Professor Sonia Blandford7th December 2011

Achievement for All- a school improvement framework which-

• raises the attainment of the 20% vulnerable, special educational needs and disabled learners, in partnership with schools.

• supports schools to give children the best possible chance of achieving goals and reaching their potential

• builds on current school practices to provide solutions at the local level.

Achievement for All: in practice

• Element 1: Leadership

• Element 2: High quality teaching and learning leading to improved progress for all pupils (assessment and target setting).

• Element 3: Structured conversations with parents/carers

• Element 4: Wider outcomes – to support the participation, enjoyment and achievement of children in all elements of school life.

Achievement for All gives schools autonomy : views of school lead

"It’s the first initiative that said ‘right…what are you going to do? We’d like these outcomes but you get on with it.’…’we’d like to see parents fully engaged and we’d like to see the children improve, but how you do it is totally and utterly up to you. Here are the people you can call in for help if you want.’ And that’s what’s makes it exciting, you’re totally in control again. So it’s down to schools…to take it and to go all out because if you go all out with one thing everything else pulls with it."

(AfA Lead, School 15, LA H)

The Pilot (2009-2011)

• Achievement for All started in 2009 involving 454 schools-primary, secondary and Special Schools and some Pupil Referral Units across 10 local authorities as trailblazers in developing approaches to improving the achievement of vulnerable, SEND pupils.

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Why Achievement for All?

School Improvement forall pupils

Other initiatives-have tended to focus on single aspects of inclusion or interventions

Leadership of SEN and inclusion

• Leadership central to Achievement for All –pilot focussed on 4 key areas of inclusive leadership identified by National College-vision, commitment, collaboration and communication (NCSL, 2010)

• Research shows importance of head teacher in developing an inclusive school (Kugelmass, 2003)

• New Ofsted Framework for Inspection 2012-inspection will evaluate extent to which leaders and managers at all levels ‘demonstrate an ambitious vision for the school’

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Policy Context: school improvement

• Reform of ITT• Ofsted’s new Framework for Inspection- focus on

quality teaching and accountability of head teacher for professional development of staff

• Drive to recruit best graduates into teaching• New Standards• Leadership of schools and leading within schools• Academies• Achievement for All

Closing the achievement gap in England

Unlike other countries, the achievement gap between less advantaged English children and their more advantaged counterparts widens between the ages of eleven and sixteen.

(Sutton Trust , Nov 2011)

School Leadership: Current focus on systems leadership

(Fullan, 2004)

• This involves-leading change, building capacity and leading systems

• This brings leadership into the broader context of building structures, processes and cultures which act on the system as a whole (O’Leary and Craig, 2007).

• Practice in schools is ‘distributed leadership’-loosely defined as ‘an emerging form of power distribution in schools which extends authority and influence to groups or individuals in a way which is at least partly contrary to hierarchical arrangements’. Arrowsmith (2007)

Aims of Pilot: focus on children with SEND

• Improving the aspirations, progress and achievement of children and young people, through high expectations, effective use of assessment and focused target setting supported and informed by;

• Improved engagement with parents of children and young people in supporting their child’s learning through target focused structured conversations which;

• Improve wider outcomes- the achievement, access and aspiration of children and young people by providing a wide range of learning opportunities in the classroom and beyond.

Key Findings(National Evaluation, DfE, Nov 2011)

• Achievement for All had a significant impact on progress in English and mathematics for pupils with SEND.

• There were significant decreases in persistent absenteeism.• Schools reported clear improvement in pupils’ behaviour,

along with reductions in bullying • There was increased parental engagement in their child’s

learning, including among hard-to-reach parents. • Schools liked using the Achievement for All frame work and

found it provided a sustainable programme owned by the school leadership and adapted to their needs and priorities.

National Evaluation: other relevant findings (DfE, Nov 2011)

• Many schools reported an increased awareness of and focus on SEND and inclusion issues

• Many schools reported a greater emphasis on understanding and addressing pupils’ wider needs.

• In many schools teachers began to take a more active role in the assessment and monitoring of pupils with SEND in their classrooms.

• In many schools, continuing professional development (CPD) associated with Achievement for All, particularly around the structured conversations were applied more widely in day to‐ ‐day interactions with staff and non Achievement for All ‐parents.

More specifically, Identification of SEND- how accurate?

By end of pilot- 5.6% of pupils in the target cohort were no longer considered to have SEND by their schools (the majority were previously at School Action)

(Source: DfE, 2011)

Possible reasons for change: a systematic approach? (adapted from DfE, 2011)

1. Achievement for All Provided

schools with the opportunity

to reflect on how SEND is defined and understood

2. This enabled schools to

target provision more

effectively and efficiently for

their most vulnerable learners.

3. Teachers’ classroom practice

became more inclusive in

meeting the needs of all pupils in the classroom.

4. Thus, what was required to meet

the needs of certain pupils was

no longer considered to be ‘different and/or additional’, as it

had become embedded in

everyday practice.

Achievement for All-a framework for practice

Central to the challenge of narrowing the achievement gap for children and young people with SEND is changing the aspirations and expectations held by the professionals who work with them.

Changing school and teacher attitudes

"It’s about saying, is this progress as good as it should be? And if it isn’t, why isn’t it? And what are we doing about it?" (NS Regional Advisor)

Enabling all pupils to access learning

Focus on:• Behaviour• Participation in wider school life• Parental engagement• Developing positive relationships with others• Attendance

(Source: adapted from Blandford et al. 2011)

Raising Attainment=learning + attainment in the classroom

In practice:

• Rigorous assessment and tracking of pupil progress

• Set challenging targets for pupils• Interventions-where appropriate• Improve literacy and numeracy

Achievement for All in practice

Other key findings from the national evaluation: Progress in English and Maths (DfE,Nov 2011)

• 37% of SEND pupils in Achievement for All pilot schools achieved or exceeded expected levels of progress in English compared to ALL pupils nationally.

• ALL pupils with SEND in Achievement for All pilot schools made significantly better progress in English than pupils with SEND nationally.

• 41.5% of SEND pupils in the Achievement for All schools achieved or exceeded expected levels of progress in Maths compared to all pupils nationally.

• ALL pupils with SEND in Achievement for All pilot schools made significantly better progress in Maths than pupils with SEND nationally.

• All SEND pupils in the programme made significantly better progress in reading, writing and maths than pupils with SEND nationally

Achievement for All-building communities of practice

‘What we were seeing last year was a pattern, children who were socially excluded or getting in trouble frequently at lunchtime, were on and off the special needs register and it was often that they just didn’t have the right skills to be in the playground…so we are trying to make sure that they are having a fun time, not excluded’. (AfA Lead)

Outcome: Behaviour and Attendance

• Teachers reported clear improvements in positive relationships with students and reductions in behaviour problems.

• There was a 10% drop in persistent absenteeism.• Schools had an increase in positive relationships.• Teachers reported reductions in teacher-reported bullying

of pupils with SEND.

• Example: School B saw exclusions for pupils with SEND fall from 101 incidents in 2008/9 to 25 incidents in 2010/11

Wider outcomes

• "It’s about giving pupils opportunities to shine in other ways and develop their strengths in other things, but also providing activities that will develop confidence I think that’s a big ‐thing". (AfA Lead, School 18, LA I)

Outcome: Empowers, engages and includes parents

• The number of Achievement for All schools reporting that they now have excellent relationships with parents increased by 36% during the pilot.

• Achievement for All schools reporting poor relationships dropped from 11% of schools to 1.5%.

• Achievement for All has changed the relationships with parents, more than 90% of participating schools are to continue with structured conversations

• Structured conversations involved parents in reviewing learning targets.

What the parents say

• ‘... as the weeks progressed we became more involved, more of a family’ (parent of year 9 child)

• ‘I can know how (her) work is progressing, that we can take action – how we could help her, how we could help her engagement. It’s important.’ parent of year 11 child (school action plus School C)

And:

• “I know exactly what type of support my son is receiving and what his targets are so that I can help him more too” (Year 5 parent, May 2010)

• “I feel listened to and really valued in the structured conversations” (Year 5 parent, January 2010)

• “My son is now more confident, he interacts better, he is learning more and he feels better about himself. He used to really struggle and was so clingy with me” (Year 1 parent, March 2010)

Outcome: Leadership

• School leadership (head teacher) involvement helped drive Achievement for All forward.

• Achievement for All shines a light on [critical] areas.• The principles of Achievement for All are embedded

in school practice.• 100% of schools were involved in evaluating the

impact of Achievement for All.• 90.2% of head teachers placed Achievement for All

within their school improvement plan.

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Where are we now?: looking to the future

• Extending to all schools in England – national roll out

• Policy impact – Green Paper / DoH / Trusts / Schools

• Quality Mark and Quality Lead Status – OFSTED

• National College – Leadership modules• National Charity – a good partner

The national picture for the future: systemic change

• In schools• In classrooms• In school and support teams

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