A special achievement

Paul Bennett of the National College takes a look at Achievement for All – an initiative that has been focusing on improving teaching and learning for children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND).

According to Ofsted, too many children and young people identified with SEND are being left behind by their peers and are leaving education without the skills and qualifications they need to become independent adults.

We know there is a need to support schools in providing for pupils identified with SEND, and evidence has shown us the best approach is driven by leaders. Achievement for All (AfA) provides a framework for leaders to help drive school improvement.

Achievement for All takes a whole-school approach to school improvement, focused on improving teaching and learning for all children and young people, particularly the 20 per cent of the school population identified as having SEND.

The National College has worked with AfA headteachers and school leaders to explore and develop the characteristics of effective inclusive leadership. Four key characteristics relating to the effective leadership and management of SEND have been identified:

• a shared vision – a core set of values and beliefs, shared by all staff, that all children and young people have the right to opportunities to develop their learning
• commitment – to creating an ethos and culture of achievement across the whole school, a determination to secure the best provision for vulnerable children and young people and to provide effective continuing professional development for staff
• collaboration – with parents, children and young people and others within and beyond the school, including other schools, to develop and share best practice
• communication – with and between children and young people, their parents, staff, other schools and other agencies

Evidence of profound levels of change in practice and outcomes can be found in the majority of AfA schools. Lyng Hall Specialist Sports College and Community School, a small 666-pupil secondary school in Coventry, is one where the impact has been profound.

Currently, 226 pupils have been identified with SEND. Forty-eight per cent of the school population comes from a wide range of different ethnic backgrounds and 36 per cent of pupils are eligible for free school meals.

The leadership team has focused on strand three of the Achievement for All project – to improve the wider outcomes for pupils identified with SEND in order to improve achievement. There have been significant changes in redefining the role of the school, changes to staffing roles, developing connections with outside agencies and changes to the curriculum.

Standards were already high in the school. However, the leadership team recognised the support AfA could provide in aiming higher. The headteacher Paul Green believes that “Achievement for All provided the focus and framework for us to complete a rigorous evaluation and revision of our extensive intervention and support programme. The changes that we made developed as a direct result of the opportunity, challenge and support delivered by the AfA programme.”

There has been a major cultural change within the staffing structure, including redefining the role of support staff and how they work with pupils and their families. Teaching assistants, learning mentors, cover supervisors and family support workers have been replaced by a group of 20 associate teachers. Associate teachers work with a caseload of students and their families, and intervene and provide support in class, around school and at home.

"I know exactly what type of support my son is receiving and what his targets are so that I can help him more too."

The committed vision in the school – "No-one fails, no-one gives up… if it’s not working, do something else!" – has helped to increase the impact of AfA, which has been impressive.

• 5 A*-C results rose from 25 to 70 per cent.
• Average Total Point Score for special educational needs students in 2008 was 277 – in 2010 it will be 498.
• As a result of AfA 80 per cent of Year 10 students already have three Level 2 qualifications equivalent to GCSE B.
• Persistent absence has dropped from 12 per cent in 2008-9 to 3.9 per cent in 2009-10.

It’s not just Lyng Hall where AfA has received a positive reception. Other responses about the project have been really positve. A Bexley headteacher said that AfA has put SEND back in the classroom, while one parent commented: “I know exactly what type of support my son is receiving and what his targets are so that I can help him more too.”

Positive language, which is being backed up by positive results. Early findings from a University of Manchester evaluation, and case studies from the National College, have revealed a number of successes from the AfA project. These include:

• increased levels of progress; the gap between pupils identified with SEND and their peers has closed. For example, in St Michael’s Church of England Primary School in Camden Town, London, assessments show pupils identified with SEND, in most cases, are making a minimum of two points progress per term.
• improved relationships with hard-to-reach families. For example, at Robert Mellors Primary School in Nottingham there was almost 100 per cent attendance at parents’ evening.
• improved behaviour and fewer reported incidents. At Lee Chapel Primary School in Essex there has been a significant reduction in the number of incidents reported in the classroom ‘action and consequences’ behaviour book.
• significant imrpovements in pupil attendance. For example, at Lyng Hall persistent absenteeism has reduced from 12 per cent to 4 per cent.
• the overall number of pupils identified with SEND has reduced in the participating schools. In Cardinal Newman School in Coventry the overall number of pupils identified with SEND dropped by 31 per cent.

Achievement for All has also generated significant culture change in the classroom, across teams, and in school leadership practices and behaviours, and this has developed confidence in the majority of AfA schools. As Lyng Hall has shown, by changing the behaviour of leaders and teachers, the life chances of children and young people identified with SEND are improved. AfA has introduced a range of changes that have been led by headteachers, including a strong culture of collaboration in leadership teams and a strong vision of ‘no one fails’ that has fostered genuine curriculum innovation.

The impact of AfA on children’s learning has been significant, and school leavers have reported the shift in culture in their school in ensuring that every child succeeds. Paul Green from Lyng Hall explains: “The Achievement for All programme causes schools to think in a different way. We no longer ask why a particular group is underachieving, we ask what we need to do with individuals in a particular group to enable them to make better than expected progress. What we have learnt about the impact of focused action taken to address underperformance has been far more important than any additional resources.“

Paul Bennett is Operational Director, Strategic Initiatives Primary at the National College. He is responsible for the College’s contribution to the AfA project and has worked in close collaboration with Professor Sonia Blandford, Director of AfA.

Facts about Achievement for All

• Achievement for All has three approaches to school improvement: assessment, tracking and intervention; improved engagement with parents; and improving the achievement, and access and aspiration of children and young people through a wide range of learning opportunities in the classroom and beyond.
• The programme began in 2009 and is a two-year pilot project involving the National Strategies, the National College and the Department for Education.
• The programme has been delivered in 454 schools in 10 local authorities: Bexley, Camden, Coventry, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Nottinghamshire, Oldham, Redcar and Cleveland, and Sheffield.
• There are approximately 45 participating schools in each authority, including primary, secondary and special, and focusing on children in Years 1, 5, 7 and 10.