top 25% in all indicators. 

Most pupils’ ability to communicate confidently in Welsh, from a low starting point, is one of the school’s strengths.  Most pupils across the school use rich and correct vocabulary and phrases. 

How have you shared your good practice?

This practice, the procedures and strategies have been shared with a number of local and cluster schools by inviting them to observe and providing appropriate training for co-ordinators. 

The school leads a professional learning community on developing oracy.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Information about the school

Y Pant Comprehensive School is an English-medium 11-18 school maintained by Rhondda Cynon Taf local authority. It serves the areas of Pontyclun, Talbot Green, Llantrisant and Llanharry. There are 1,271 pupils on roll of which 216 are in the sixth form.

Around 12% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, which is below the national average in secondary schools of 17.1%. Around 3.5% of pupils live in the 20% most deprived areas in Wales. Nearly all pupils speak English as their first language and come from a white, British background. Very few pupils are fluent in Welsh.

The percentage of pupils with special educational needs is around 18%. This is lower than the national figure of 25.1%. The proportion of pupils who have a statement of special educational need is 1%, this is below the national figure of 2.4%.

The senior leadership team consists of the headteacher, deputy headteacher, six assistant headteachers and the bursar.

Context and background to sector-leading practice

The fundamental objective was to generate a sense of urgency in order to place excellent teaching as central to everything we achieve. The school believes that if the main focus of all colleagues is habitually high quality teaching, then this will result in excellent progress over time.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

Clear Vision

Our vision of excellent teaching and learning is made clear, simple and memorable. Autonomy is valued and all colleagues are trusted with a degree of flexibility as long as high standards are met. There is, however, a nucleus of key principles which should be at the forefront of all pedagogy. These key principles constitute the ‘Y Pant way’; rigorously explained to all new colleagues and regularly reinforced to existing colleagues through effective professional development activities.  They form a central part to any dialogue following lesson observations because they are used as success criteria when evaluating teaching.

It was also decided the most effective way to improve teaching and learning was to cultivate reflective practitioners. This involved propagating effective mechanisms for colleagues to share and reflect on best practice.

Lesson Observations

The school has moved towards judging teaching, rather than teachers. Lesson observations are no longer graded in keeping with the school’s assessment for learning philosophy. This generates more meaningful dialogue following the lesson and has helped develop an open door culture. Having two observers – a member of the senior leadership team and a subject specialist – also improves the quality of feedback. Lesson observations have subsequently become more about improving teaching rather than judging teaching.

Outcomes, student voice and book reviews, rather than lesson observations, are now utilised as irrefutable success indicators when evaluating teaching and learning. Much of this has been devolved to departments who regularly self-evaluate through quality assurance meetings. The senior leadership team can then verify or modify any judgements made.

Learning walks

These are considered an excellent vehicle to share and reflect on best practice. Time is allocated in lieu of one INSET day in order for colleagues to plan, complete and report on learning walks, both cross-curricular and within departments. These can have a particular focus or be more generic in nature. The key findings are published and discussed annually.

Strategy groups

Research and action research were pioneered as foci for after school ‘Strategy Groups’ to keep abreast of the evolving nature of education and to further equip colleagues with a rich repertoire of pedagogical practices. Widely acclaimed academic texts were carefully selected and assigned to groups of colleagues. The aim of each group was to read through their text over the course of the year and discuss the findings most pertinent to Y Pant. Each group could then provide a synopsis of their text to all staff at the end of the year. Colleagues were more receptive to new concepts having had the opportunity to discover the ideas for themselves rather than passively receive the information via the senior leadership team.

The following year, colleagues were encouraged to contemplate the practical applications of what they had discovered and initiate individual or collaborative action research projects.

Bespoke continual professional development (CPD)

The organic and constant sharing of good pedagogical practice described above is supplemented by high quality INSET days. Some of these are utilised as a means of addressing whole-school developmental needs with all staff.  However, the school often deviates from this ‘one size fits all’ approach and affords colleagues the opportunity to select sessions from a varied menu of CPD according to individual needs. Each session is led by a colleague disseminating on an area under their remit identified as best practice.

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

Active involvement in these areas has had a distinctly beneficial effect on CPD as it affords opportunities to develop understanding of contemporary pedagogical trends, to liaise with colleagues from different subject areas in sharing good practice and to communicate ideas with colleagues through INSET and/or meetings. This has also provided opportunities for colleagues to demonstrate leadership potential.

The most recent inspection in January 2017 judged that overall, the quality of teaching is excellent.  Inspectors reported that ‘the school places a strong emphasis on professional learning, and this results in highly consistent and effective classroom practice.  The school provides many valuable opportunities for teachers to improve their skills, including participation in research which benefits both their own practice and that of other colleagues.  The school actively supports and collaborates with other schools.  This has strengthened the practice of teachers within the school.’ 

In lessons and over time, pupils at Y Pant Comprehensive School make very strong progress.  At the end of key stage 4, performance is consistently above modelled outcomes, and compares very well with that of similar schools.  The more able do extremely well.  Boys, girls and pupils eligible for free school meals perform better than these groups of pupils in similar schools. 

How have you shared your good practice?

Y Pant is currently a pioneer school and is working with Welsh Government and other schools to take forward developments relating to professional learning. The school is also a Central South Consortium Professional Learning Hub and has developed CPD and JDP programmes independently and in partnership with other Hub schools which contribute to a school led, self-supporting system. This can involve hosting training events at Y Pant school or visiting other schools for peer enquiries, departmental reviews etc.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to sector-leading practice:

Malpas Court Primary School is in the city of Newport.  The school has 226 pupils, including 37 part-time pupils in the nursery.  There are ten full time teachers for nine classes.  There is a resource base for 16 pupils from the wider area with speech and language impairment. 

Around 40% of pupils are eligible for free school meals.  This is well above the national average (19%).  Around 40% of pupils join or leave the school during the academic year.  No pupils speak Welsh as their first language and 14% of pupils have English as an additional language.  The school identifies approximately 50% of pupils as having additional learning needs.  This is considerably higher than the national average (25%).  Twenty-one pupils have statements of special educational needs.

The headteacher took up her post in 2007.  The school’s last inspection was in October 2011. 

The school is currently a ‘curriculum pioneer school’.  This means that it is working with the Welsh Government and other curriculum pioneer schools to develop and to pilot a new curriculum for Wales.

The school is an inclusive, welcoming, multi-lingual Community First school where all pupils are uniquely valued.  The established Speech and Language Base (SLB) caters for Foundation Phase and key stage 2 pupils from four neighbouring local authorities.  The wealth of knowledge and expertise used in the Specific Language Impairment Base (SLIB) is outstanding in meeting the needs of the Specific Language Impairment learners who have specialised speech programmes, which have made improvements seen from initial and final outcomes. 

SLIB staff provide pupils with appropriate specialist programmes and share their expertise with mainstream staff and pupils.  The staff in the speech and language base staff identify pupils with Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) in mainstream classes that greatly affect their social, emotional and academic standards.  Specialist communication strategies within the mainstream classes needed developing to engage and enrich all learners. 

In 2015, Malpas Court achieved ‘Communication Friendly Schools’ (CFS) status and was the first school in Wales to present to specialist programme tutors in 2013, encouraging them to train as Communication Friendly tutors in order to deliver CFS across Wales.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

The leadership team empowered the whole school to develop these strategies across the primary phase to support children with SLCN including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD) and Attachment difficulties. 

Leaders ensured that staff received training in specialist therapies, which they use in assemblies and greetings across the school.  Trained teaching assistants deliver specialist programmes, leading to early identification of SLCN.  They use these to support receptive and expressive language therapies, enhancing learning using specific resources and making learning relevant and exciting.  Pupils identified with articulation difficulties in nursery and reception classes develop phonology using approved programmes.  There are visual schedules in every classroom, and staff address specific needs such as ASD using approved approaches.  Staff assess pupils using a commercial programme, which indicates how well they understand questions.  Staff use a range of coding schemes to develop sentence structure and a recognised signing method to develop grammar.  This has enhanced structured speech, which supports extended writing well.  Staff use specialised resources well to support the use of appropriate topic vocabulary, enabling pupils to understand how to present information clearly. 

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

Achieving ‘Communication Friendly Schools’ status has increased the range of knowledge, skills and strategies for all staff.  All pupils benefit from an improved knowledge and skill base of staff.  There is an ongoing trend of good outcomes in Oracy shown through a variety of commercial specialist checklists.  Pupils are engaged and enthusiastic in their ability to communicate, improving their wellbeing and behaviours for learning and becoming resilient, resourceful, reciprocal and reflective learners.  The school feels that nearly all pupils demonstrate appropriate use and understanding of language through using these specific strategies. 

How have you shared your good practice?

Malpas Court is a Lead Practitioner for the Welsh Government Additional Learning Needs Pathfinder Project across Wales, supporting emerging schools.  A ‘Communication Friendly Schools’ presentation to all Newport additional learning needs co-ordinators in 2014 identified specific schools requiring support in SLC.  These schools, which had specific educational needs base classes, were supported in 2014-2015.  Specialist resources and strategies from the school’s SLIB have supported and developed speech and language in a range of mainstream schools, encouraging participation and gaining accreditation of ‘Communication Friendly Schools’.  The outcomes include staff trained to a nationally recognised standard, enabling whole school speech, language and communication transformation.

Parents of pupils from the four neighbouring local authorities with SLCN attend the parent support group at Malpas Court.  Sign language, behaviour, social and communication training give parents confidence to support their child at home.  Leaders propose to embed and enhance the school’s own ongoing good practice and continue to extend its expertise to other schools through a range of strategies and resources focusing in the early years.  The school aims to use its knowledge to raise standards in its role as a Pioneer School for the Health and Wellbeing Area of Learning and Experience, designing the new curriculum for Wales. 

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Information about the school

UWC Atlantic College was established in 1962.  The college is the founding member of United World Colleges, a group of 17 independent international schools and colleges.  It is a residential co-educational college for students from across the world that is situated on the south coast of Wales at St Donat’s Castle. 

Context and background to sector-leading practice

As an international, mission-based educational institution, UWC Atlantic College aspires to ensure that the UWC mission to “make education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future” is deeply embedded in the learning environment and the learning experiences of the 370 students who come from over 80 different countries.  To achieve this idealistic, yet pragmatic, educational objective, the college seeks to provide a broad range of learning experiences that enables students to reach out, work with partners, and engage with the world, both globally and locally.

UWC Atlantic College embraces enthusiastically the adage of “thinking globally and acting locally”.  However, it refines this approach to encourage students to simultaneously think and act both locally and globally.  The college nurtures students to be ethical and informed citizens of the world.  It encourages them to be active contributors to the local context in which they find themselves during their two years at the college.  Students’ experiences during their time at UWC Atlantic College, and in Wales, are a crucial stage in what the college expects to be a life-long journey towards active citizenship and influencing positive change in society.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

UWC Atlantic College’s outreach and partnership engagement approach seeks to work with like-minded organisations, educational institutions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) throughout the world.  These include Oxfam, Voluntary Service Overseas, United World Schools, and Seeds of Peace.  These connections and partnerships impact beneficially upon the students’ world view.  They present structures to help students to develop a deeper understanding and then to grasp the opportunities to ‘make a difference’ in the world around them.  Partnership with the international social entrepreneurship organisation Ashoka offers opportunities for students to submit self-generated project plans as part of that organisation’s ‘Young Social Entrepreneurs’ initiative.  Similar projects working with the UWC GoMakeADifference (GOMAD) venture provide ‘seed’ funding for students to put their ‘change-making’ plans into practice, often in their own countries of origin.

The college also recognises the importance of local Welsh outreach partnerships.  Atlantic College strives to develop links with Welsh-based institutions and organisations including the European Commission Office in Wales, British Council Wales, and the Welsh Government.  Representatives from these groups provide relevant lectures, workshops and external visit opportunities to students.  The college has developed an exceptionally strong partnership with the Vale of Glamorgan-based NGO Vale for Africa, which works with a less-advantaged community in Tororo, Uganda. http://www.valeforafrica.org.uk/.

On the immediate local level, Atlantic College students work with young children from comprehensive and primary schools in Llantwit Major, Cowbridge, Bridgend and Barry.  These connections contribute to a symbiotic sharing of experiences and insights across cultures.  Atlantic College has also instituted an ‘Associated Schools Programme’, with partner schools throughout Wales and the rest of the UK.  This partnership helps to enhance inter-cultural engagement, and to develop networks of young people working together for positive change.

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

UWC Atlantic College’s outreach and partnership educational approach is predicated upon the ideal that in order for students to engage with the world, they must come to know, understand and work with others whose experience is different from their own.  The learning environment at UWC Atlantic College, with its many nationalities, is a nexus for such intercultural engagement.  The benefits for students are enhanced by the determined and structured efforts the college makes to reach out beyond the immediate school context and to embrace fully the world that lies simultaneously at Atlantic College’s doorstep, and in students’ own ‘global-mindedness’. 

In the recent inspection of the college, inspectors noted that:

• The exceptional international family ethos is particularly successful in encouraging pupils to reflect on their role in society and how their actions can affect and transform the lives of others
• Pupils have extensive opportunities to initiate, lead and engage in local and global development projects that embrace the college’s vision that pupils should ‘be empowered to make a positive difference in our world’ 
• Participation in these activities prepares pupils well to affect change and underpins the college’s ambition that education should be ‘transformative’

How have you shared your good practice?

The college has shared its practice with the partners involved and with other colleges within the United World Colleges group. 

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Information about the school

Palmerston Primary School is in Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan.  There are 227 pupils on roll aged three to eleven.  The school has eight classes, most of which are single age classes.  In addition, the school has a resource base for pupils with complex physical and medical disabilities funded by the local authority.  These pupils integrate fully into mainstream classes and access a modified curriculum. 

Context and background to sector-leading practice

Due to thorough self-evaluation, the school decided to prioritise its deeper understanding in terms of the role that effective feedback could have on improving standards in pupils’ work.  As part of this journey, the school chose to focus on the different components of ‘Assessment for Learning’, after realising that proper assessment cannot take place unless pupils have a clear understanding of these elements and how they combine.  This has led to a series of successful staff training sessions.  Working together, the staff developed a consistent approach to marking which involves clear next steps.  The vital component to success is ensuring that the pupils act upon the advice that staff give them.  Targets that both the teachers and pupils generated draw directly from differentiated success criteria that develop progressively in terms of its challenge.  Regular reviews of these elements enable staff to refine and develop the effectiveness of these comments and the impact is evident in pupils’ work and in their understanding of how to improve. 

Description of nature of strategy or activity

Taking marking and feedback to the next level – ensuring accelerated learning through pupil involvement. 

For the last two years, the school has delivered a programme of staff training that focuses well on different Assessment for Learning elements each month.  They include; developing clear learning objectives, pupil involvement, progressive success criteria, peer/self-assessment and high quality questioning.  These are all key elements to ensure effective feedback that supports accelerated learning.  These sessions provide staff with regular opportunities to work together, discuss and plan for a joint focus within their trust group.  Following these sessions, peer observations in small groups allow staff to practise their skills, reflect on their own practice and engage in honest dialogue through coaching style feedback. 

In order to develop the quality of written feedback, staff decided to change their approach to book scrutiny.  Previously, scrutiny of pupils’ books involved the Senior Leadership Team, followed by general feedback to staff.  Two years ago the school began to review this process to enable a more inclusive and effective way of embedding improvement.  This process involved staff sharing their books during a staff meeting and carrying out an audit based on Estyn guidelines as a starting point.  Staff recognised elements that needed to improve and, through revisiting them regularly and taking part in honest dialogue, developed an appropriate action plan to do so.

Through this journey, staff developed a feedback approach that is positive, specific and shows pupils the next steps clearly.  They use a visual indicator to highlight aspects of good work in one colour and ways forward in another.  After trialling this method, leaders gave staff an opportunity to share their findings with them.  Staff found that highlighting less and using language that is more succinct was a better use of their time.  A later review of books showed that some pupils were still not acting upon comments, so staff agreed to use one precise question as a next step that pupils would have to follow up.  Allowing pupils time at the start of a lesson and a set session at the end of the week, called ‘Feedback Friday,’ gave teachers more time to review learning alongside them, which had been an area of concern for some staff.  Giving pupils more ownership of their learning through referencing the success criteria enabled them to generate their own targets in a meaningful way within lessons.  Both teachers and pupils are now able to celebrate achievement, precisely related to the success criteria and generate an effective way forward.  Even more crucially, pupils now act upon these comments and progress is clear. 

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

  • Nearly all pupils know their personal targets well and understand what they need to do to achieve them.
  • All teachers monitor pupils’ progress effectively and use this information well to plan challenging learning experiences that lead to improvements in pupils’ work. 
  • Nearly all pupils make progress, which is at least good, and a minority make exceptional progress during their time in school.
  • Nearly all pupils with Additional Learning Needs make very good progress in relation to their personal targets.
  • Teaching is at least good and often excellent.
  • Using the principles of Assessment for Learning at every stage of the pupils’ learning journey has encouraged pupils to lead their own learning and thus embed the school’s vision of creating confident, secure independent learners.

How have you shared your good practice?

Palmerston has shared this practice beyond the school through conferences and best practice training for Central South Consortium Joint Education Service.  The school provides training for a Learning Support Assistants network within the local cluster schools.  It has also shared its journey by leading twilight sessions for other schools within the regional consortium.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Brief contextual information about provider/partnership:

Bridgend College is a further education college with approximately 2,600 full-time learners.  It employs around 600 staff.  In terms of full-time learners, the college is one of the smaller further education colleges in Wales.

Context and background to excellent/sector-leading practice:

In 2013, the leadership team faced a wide range of challenges including financial cuts, learner outcomes, staff morale and restoring confidence with partners and wider community.   

The current principal started at Bridgend College in 2013, which provided an opportunity to review processes and structure to meet the challenges the college faced.  Since 2012-2013, the college’s further education recurrent funding from the Welsh Government has reduced by 15%, which, when inflationary and other demands were added, has become a 24% cut in real terms.  The college has taken difficult, but necessary, decisions to adjust to the increasing costs of staff pay and pensions and an unprecedented cut in funding.  This has led to two large [voluntary] redundancy programmes, which have been managed very well, avoiding compulsory redundancies while maintaining excellent employee relations.

Following the appointment of the new principal in 2013, the college embarked on a radical improvement plan.  The governing body and senior leadership team (SLT) were clear that staff and learners would need to be fully engaged in the process of change. 

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

Leadership is one of the key priorities in the learning and development strategy and the college has invested significantly in the development programme for all leaders, with the aim of enhancing the skills of leaders to engage learners and staff across the college.  This has included bespoke training with external providers and all senior managers have attended a challenging residential course.  Guest speakers frequently attend management meetings to share best practice from the public and private sectors.  A management competency framework has also been developed, which complements the objectives of the strategic plan.

A series of staff workshops established the new mission and values of the college.  The new college mission statement, ‘Be all that you can be’ came directly from staff and is reinforced in all briefings by the principal.  Our key values are to be:

  • People Centred
  • Inspirational
  • Passionate
  • Innovative

The workshops have led to a more streamlined strategic plan where priorities are clear and the clarity in the strategic plan filters through the organisation.  The strategic plan now focuses on three key areas of achievement – ‘the three Es’ – The three Es stands for to be Excellent,  Engaging and Efficient.  Each area has only three objectives – a total of nine. 

Communication across the organisation is particularly strong, although this is a challenge across a multi-site college.  The meeting structure supports the culture of high challenge and high support.  The principal and other managers hold regular workshops with a range of learner groups and their feedback reinforces the positive messages in the Welsh Government Learner Voice survey.  The issues raised by learners are considered regularly by managers and feedback is a key priority.

Regular workshops are held by the principal and SLT with staff from across the college to ensure that all staff are involved in setting the direction of the college.  This also ensures a two way flow of information between the principal, SLT and staff.  Governors regularly attend staff workshops and this affords the opportunity for staff to meet governors, and for governors to understand the views of staff in an open and transparent manner.  Industrial relations are very strong and a great deal of time has been spent in developing a strong working relationship with the unions.

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

The mission and values of the organisation have helped create a positive culture at the college and ensures that decision-making is focused on the best interests of current and future learners.  A culture of “high challenge / high support” permeates throughout the organisation.

The impact of leadership on quality of provision and learners standards has been significant.  The college has improved on a wide range of key performance indicators.  These include positive three year trends in successful completion rates for learners, from the lowest in the sector to amongst the highest.  In terms of financial performance, the college has moved from a deficit of £1.6m in 2012-2013 to a surplus of £67k in 2014-2015, despite a real terms funding cut and redundancy costs.

The staff survey results are evidence of the positive culture and a people centred ethos.  Despite a period of severe cuts in staffing, expectations in the college remain high and staff have risen to the new challenges, as is evident in the improvement in both outcomes and financial performance.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to sector-leading practice

St Mellons Church in Wales Primary School places a focus on developing open minds, and offering opportunities that enable freethinking.  Members of staff strive to encourage questions and see the value  in making mistakes and taking risks.  They aim to grow confident, respectful, resilient, inquisitive individuals with the skills to adapt to the changing world in which they live.  The school prepares its pupils to be adults in a world that does not yet exist, a world with a different set of rules, different boundaries, different opportunities and different jobs.  To enable pupils to enter this world equipped with the necessary skills, the school needs to instil in pupils a lifelong love of learning.

Leaders feel that schools need to be vibrant, inspiring places, where the teachers are vibrant and inspiring, and provide pupils with a rich, varied range of experiences that are far-reaching and beyond what they have already experienced.  In order to do this most effectively, leaders believe that they need to engage the skills, knowledge and expertise of others, exposing pupils to a new world, instilling aspiration and igniting a desire to learn.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

At St Mellons Church in Wales Primary School, leaders place great value on the opportunity to work with external partners and the enrichment that this brings to the school for staff and pupils.  They believe that, as a small school, it is critical for it to foster and engage the skills of the wider community, in order to ensure that all pupils have access to a broad range of opportunities to ignite, inspire, motivate and develop their interests and talents.  Leaders are keen to recognise and value individuality, imagination and creativity in pupils, ensuring that each individual feels that they can be successful and fulfilled in a multitude of ways. 

The school has links with several external partners to enrich pupils’ experiences across the curriculum.  One example is that it is currently one of four primary schools in Wales working regularly with the Welsh National Opera.  The school’s Year 5 and 6 pupils have had the opportunity to work with a composer to create melodies.  These became the musical accompaniment to animations that they created with professional animators.  The pupils work weekly with a musician and an opera singer to develop both literacy and musical skills that will culminate in an opportunity to perform on the Glanfa Stage in Wales Millennium Centre.  The professionals that have been and are working with the Year 5 and 6 pupils have been able to give an insight into a different world, and have given a new and importantly real purpose to the skills that they have been developing.  Pupils have been in situations where they could take risks, work collaboratively and think creatively to produce fantastic results.  The professionals have shown the school the benefits of ‘letting go of the reins’ a little and impressed staff with what can be achieved.  Staff have had an opportunity to take part in professional discussions and, as a result, been encouraged to be more reflective in considering the way in which they sometimes put constraints on achievement by having a predetermined outcome in mind that may sometimes be too fixed and therefore limit opportunity.

Staff have found that the success of working with external partners is ensuring clear and regular communication, having a full understanding of the objectives of the project and the roles of each stakeholder within this.  Mutual respect and support, reliability, flexibility and adaptability are also crucial for effective partnership working.  For these key factors to be present, all parties must prioritise time to develop for professional relationships and understanding.  Manageable and strategic plans must take account of the views of all involved so that all have accountability and are consequently fully committed to their success. 

At St Mellons Church in Wales Primary School, leaders also believe that the whole school community needs to be aware of, support and celebrate the success of any initiative that it adopts.  It is through this shared communication and understanding that all may share ownership and build success together.  The whole school community include all teaching and non-teaching staff, pupils, governors, parents and, as a community school, the wider community through meetings and newsletters.  By raising the profile of a project in this way, leaders have found that they also raise the value placed on it by all.  It is important that all stakeholders know what leaders are doing and why they are doing it so that they have a voice in shaping the evolution of the school.

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

After the identification of oracy as an area for development in the school improvement plan, the school responded creatively by working in partnership with Welsh National Opera, professional animators and a composer.  Clear communication and planning within these partnerships have resulted in raised standards in oracy, pupil confidence, resilience, wellbeing and aspiration.  Five pupils have received bursaries to attend Welsh National Youth Opera, extending their range of opportunities, experiences and life skills considerably.  Due to this successful partnership, the school has been successful in becoming a lead creative school.

How have you shared your good practice?

The school shared this good practice with other schools across the local authority as part of a celebration of Cardiff’s 2020 vision, within the School Improvement Grant and with its pathfinder partner school.

Improvement Resource Type: Effective Practice

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Context and background to sector-leading practice

The school is home to an established community as well as many new arrivals.  The school felt that it needed to play a more proactive role in building relationships within the community and wanted to improve family engagement.  

The city centre location also affords the school many rich opportunities for developing effective partnerships with higher education, business, and community organisations.  The school wanted to develop effective and sustainable partnerships to engage children and enrich the curriculum.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

In 2014, Tredegarville CW Primary School designated a senior leader to be responsible for family and community engagement and launched the ‘Building Our Partnerships’ project.  

The ‘Building Our Partnerships’ project has two aims.  Firstly, to encourage parents to engage in the school; and secondly, to involve a wide range of partners from higher education, business and community organisations to enrich the curriculum and raise pupils’ and parents’ aspirations.  The ‘Building Our Partnerships’ project links closely with the school improvement plan.  Leaders develop an annual action plan so that ‘Building Our Partnerships’ activities closely mirror the priorities in the wider school improvement plan.  For example, when the school improvement plan focuses on raising standards of oracy, ‘Building Our Partnerships’ activities also focus on the developing oracy.

The school database tracks family engagement carefully to monitor the involvement of groups of learners and to ensure careful targeting of the hardest to reach families.  High proportions of families eligible for free school meals and families with English as an additional language engage well with ‘Building Our Partnerships’.  Developing a Parent Council has improved parent voice and played an important role in getting families to engage better with school improvement targets.  For example, the parent council devised a leaflet to help all parents support their children’s oracy skills.  A school governor supports the leadership of the ‘Building Our Partnerships’ project effectively.

Family engagement activities in the ‘Building Our Partnerships’ project include:

  • weekly workshops where parents work alongside their children on activities, which focus on the school improvement targets

  • courses to support parenting

  • courses to support parental learning (DIY; making jewellery)

  • developing the ‘Learning Lounge’, parents’ information technology courses and family computer club

Community engagement

The school has developed partnerships with a very wide range of organisations.  There is a weekly ‘Do Something New’ session, during which children select a ‘club’ to join to learn a new skill.  Examples of clubs on offer include knitting, French, coding, golf, samba, drumming, creative writing and many more.  Community partners run clubs and activities link well to the school improvement plan.  For example, a local business has run a creative writing and animation club supporting school improvement work on writing.  

As part of ‘Do Something New’, partners also run after school activities and lead rich learning tasks.  Many partners also visit the school as part of the ‘Inspiring the Futures’ week to talk about their lives and work. 

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

The ‘Building Our Partnerships’ project has contributed to:

  • high levels of attendance (the school has been in the top 25% of similar schools for the past three years)

  • high levels of pupil engagement in learning through ‘Do Something New’

  • strong rates of progress; for example, when the project focused on developing oracy, the percentage of pupils achieving level 4 or above in key stage 2 increased by 14% and the gap between pupils eligible for free school meals and the others disappeared; pupils who regularly attend the family workshop progress faster than those who do not attend

  • a notable increase in the percentage of parents who feel that the school consults well with them

  • a notable increase in parents’ confidence in supporting their children’s learning

  • many parents developing their own confidence and skills

  • strong rates of progress for pupils with English as an additional language and high levels of engagement from these families

How have you shared your good practice?

The school has shared its ‘Building Our Partnerships’ project with local schools through regular meetings of cluster family engagement officers.  The school has contributed to events and conferences organised by ‘Investors in Families’.  As part of the Primary Futures Wales pilot, the school supports the development of partnership working across Wales.