Bletchley Park. During WWII the German secret codes were broken here.
This post will focus on a Teacher Learner Community
(TLC) session that ran as part of the discussion forum TLC which focuses on closing the achievement gap. Our TLC has students at
the heart and focusses on ensuring that all our students, especially those from
disadvantaged backgrounds receive a challenging and engaging education which
sets them on the right path for success in the future. This particular session
focussed on social mobility. It was based on a government report that
highlights the worrying impact of gaps in cognitive development between better
off and disadvantaged children that open up early and over the years widen
rather than narrow. This inevitably has a negative impact on future life
chances. Indeed, the report highlights:
‘nearly six
out of ten disadvantaged children in England do not achieve a basic set of
qualifications compared to only one in three children from more advantaged
backgrounds. The story is broadly similar in Scotland and Wales. The
consequence for these children is a lifelong struggle to gain basic skills,
avoid unemployment and to find and hold down a good job.’
On a more positive note however, the report also
reveals there are schools that have cracked the social mobility code ‘some
schools seem to have learnt the secret of how to alleviate the impact of
background on life chances. They have found a way of overcoming the barriers
that impede social mobility. At a time when social mobility is stalling and
child poverty is rising, there is an urgent need to share the lessons so that
every school can crack that code.’ The report shares some
interesting findings from their investigation about what such code crackers do to make an impact on raising
achievement for disadvantaged pupils for example a common feature of such
schools is 'properly resourcing teacher recruitment and development,
partnering with other schools and ensuring disadvantaged students have (at
least) their fair share of the best teachers’ time – not just subcontracting
the teaching of low attainers to teaching assistants or focusing the
best teachers on students at the C/D borderline' this is clearly an
example of good practice.
The
report concludes that their investigations into code breaking
schools 'suggests that those performing well for disadvantaged students do
not apply a single magic formula. Success is incremental and based on a series
of small changes rather than a single ‘big bang’ – compared by
one headteacher to ‘being like the success of British cycling team:
the aggregation of marginal gains’.
With
this idea in mind, the TLC session therefore focussed on discussing and sharing
such 'marginal gains', the 'small changes' and key strategies Canons
uses to ‘crack that code’. At the same time, as staff at Canons are very
reflective and are always looking for ways to build upon areas of strengths so,
as well as sharing what we currently do well academically and pastorally
to close the gap, we also collectively discussed ways we could further increase
the impact. As the government report makes clear, ‘there is an urgent need to
share the lessons so that every school can crack that code’ this
post therefore aims to share the good practice at Canons.
A
link to the report can be found here. The key findings have been summarised
below and were discussed in the TLC:
Social mobility – what is it?
· ‘children doing well as
adults… having a job that raises their income relative to their parents...
children having a fair roll of the dice, that is, for a given level of talent
and effort, being as likely as children from more advantaged backgrounds to get
a good job that raises their income’
· From an education system
that is ‘seeking to produce autonomous, free, well rounded citizens and adults
not just individuals who can make a good living.’
Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission
Cracking the Code: how schools can improve social mobility 2014
What causes social immobility?
Figure 1. Potential causes of social immobility
Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission Cracking the Code: how schools can improve social mobility 2014
What do good schools do and what makes a code
breaker?
Summary of key findings:
1.
There is a lot of scope to improve performance.
2.
New accountability measures will improve social
mobility (reduce tendency to focus on C/D borderline groups)
3.
Teacher expectations of disadvantaged students are
key
4.
Some schools are ‘code breakers’ they:
a.
Use Pupil Premium strategically to improve social
mobility
b.
Build a high expectations, inclusive culture
c.
Incessantly focus on the quality of teaching
d.
Have tailored strategies to engage parents
e.
Prepare students for all aspects of life not just
exams
Canons the code breaker
Figure 2. Analysis of 'extreme' performing schools for disadvantaged children
Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission Cracking the Code: how schools can improve social mobility 2014
According to the criteria outlined by the
report, Canons can be seen as an example of one of these ‘code breakers’, there
is ample evidence of this in the most recent Ofsted report:
·
‘Refugees and asylum seekers
and those students who join the school outside normal times also make
outstanding progress.
·
There are smaller gaps
in attainment between students eligible for the pupil premium and other
students than are seen nationally – between one
third and two thirds of a GCSE grade lower in English and mathematics. In 2012,
a very high percentage of eligible students made the expected progress in GCSE
English, higher than other students and the opposite of the national picture.
In mathematics their progress was very close to that made by the others.
·
Younger and older students
also benefit from the pupil premium, which is used to finance their
participation in trips and to provide extra staff to teach them in small
groups. The school’s Year 6 summer camp will be strengthened by funding for
Year 7 catch-up premium.
Canons High School Ofsted
Report 2013
These
are some of the responses from the group discussion during the TLC:
What are we
currently doing well?
· Trips
· Quality of T&L (Teaching and
Learnig)
· Atmosphere of challenge
· Committed teachers
· Recruitment and retention
· Y7 SOLO level descriptors to
provide a clear explanation of what kind of progress students are making and
how they are doing that and how they can improve
· Feedback
· High expectations
· Communication between key
stakeholders
· Pastoral care
· Communicating with and engaging
parents
· Pupil premium used effectively
to give pupils a range of experiences
· Extra curricular programme
· Enrichment courses when they are
done well
· IAG (Information, Advice and Guidance) and careers
information (Breda)
· Sets in subjects
· Separating genders in PE
· Behaviour management
· Consistency in classes
·
Code of conduct
What
we can do even better to increase impact?
· Apprenticeships
· University links
· Career advice given to KS3
· Data sec- to identify minority
groups and so that teachers know their disadvantaged students and PP students
· Consistent approach in CORE and
OPTIONS regarding lower ability teaching – to demonstrate Canons leadership
qualities
· Target setting with kids and
learning conversations with tutors, more time for learning conversations with
tutors
· More trips for options and
entitlement
· More training for tutors about
what is expected – could we have a pastoral inset? What is expected and sharing
good practice?
· A MEG and SEG should not define
a student
· Review of progress –day/half day
· Mixing sets up a bit to address
the issue of motivation and self-fulfilling prophecy
· More registration time with
tutor groups
· Effective deployment of TAs/ LSAs (Teaching Assistants / Learning
Support Assisstants) and time for teaching staff and learning support staff to
communicate with one another
· 6th formers to be more
visible (and Y11 prefects)
· Less focus on MEG (Minimum
Estimate Grades)
· Tutors to look at monitoring
long and short term goals – make pathways clearer
· Relationships with parents
· More apprenticeship schemes
· More responsibility given to
students
·
Parent tutor meetings during the day
Figures 3-6 Photographs of key points from the discussion during the TLC session
Our discussions about closing the achievement gap have meant
that the importance of the pastoral system and the relationships between tutors
and their tutees has continually come up as an area of real significance in
terms of closing the gap in student achievement. This is particularly important
in light of the changing role of Heads of Year and tutors to also encompass the
academic wellbeing of students. Fittingly, our next TLC we will be focussing on
the role of the tutor led by our lovely NQT Minal Tailor.
Rebecca and Tom M