Assessment for learning 8 schools projectImplementation and monitoringor Action research, self-evaluationand professional development?

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Intended outcomes

• To have an understanding of the context, nature and methodology of the 8 schools project

• To have begun to reflect upon the findings and key messages of the report in relation to:Teaching and learningThe leadership and management of change

in schools• To have briefly considered the experiences

and approaches of one school and what we can look to learn from their case study

• To have begun to consider the implications of the report findings for your work with schools and in schools

1.3

Structure of the session

Project methodology

Key messages

The Key messages relate to two areas:• teaching and learning, and;• the leadership and management of whole

school change.

• The project findings indicate that fundamental to developing AfL in the classroom is developing the independent learner and, fundamental to developing the leadership and management of whole school change is developing distributed leadership. It is important to be mindful of this when considering the key messages.

1.6

Teaching & learning key messages

Pupils need to move from being passive recipients of what they are being taught to develop as independent learners who take responsibility for their own learning and are empowered to make progress for themselves. The best AfL leads to lessons in which the pupils and teacher work together to take the learning forward.

1.7

Senior & middle leaders

The learner

The teacher

The LA

Teaching and learning

Key message 1Fundamental to AfL is pupils having a clear understanding of what they are trying to learn (learning objectives), how they can recognise achievement (learning outcomes), what good looks like (success criteria) and why they are learning this in the first place (i.e. big picture sometimes linked to personal curricular targets).

Key message 2

Pupils’ progress is accelerated when they are clear about the success criteria for the intended outcomes and are able to judge the quality of their work and know how to improve it. This requires teachers having a good understanding of progression in the key concepts and skills in their subject.

1.8

Teaching and learning

Key message 3Learning is what happens in pupils’ heads as they assess their level of understanding or the quality of their work and recognise how to improve it. This is the essence of AfL.

Key message 4Classroom dialogue (whole class, group or paired discussion) is at the heart of good AfL as it enables pupils to develop their thinking and to learn from each other. Teachers need to develop pupils’ dispositions, skills and confidence to engage in reciprocal talk within a positive climate for learning.

1.9

Leadership & management key messagesStrong proactive senior and middle leadership is critical to developing AfL whole school but this is a precursor to distributed leadership within a collaborative learning community. Leadership is neither top down nor bottom up. With distributed leadership comes shared ownership of, and contribution to, a continually evolving vision of where the school is going and how to get there. The distributed leadership goes right down to pupils taking the lead in their learning i.e. going full circle to developing independent learners.

1.10

Leadership and management of change Key message 5• Effective whole school change must be informed by a

thorough and ongoing analysis of the overarching learning needs of the pupils. The focus needs to be on how the developing learning needs of the pupils in a school continue to be addressed collaboratively through day to day lessons.

Key message 6• To establish AfL whole school both ‘top down’ and ‘bottom

up’ change processes must prevail as they fulfil different purposes. ‘Top down’ approaches can convey a clear message about expectations and focus for improvement but this alone does not win the ‘hearts and minds’ of all teachers or build internal capacity.

1.11

Leadership and management of changeKey message 7• AfL practice is most successfully developed where teachers

work collaboratively within and across departments, share their practice and learn from what they and their peers do well. Change is most effective when there is a sustained professional dialogue between teaching staff and between staff and their pupils. In planning change, consideration needs to be given to establishing mechanisms for encouraging and facilitating this dialogue.

Key message 8• Senior and middle leaders need to maintain an unrelenting

focus on, and support for, the intended change. This includes addressing the issue of competing priorities and the contradictory practices which may stem from these.

1.12

Leadership and management of changeKey message 9• A secure and shared understanding of what effective AfL

practice ‘looks like’ is essential for teachers to be able to reflect and develop their practice and for leaders to be able to help them do this. Isolated pockets of good practice can be developed by individual teachers but, for AfL to have significant impact, development needs to be whole school. Everyone, especially senior and middle leaders, must continue to develop an ever more insightful understanding of AfL.

Key message 10• Senior and middle leaders need to reflect critically on their

ways of working and be prepared to ‘think outside the box’ i.e. flex and change through learning from others to take intelligent informed risks. Effective leaders are able to both continue to refine and sharpen their current approaches to whole school change and introduce new ones where things aren’t working.

1.13

Leadership and management of changeKey message 11• Developing AfL whole school requires systematic and

systemic monitoring and evaluation of the impact of AfL on:teaching and learningstandardsthe leadership and management of change

Key message 12• Monitoring and evaluation needs to be a distributed process

involving all teachers and subject teams. It should be enquiry based and inform CPD (e.g. ongoing action research in lessons and coaching). CPD is a journey not a series of isolated events.

1.14

Leadership and management of change

Key message 13• Pupils can provide rich and penetrating evidence and insight

into what works well in lessons and what doesn’t. Engaging pupils in school self evaluation also helps them develop as reflective learners and practitioners in much the same way as it does teachers.

1.15

Reflecting on the key messages

Discuss with your neighbour.

• Which key messages you think are the most important and why.

• Are there key messages you are not clear about?

• Are there key messages you don’t identify with?

1.16

• Which of the key messages present the biggest challenges to teachers / schools and why?

School A

1.17

A case study

School A: the context

• mixed comprehensive school with 654 students • School ‘in challenging circumstances’• urban fringe in an area of social and economic

deprivation• proportion eligible for free school meals 48%, three

times the national average• intake predominantly white English • student attainment on entry below the national

average• unauthorised absence higher than national average • special measures from Oct 2001 to March 2004 • one challenge … encourage students to believe

academic success is possible

1.18

What the teachers said

“What makes the biggest difference … is dialogue: not just teacher-pupil dialogue, but pupil-pupil dialogue and pupil-led dialogue. The teacher giving the learning objective and the outcome but the pupils deciding where they’re going to take that. Pupils see it as independent learning and see themselves as independent learners, and they see that they’re getting something out of it so it’s really motivating”

Head of KS 4 English

1.19

What the teachers said

“Phrases such as “how could I improve this?” and ‘What would I need to do to …” are now commonly heard in lessons. Pupils discuss the quality of their work as they leave classrooms. As a result, in year 9 especially, the progress made by most pupils was extremely encouraging. The majority of the pupils most influenced by AfL have taken history for GCSE … and far more pupils are starting Y10 from level 5”

Head of history

1.20

What the teachers said

“AfL isn’t just about what happens in the classroom, it’s about what happens around the place. Like pupils reading the other pupils work in the corridor displays … Even the way teachers speak to pupils is different now”

(Head of KS3 English)

1.21

What the LA said

“The development of AFL across the school made a significant contribution to the building of internal capacity to support self-improvement. We would emphasise the importance of the school having the systems to support collaboration of this type.”

Strategy Manager

1.22

Ofsted March 2006 headlines

• ‘A good and improving school’• ‘Pupils make good progress to achieve challenging targets

and attain standards broadly in line with the national average’

• ‘This is a consequence of good teaching and learning … lively and often outstanding teaching engages pupils and motivates them to want to learn’

• ‘Effective support is given to pupils to help them reach their targets and let them know what they need to do to improve’

• There is exemplary monitoring and evaluation of the schools work in its drive for school improvement.

• There is a sharp awareness of what has been achieved, what still needs to be done, clarity about how to do it and a readiness to face the challenge of doing it.

• As one pupil said quite perceptively … ‘It’s cool to succeed in our school’.

1.23

KS3 attainment 2001 - 2007

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

%

English %Level 5+

Maths %Level 5+

Science %Level 5+

1.24

School A -Overall CVA v RA: KS2-3

94

96

98

100

102

104

106

-15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15

Relative Attainment

CVA s

core

2003

1.25

School A -Overall CVA v RA: KS2-3

94

96

98

100

102

104

106

-15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15

Relative Attainment

CVA s

core

2003

2004

1.25

School A -Overall CVA v RA: KS2-3

94

96

98

100

102

104

106

-15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15

Relative Attainment

CVA s

core

2005

2003

2004

1.25

School A -Overall CVA v RA: KS2-3

94

96

98

100

102

104

106

-15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15

Relative Attainment

CVA s

core

2005

2003

2004

2006

1.25

What school A did.

• Limited number of improvement foci.• Pupil centred ‘whole school’ development.• CPD journey – responsive to monitoring

and varied approaches.• Promotion and recruitment of staff with the

‘right’ skills and beliefs.

• Developing a “learning community” across the school.

• Winning the hearts and minds of staff.

1.26

Post Ofsted action plan.

• Build on improvements to teaching • develop objective led learning & peer and

self assessment• use effective questioning• employ a broader range of learning styles

• Continue to raise standards in both Key Stages by:

• improving staff interpretation of data• implement pupil target setting and review

system • Improve the behaviour of a significant

minority

1.27

What school A did.

• Limited number of improvement foci.• Pupil centred ‘whole school’ development.• CPD journey – responsive to monitoring

and varied approaches.• Promotion and recruitment of staff with the

‘right’ skills and beliefs.• Developing a “learning community” across

the school.• Winning the hearts and minds of staff.

1.26

Pupil centred development.

“We made the decision to change from a systems based approach with a focus on teacher behaviours to one focused on learning and student outcomes…

The need for this was prompted by listening to pupil voices”

Deputy head teacher

1.28

What school A did.

• Limited number of improvement foci.• Pupil centred ‘whole school’ development.• CPD journey – responsive to monitoring

and varied approaches.• Promotion and recruitment of staff with the

‘right’ skills and beliefs.

• Developing a “learning community” across the school.

• Winning the hearts and minds of staff.

1.26

CPD journey – diverse and responsive.

“ CPD is never a “one-off” in this school. It has to be part of a ‘journey’. You can never say ‘we’ve done AfL, that’s it, lets move to the next thing’ because there’s no ceiling. We’re all part way through the ‘journey’…It involved keeping your focus and using the evidence to inform CPD and future developments. We knew progress would not be consistent within and across departments and needed to adapt our approaches in response”

Deputy head teacher.

1.29

CPD journey – diverse and responsive.

“Subject leader and department meetings are focussed on learning, teaching and the sharing of “good practice”. There is minimal ‘business’ and maximum time on thinking about learning and teaching. Staff feel that they can ‘share’, not just with each other, but with their line managers also and are keen to do that. The SLT is accessible and often prioritise some of these discussions over some task in hand or more strategic activity.

Deputy head

1.30

What school A did.

• Limited number of improvement foci.• Pupil centred ‘whole school’ development.• CPD journey – responsive to monitoring

and varied approaches.• Promotion and recruitment of staff with the

‘right’ skills and beliefs.

• Developing a “learning community” across the school.

• Winning the hearts and minds of staff.

1.26

Winning hearts and minds.

“When we did the work on trios, every member of the SLT was also a member of a trio. The staff could see that it truly was a whole school approach and that members of the SLT are also classroom teachers who value the opportunities to share practice and good ideas. If the developmental work is important that it is only right that staff should see a commitment from SLT.”

Deputy head

1.31

Key Question

What are the implications of the report for our work with schools and in schools?

1.19

Access to report

Every secondary school will receive (via their LA):one hardcopy of the summary report a CDROM which includes the summary report +

full case studies for each of the 8 schools and associated appendices + the project support materials (e.g. self evaluation tools)

The summary report, case studies, appendices and support materials can also be downloaded from the DCSF Standards Site: http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/secondary/keystage3/all/respub/afl8

1.20

Senior & middle leaders

The learner

The teacher

The LA

1.18