Achievement for All Professor Sonia Blandford

 Achievement for All takes a whole school approach to school improvement.  It is focused on improving teaching and learning for all children and young people, particularly the 20% of the school population identified as having special educational needs and disabilities,  too many of whom are not achieving as well as their peers relative to their starting points and are leaving education without the skills and qualifications they need to become independent adults.

 Achievement for All has three approaches to school improvement:  Improving the aspirations, progress and achievement of all children and young people, through high expectations, effective use of assessment and focused target setting supported and informed by;  Improved engagement with parents of children and young people in supporting their child’s learning through target focused structured conversations which;  Improve the achievement, access and aspiration of children and young people and provide a wide range of learning opportunities in the classroom and beyond.

 “AFA has put SEND back in the classroom.” (Head teacher, Bexley)  “Through AFA, teachers have a much clearer picture of this (vulnerable, SEND) group of pupils.” (Manchester University)  “I feel listened to and really valued in the structured conversations.” (Year 5 parent)  “I know exactly what type of support my son is receiving and what his targets are so that I can help him more too.” (Year 5 parent)  “My son is now more confident, he interacts better, he is learning more and he feels better about himself. He used to really struggle and was so clingy with me.” (Year 1 parent)  “I feel very comfortable coming into this school even though I have not felt like this in other schools and I used to hate school when I was a kid. I feel confident now when I help my child with her reading.” (Year 1 parent – also has older children in secondary school)

Developing – Achievement, Access and Aspirations for All Children and Young People

Achievement for All is based on the belief that teachers and school leaders can have a profound impact on all children and young people by developing their achievement, access and aspirations.

How?  Learn  Remove Barriers  Want and know how to achieve

 This means having high expectations of what they can achieve, working in partnership with parents to set targets for their learning and track their progress, and increasing the range of learning opportunities available to them demonstrating how:  An effective teacher increases access and raises aspirations as a means to improving achievement.  An inspirational teacher improves achievement in a way that changes a learners’ Aspirations, and in doing so improves their life chances by securing Access to continued Achievement and self- fulfilment.

 Achievement, Access and Aspirations are each broad terms encompassing multiple factors that impact on an individual’s life chances. By changing teaching and learning behaviours, vulnerable and underachieving learners, including those with special educational needs and disabilities, will achieve.

Access includes but is not limited to: - engagement, - exclusionary barriers, - opportunity, - participation. Aspirations includes but is not limited to: motivation, orientation, self-concept, self-efficacy. Achievement includes but is not limited to: attainment, experience of success, progress.

The role of school leaders  Research has identified four key aspects of school leadership that are particularly relevant to achievement, access and aspirations for all children and young people.

 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 effective continuing professional development of 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

 The impact of achievement, access and aspiration should change a student’s life chances and also change the behaviours of teachers [a shift/development of practice to lead pupils’ learning].  Long term impact of achievement, access and aspiration may take several years in demonstrable terms.

 Goal: An ambitious, measurable end of the year aim for teachers – includes each of the 3A’s  Outcome: The result of an implemented goal  Strategy: Interventions to achieve goal  Story: The reporting of the journey towards the goal travelling through the 3A’s

Data-Driven Discussion cycle: –Assess, Analyse, Act –teachers will be able to analyse through pedagogy –teachers will engage in a process by recognising through recording and analysis the impact of their strategies –teachers will be able to identify the problem on an individual, class and subject basis and change their behaviours accordingly. Pedagogical Links  Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956) –Cognitive: mental skills (Knowledge) –Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (Attitude) –Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (Skills)  Alternative pedagogical frames? –Wiggins and McTighe (Understanding by Design, 2005); Teaching As Leadership (2009); the Leading Learning principles

 Access to high quality teaching and learning is critical  What prevents a student achieving their goal? Access obstacles, including but not limited to, are: –Psychological –Social –Physical –Financial –Environmental –Emotional –Learning –Teaching  Plus access to life opportunities

 Aspiration is about having high expectations about what individual learners can achieve  Aspiration reflects a ‘can do’ mentality; the ‘light bulb’ moment when a student decides that they can meet the challenges and gain access to learning  Achievement and Access are of little value or use without Aspiration to succeed and to take advantage of opportunities, learners need to identify with a belief that they can succeed.

 Aspiration can be broken down into the elements needed by the student to learn  teachers can define the elements needed through discussion/dialogue with the learner  Our understanding of “aspiration” is to break it down into: –“motivation” (wanting to achieve something/desire to learn), and –“mindset” (self-efficacy/belief that one can achieve through hard work)

 The success of the goal might be measured and documented for pupils by: –Achievement: ‘What are the hard and soft strategies and outcomes? What is the story?’ –Access: ‘Is the student able to access the learning in order to achieve the goal?’ –Aspiration: ‘Do the students engage with the goal? What strategies have been set to change behaviours?’ –For the teacher, ‘How have I changed my behaviour?’

 Achievement for All takes a whole school approach to school improvement.  It is focused on improving teaching and learning for all children and young people, particularly the 20% of the school population identified as having special educational needs and disabilities,  too many of whom are not achieving as well as their peers relative to their starting points and are leaving education without the skills and qualifications they need to become independent adults.

Next Steps LA NC Green Paper

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