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Independent school using Thomas assessments to improve the

performance and behaviour of underachieving and disruptive students.

St Benedict’s School

The challenge

Andy Watts, Assistant Head explains, “The school felt some students were not achieving their potential as a result of disengagement or poor behaviour. We wanted to reduce the number of negative performance indicators for this group, including external exclusions, internal inclusions, removals from class and negative referrals.”

The solution

The school ran a pilot study using Thomas assessments to improve the performance of underachieving students, and the behaviour of disruptive students. The intention was to make the students more self-aware and so take more personal responsibility for their behaviour.

St Benedict’s is a small Catholic upper school accepting students aged 13 to 18. The school is rated outstanding by Ofsted, consistently placed among the top schools in Suffolk for GCSE and A-level results, and positioned highly on national league tables.

The school’s mission statement is to grow students into ‘effective Christians for the modern world’. It prides itself on maintaining a healthy balance between a strong work ethic and those extra-curricular activities that make school life an all-round experience for students. By recognising the unique importance of each individual student they seek to ensure all are helped and guided to achieve their full potential. This is not just about delivering academic success in the short term, but lifelong learning and creating healthy, well rounded Christians.

Tools used: PPA, GIA, TEIQue

Andy WattsAssistant Head

Case study

Measure Number pre-pilot Number post-pilot

External exclusions 11 1

Internal inclusions 56 2

Removal from class 47 3

Negative referrals 321 22

Positive referrals 1 28

The study was jointly funded by St Benedict’s and the local authority. Six staff members across a range of functions (including Head of English, Head of Year, Behaviour Support Manager and a Connexions Advisor) were trained to administer, interpret and feedback Thomas’ behavioural assessment, (PPA), aptitude and ability assessment (GIA) and trait emotional intelligence assessment (TEIQue).

63 students from Year 10 were identified

as potential participants for the study and put into two groups: those exhibiting ‘challenging’ behaviours and underachievers who were disengaged and just ‘drifting’ through school.

The result

Andy continues, “The impact of the assessments was huge, with a reduction of over 90% in external exclusions, internal inclusions, removals from class and negative referrals.

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Among the majority with poor attendance records attendance improved, and positive referrals increased from one in the period prior to the assessments, to 28 after assessment feedback had been given.”

“Once the students received their feedback their behaviour quickly changed. Helping students become more self-aware empowered them to manage their own behaviour better and enabled them to resolve issues and problems themselves.”

“For example, a student who was aggressive in class and spent a significant amount of time in the inclusion unit transformed his behaviour after receiving his assessment feedback. Understanding the reasons behind his anger helped him modify his behaviour and calm himself down.”

“Another student who tended to be disruptive in maths and science classes struggled with the GIA Number Speed and Accuracy test. This meant he had difficulty processing numerical concepts quickly. The student needed to

slow down and give himself more time

to assimilate numerical information.

Once the student and his teachers

understood the cause of his behaviour

they were able to deal with it more

effectively, resulting in an improvement in

his behaviour and his grades.”

“The Thomas reports provided a common

language between educationalists and

students, allowing students to talk in real

terms about themselves, rather than

in ‘teacher speak’. This enabled a more

realistic dialogue between the parties

than would previously have been possible.”

“The results show Thomas assessments

have enormous benefits, in all sorts of

ways, for all sorts of students. The time

invested in staff training (four days),

delivery of the assessments and one

to one student feedback (one lesson

each) is a small price to pay for the

benefits. Students were overwhelmingly

positive about the experience and felt

everyone should have the opportunity

to go through the feedback process and

develop their self-awareness.”

“The impact of the assessments was huge, with a reduction of over 90% in external exclusions, internal inclusions, removals from class and negative referrals.”

Next steps

“We are repeating the process using the behavioural assessment (PPA) and aptitude and ability measure (GIA) with our current Year 10 students. The emphasis of the programme is self-development – empowering stu-dents to improve themselves – and as a consequence improving the atmosphere and quality of lessons for the whole year.”

“To achieve greater staff buy-in, more feedback on student results will be given to staff where the information is beneficial in classroom situations. To maintain the impact of the assessments over time we are reviewing a range of intervention strategies, to ensure students get maximum value from the process.”