Changing Staff Perceptions for Inclusive SEND Provision Conference

Delivering Outstanding SEND Provision ConferenceChanging staff perceptions to ensure inclusion is a whole-school priority: confidently work with your SLT and motivate all teaching staff By Gareth D Morewood Director of Curriculum Support, Priestnall School, Stockport Honorary Research Fellow, University of Manchester 21st March 2013

Setting the scene… • A truly comprehensive secondary school with approx. 1210 students aged 11-16 • Priestnall School – ‘outstanding’ (OFSTED, 2011) including ‘outstanding’ provision for young people with SEND (OFSTED, 2004, 2008, 2011) • Working with a range of students, trainees and UoM in developing provision

Next Steps… • Training and Development • Single School Category • Single Assessment – EHCP • Widening access to provision • Local Offer – LA but schools as well? • Parents/Carers – giving greater control – controversial? • Personal Budgets • School Funding reform • Preparation for adulthood – independence • SEN Pathfinders

Training and ITT… • ITT is changing • Lamb materials & SALT materials • Teaching Agency Expert Reference Group • Review of ITT SEND questionnaires • Placements in Special Provision • Impairment specific training • Training Schools – up to 100 placements each year! • National Scholarship Scheme • Open market sources of CPD at a variety of levels (e.g. Autism Education Trust CPD programme) • Continuation of SENCo training (+ teachers in PRUs) BUT with a new ‘DfE-mediated’ ‘first-come, first served’ application process and a reduction in the number of funded places (1000) • Whole school approaches to achieving access, participation and achievement (nasen and Schools Network – involving lead SENCos; Achievement for All)

What is going to happen? • Consider the use of Support Staff – in light of recent research • Highlight some of the new ways of working to meet the needs of 21st Century children with SEND • Offer some ideas on you can evolve your provision to meet changes in policy and be ready for September 2014

Does Every Child still Matter? • Being Healthy • Staying Safe • Enjoying and Achieving • Making a Positive Contribution • Economic Wellbeing

The Context ... • The New Ofsted Inspection Framework – raising standards, improving lives • Ofsted SEN Review: A Statement is not enough • Education Bill • SEND Green Paper • Pupil Premium • Changing education climate • New Teachers’ Standards • Increasing number of students with complex needs

Key Judgements ... • In judging the quality of the school, inspectors will make four key judgements: • achievement • the quality of teaching • behaviour and safety • leadership and management

A Different Perspective ... • There is a greater focus on: • narrowing gaps in performance • quality of teaching and its impact on learning • reading and literacy • behaviour and safety

21st Century Children • The young people in our schools are very different now, than 15 years ago ... • Neo-natal survival rates mean more children are surviving with complex needs and are now in our classes ... • Learning & Teaching is different now; it has to be ... so we have to evolve too …

A Whole-School Approach ... • Our success has been built upon a truly whole-school approach • Training ALL staff is an essential part of improving provision and outcomes • A corporate responsibility essential in improving provision for all students

Great time to ‘sell’ in school ... • With the new inspection framework (Jan 2012) and new Teacher Standards (Sept 2012) it is a great time to ‘sell’ the need for greater training and awareness as part of a whole-school approach to Headteachers and SLT... • Coupled with Green Paper & Next Steps implications; teachers need to increase their skill-sets ... And we can help!

Materials and recourses – a National Project A Whole School Approach to Improving Access, Participation and Achievement www.nasentraining.org.uk FREE training and materials ....

Also remember ... ‘The education of the peer group is an essential part of moving towards a truly inclusive community’Gareth D Morewood, 2011

Firstly let us consider support staff… • Teaching Assistants… • Other non-teaching roles… • How is your school ‘set-up’? • Do teaching and non-teaching staff work effectively together? • Is your staffing ‘inclusive’?

Teachers’ Standards - 2012 Two key strands of wider professional responsibilities: • Develop effective professional relationships with colleagues, knowing how and when to draw on advice and specialist support • Deploy support staff effectively

‘One of the major barriers to achievement for pupils with SEND is being rendered dependent on adults to help them learn. Many pupils with cognitive and learning difficulties lack self-confidence. This results in an over-reliance on an adult to support them with their work.’ NS 2005: Maximising progress: ensuring the attainment of pupils with SEN

Ofsted’s view … Ofsted 2004 – ‘Support by teaching assistants can be vital, but the organisation of it can mean that students have insufficient opportunity to develop their skill, understanding and independence’ Ofsted 2006 – ‘teaching assistants provided valuable support and many were taking difficult roles’ ...however they recognised that pupils in mainstream schools, where teaching assistant support was the main type of SEN support, were less likely to make good academic progress than those who had access to specialist teaching.

Ofsted 2010 – Barriers to learning which were observed by inspectors included lack of careful preparation and poor deployment of adults to support children and young people. Where additional adult support was provided in the classroom for individuals, this was sometimes a barrier to including them successfully and enabling them to participate. In too many examples seen during the review, when a child or young person was supported closely by an adult, the adult focused on the completion of the task rather than on the actual learning. Adults intervened too quickly, so preventing children and young people from having time to think or to learn from their mistakes.

Research … • Howes (2003) found that teaching assistants’ support in class increased the amount of time pupils spent on task but did not necessarily result in an increased rate of learning. • Blatchford, Bassett et al (2009) – ‘The more support pupils received, the less progress they made, even after controlling for other factors that might be expected to explain the relationship such as pupils’ prior attainment, SEN status and income deprivation’.

Secondly let us consider the Pupil Premium … • Additional adults to simply ‘answer’ the deficit in attainment is NOT the key … • ‘Best Buys’ are what works well for you … • Support Staff are essential as part of a whole-school approach; not simply THE answer on its own …

What is the Pupil Premium • Aims: • to reduce the attainment gap between the highest and lowest achieving students nationally • to increase social mobility • to enable more students from disadvantaged backgrounds to get to the top Universities • to provide additional resource to schools to do this • to support looked after children and service families • £600 in 2012-13 for and FSM student eligible in last 6 yrs; rising to £900 in 2013-14 and £1200 in 2014-15?

Understanding resources & learning… • Above a minimum threshold – there is no simple link • More money ≠ more learning • There is an association but it is weak and complex • Conclusion: spending more won’t guarantee benefit – there is no simple solution

Consider the ‘Bananarama’ Principle • It ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it… • So how do you spend £900 per student to ‘get results’? • Or, what does the evidence say is a good investment or a poor investment for learning? • It ain’t what you spend but the way that you spend it…

Consider Smaller Classes? • Complex evidence – there is no clear link between class size and achievement • Experimental trials suggest • Classes need to be less than about 17 to be effective • Teachers need to change the way they teach • Simply adding Teaching Assistants not as effective • Doing the maths (2012-13): • £600 x 20 pupils x 3 classes = £27,000 • 50%+ on FSM = 1 extra teacher per 3 classes • Class size reduction from 30 to 23 – not enough

Consider 1-1 Tuition? • Highly effective • I hour per day over at least 6 weeks • With support for class teacher to re-integrate • Doing the maths… • 6 weeks x 5 days x 1 hour = 30 hours • 4 days teacher time (more effective with an experienced teacher) • Approx £800 (affordable next year) • Expensive but effective: maybe consider using pairs or small group tuition

Best Buys…

The Toolkit… http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit/

Issues and limitations – to consider • Based on meta-analysis – averages of averages • Conversion to ‘months progress’ is a rough estimate • Intervention research is compared with ‘normal’ practice which is varied • Not ‘what works’ but what has worked – i.e. ‘good bets’ to support professional evaluation and enquiry

Priestnall and the PP… 2011-12 • The actual amount received by Priestnall School was a grant of £56120. There were 115 learners entitled to the funding (FSM and CiC). • Within the group, the profile of the learners was as follows: • 65 boys and 50 girls • 47 students who had an identified Special Educational Need (including a Statement of SEND, School Action and School Action Plus); • 35 students from minority ethnic or mixed race backgrounds; • 7 EAL (English as and Additional Language) students

Priestnall and the PP… 2012-13 • With the PP increasing to £623 per student the actual amount received by Priestnall School was a grant of £100,200. There were 164 learners entitled to the funding (FSM and CiC). • New developments in provision this year include: • Employment of a Trainee Education Psychologist to address the needs of identified students who would not otherwise meet the criteria EP support • Enhancement of gifted and talented programmes to raise aspirations for learners, particularly those who would not otherwise consider Higher Education • Further development of literacy interventions ; include Accelerated Reader and ‘trugs’ • Additional programmes and bespoke literacy packages • Provision of a ‘Supported learning Pathway’ for students in Yr 10 & 11

PP and SEND… • 30% of SEN students are eligible for the Pupil Premium • Approaches that ‘work’, tend to work for all… • Effective diagnosis is essential • There is a need to tailoring interventions & support to fit context and individual need • Teaching learning skills and strategies • Collaborative learning • One-to-one & small group • Peer tutoring (with SEND students as the tutor)

Key messages – in summary… • Some things that are popular or widely thought to be effective are probably not as effective as previously thought… • Ability grouping (setting); After-school clubs; Teaching Assistants; Smaller classes; Performance pay • Some things that look ‘promising’ • Effective feedback; Meta-cognition and self regulation strategies; Peer tutoring; Homework (for secondary students)

Is it more effective to deploy Teaching Assistants subject-specific or student need-specific? • Consider your settings – what have you done/tried? • What are the pros & cons? • Think back to research by Lorenz (1998)... Lorenz, S. (1998) Effective in-class support: management of support staff in mainstream and special schools, David Fulton Publishers

Old-Fashioned TA styles? Do they still have a place? • How many different ‘types’ of TA support can you think of? • Are they all ‘good practice’? • If not what do they still occur? • Think about training and managing performance – then you can match TA skills to different support models ...

Record keeping – not enough Teaching Assistants record keep – should they? • Your thoughts? • What do you do in your schools? • Why are records important? • Joint planning and record keeping always generates debate .... • So here is what we do ... [and why]

How do you know how TAs impact on student progress and analyse whether strategies are effective? • This is very important but often ‘overlooked’ ... • A rigorous system of professional development and impact analysis must be part of whole school systems • It is simply not good enough ‘not to know’; how can you know and what evidence do you need?

We have established a ‘Development Record’ for our staff • This allows for a focus on their skills and aspirations, but also highlights areas of development and training • Providing high quality training supports each member of staff in their personal skill development • When you identify an area for development you need to offer something in support

Positive messages – postcards... • Simple, yet so effective • Either send with student's knowledge or without • Write the comment and leave for address to be added later • Lots available a increasingly cheap rates from – www.vistaprint.co.uk

Positive messages – letters... • Don’t forget the impact of a positive letter or even e-mail • How do you feel when you receive a letter in the post? • Not to mention a positive one • Don’t forget the obvious...

Positive messages – texts... www.teachers2parents.co.uk Used purely for positive messages about progress and/or achievement, the trial has seen extremely positive feedback from all involved.

Our trial was for a specific purpose, providing positive messages home for vulnerable learners, all messages were individual and personalised. For example: ‘George did an amazing piece of work on Escher in Art today, ask him about it when he gets home. Well done George, Mr Morewood.’

Anything positive is helpful... • Any positive contact is immensely powerful • Often schools get into negative spirals • Establish one or two positive mechanisms [some at relatively low cost] and see what the impact is • Never forget how you feel when you are praised

How can support be most effective? • Each school/setting is different, but one thing is for certain we are all accountable to balance resources against outcomes • Evidence is important, as discussed, but also provision • See Morewood (2011) Restructuring in light of budget restraints article & new revised versions

Consider some of the points – can you restructure and be more effective? • Brace yourself for a rapid summary .... • Schools need to develop 21st Century models of support • We MUST consider the ‘modern child’; old fashioned systems do not meet current need • Provision cannot be made when required, with lengthy systems and ‘out-of-date’ process

What is ‘effective support’? • Let us consider our respective schools … • What does ‘effective support’ look like? • Consider developing these ideas within your own teams/faculties/departments …

Partnerships are key... • Vulnerable young people cannot be included in isolation • Partnerships between home and school, in addition to specialist advice/interventions secures a stronger, triangulated approach • Joined up thinking, and advocating for strong partnerships are key elements of the 21st Century skill-set

Changing Staff Perceptions for Inclusive SEND Provision Conference