Context and background to the effective or innovative practice
The school was part of the ‘Schools as Learning Organisations’ (SLO) pilot scheme and, by developing this mindset at all levels across the school, staff were seen to be able to move as one in several contexts and with several aspects of their plans.
As a lead school in developing the Curriculum for Wales (CfW), a presentation was provided for headteachers in the county’s catchment area. The feedback was extremely positive during a period of major changes at local and national level. The principles and advantages of this method of working were seen to be a powerful tool in developing co-operation between the schools in the catchment area, with the aim of ensuring a level of consistency for pupils in the catchment area, whichever school they attend.
The catchment area has now been working closely together for several years and continues to share and emulate effective practice.
Description of nature of strategy or activity
By using the document ‘The journey to 2022’ as a framework, the SLO methods and mindset and pupil participation forums, the school has succeeded in developing a shared vision for the CfW with the voices of all stakeholders being clear and prominent.
The following groups have been organised within the school and the catchment area to develop priorities, to promote the development of the curriculum and to focus on developing learning strategies:
School Staff Level:
School staff AoLE groups – all of the school’s staff, whether teachers or assistant, are divided according to Area of Learning and Expertise (AoLE). There are now no subject coordinators but instead teams with responsibility for developing the areas. The school has a priority, which is the responsibility of the deputy headteacher, to develop pedagogy within the school. A CfW Google Classroom has been developed for all staff to drive the priority throughout the year and create a resource that is easy to access and collaborate on. This resource facilitated whole-school action, sharing information and ideas, seeking views and monitoring different aspect of the pedagogical principles. Firstly, ‘Microsoft Forms’ software was used for all teachers to self-evaluate against all strands of the 12 principles, before transferring this information to a whole-school tool for analysing the 12 pedagogical principles. This allowed us to identify areas for development.
The following strands were identified for action:
- Evaluate current provision against the 4 purposes
- To what extent has the school included all stakeholders in shaping the vision to enable all pupils to achieve the 4 purposes
- Learning walls
INSET evenings were held to share the findings of research and set termly targets for action jointly, namely – developing living learning walls across the school and raising awareness of the 4 purposes among pupils and parents.
Following this, there was a trial period in the classroom with staff feeding the Google feed and including what worked effectively. An aim was set by the end of the trial period to create a digital learning journey ‘What worked well for me…?’ There was a follow-up INSET for all teachers to present their slides to the remainder of the staff. Following this, we were able to agree as a school on a particular order for our learning walls, which is now suitable for the pupils’ ages and consistent across the school. This in turn has had a direct effect on methods for improving work in all classrooms and intertwines with the formative assessment procedure. The whole process follows the ‘SLO’ principles and will continue to evolve.
School children level:
Pupil participation groups have specific responsibilities and produce an action plan each year, which is an integral part of the school development plan (SDP). One group works closely with the deputy headteacher to develop pedagogy at the school e.g., by developing the feedback policy, developing the whole-school vision and creating mats for the 4 purposes. The pupil’s voice is evident in all aspects of school life.
Catchment area level:
Catchment area priorities are produced by one member of each school in the catchment area planning the basics of the priority jointly and then personalising it at school level e.g., pedagogy group, ICT group, ALN group. This is a natural extension of the individual school’s SDP, by identifying shared priorities and identifying a school/schools who will be able to lead the priority across the catchment area so that all schools move in the same direction, recognising that individual school are at different places with regard to the priority. This, in turn, leads to extensive and valuable opportunities for the school’s staff to develop professionally, to lead staff and have a highly positive influence on the school. This has also changed the mindset of schools in the catchment area to consider what is important to the catchment area, in addition to what is important to individual schools.
The ‘logic model’ is used to plan priorities – a specific model and approach to planning expenditure. The model is divided into four parts – resources, activities, input and output – and is an effective means of sharing with stakeholders what we want to achieve, how we intend to reach our targets and how we will track progress. Logic models help practitioners and evaluators to understand the mechanism and structure of our improvement programme and leads to improving working methods and standards. To support this method of working, catchment area meetings are held each half term to monitor the priority’s progress, adapt when necessary, share further ideas and maintain momentum across the catchment area. As a result of this method of working, there have been several positive outcomes e.g., a regional blended learning website and international presentations.
AoLE groups have been established across schools in the catchment area (primary and secondary) and are led by primary teachers to interpret and understand content, take advantage of expertise and develop the curriculum consistently in the interests of the wellbeing and education of pupils across the catchment area. A website for sharing resources has also been created and established so that all members of staff in the catchment area are able to access it. This, in turn, has ensured that staff expertise is shared across the school and the catchment area as they present stimulating activities on the digital platform. The school’s staff and staff in the catchment area are now moving in the same direction, have the same mindset and are beginning to develop consistent learning strategies.
Following training from Ysgol Corn Hir, the ‘Cyngor Ysgol Cefni’ group, which is a representation of all schools in the catchment area (primary and secondary), has created a new motto, “Ein Dysgu, Ein Dyfydol” (“Our Learning, Our Future”), which aligns with the new curriculum. Representatives of all of those schools have then come together to share their new mottos and crate one that is suitable for the whole catchment area.
What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?
The school is on track to ensure that all members of staff understand the requirements of the CfW and are equipped with the most suitable strategies to introduce the curriculum in the most effective manner. For example, working walls are used purposefully and consistently across the whole school to deliver and develop literacy and numeracy skills of the development of the 4 purposes mats.
The voice of learners and stakeholders is strong, not only in curriculum planning but also in the strategies that are used to deliver and develop the curriculum. A good example of this is the methods used to gather the views of parents and pupils electronically and weaving these ideas into the class’s scheme of work.
Pupils’ participation in lessons and their desire to learn are excellent – they take ownership of their learning and see themselves as part of the school team.
How have you shared your good practice?
The practices of the catchment area and the school e.g., creating catchment area priorities or training sessions and reflection clinics at the school, in addition to the work of the catchment area school council to improve the transition from primary to secondary, are shared through local forums e.g., Anglesey good practice forum, through half-termly catchment area group meetings and through the improvement advisers or education officers. The strong partnership within the catchment area means that all schools are willing to share. The school’s work and implementation methods have been shared through referrals from the regional consortium, with several schools coming to see our effective practice, both inside and outside the county. The work on feedback has been used by officers in regional and international conferences.
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Effective classroom observation in primary and secondary schools - October 2014
pdf, 600 KB Added 01/10/2014