Category: Brilliant Learning

When we heard that again this year that Statutory Assessment for Primary Schools was cancelled our hearts sank at the REU. Another year without the rich analysis of school performance we were used to providing.

Rethink?

We had time to think and people to talk to, standing back from the end of Key Stage statutory collections and public accountability meant we had time to re-focus our support and look at how we could use our skills to support schools through this difficult time.

A lot of schools still wanted a contextual analysis of internal assessment and testing.  With schools taking different directions, we developed a flexible offer around this so that schools could use an REU tool to get a quick automated analysis of any year group assessments, either test or TA.  For schools who sent the data to us we have been able to provide a more detailed analysis.  Working with our subject consultants we were also able to produce a tool to monitor the Maths National Ready to Progress criteria across the school.

A new initiative this year was to provide a set of data surgeries, where schools could book a 1-1 session with the team and discuss any assessment data management, or analysis questions they had.  We found this particularly interesting and discussions were wide ranging, from capturing writing assessment to extending contextual data.

We want to continue a reflective and dynamic approach to the services we offer.  Some of the things we have learnt this year will continue as we move forward.  Examples are:

• Review the standard REU package for next year to be more focused and flexible to respond to varied school needs.
• Individual 1-1 school specific support
• Continued development of tools to support schools internally.
• Continue to provide regular updated lists of children in your school known to Social Care in Wandsworth
• Introduce more virtual and e-Training and guidance.
• Some virtual meetings and consultation with the Primary Data Steering Group and other forums to steer our work

Exploring national research

The unusual year has also meant we have spent time exploring other types of analysis, keeping a close eye on the work that other education research organisations have been carrying out. For example, we have drawn together findings on the link between KS4 and KS5 outcomes on longer term employment outcomes – and how this differs by deprivation, gender and ethnicity. For example, disadvantaged students are less likely to choose higher earning academic routes, even when controlling for prior attainment.

We’ve also been seeing how attainment gaps have been changing during the lockdown period, and how the impact varies for different cohorts (e.g. disadvantaged) and between subjects. For example, Hodder have recently released a white paper exploring attainment gaps from their optional literacy and maths assessments: https://www.risingstars-uk.com/media/Rising-Stars/Assessment/Whitepapers/RSA_Effects_of_disruption_Summer_Aug_2021.pdf

Please get in touch if you want to find out more about any of this analysis.

The pandemic has altered the way we have all worked over the last year. This impact will continue as we all try to adapt to different ways of working.

Annually, the BEST Team (Business and Education Succeeding Together) supports approximately 1600 young people to access work experience. This opportunity disappeared last year, and future programmes will be shaped by the changes in the workplace. The BEST Team is part of Lifelong Learning and located in the Children’s Services Department.

A work experience placement is usually the first interaction that a young person has with the world of work and the BEST Team is determined that the service should continue for many years to come. The service is in its 28th year!

Wandsworth BEST has now delivered several virtual work experience workshops. The first virtual work experience workshop took place at the beginning of December 2020 and involved a group of students from St Francis Xavier College.

It was a great success, and this was down to the commitment of all involved – students, tutors, several staff within the council and some highly committed local business and employers. The week was packed with different activities and talks from Fulham Football Club, South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust, Wandsworth Borough Council, RAPP (marketing and communications company), Barclays UK LifeSkills, Iqualtech (electronics), NOW TV and Sainsburys.

There are a lot of benefits to the students with virtual work experience and this includes the opportunity for students to speak to employers from a wide range of industries who also may not be based locally. It also boosts their confidence with the opportunity to ask the employers questions in real time.

The benefits to schools include spending a lot less time on arranging placements and using the experience to meet Gatsby benchmark 5 which is ‘encounters with employers and employees’.

If you are interested in being involved in future work experience activities or to find out more about the service, book a Head to Head below.

As we move towards the possibility of social distancing restrictions lessening and the prospect of  a return to “normal”, we are taking a moment here at the Schools and Community Psychology Service to think about and question ‘What does return to normal look, sound and feel like??‘.  

We cannot go back in time and change how things have been, but we can influence the future in ways that do not feel regressive and that inspire us to dream ahead and develop. So, what is the story of our future?

We might start this by asking ourselves:

• Does everything need to go back to how it was?
• What have we learned from the past year?
• What continues to work?
• What new ways of doing and of being did we experience, and can these continue going forward?
• How can we as a collective find the energy to build our resilience and create a vision for the future? 

Building individual resilience- a new item on the to-do list? 

We have all been bombarded by messages to turn this whole experience to one of growth and an opportunity to build resilience. We feel the pressure to create something purposeful when events feel out of our control……how can it be built without adding to the ever-growing list of tasks on the school development plan? 

Resilience is dynamic. It can change across time, context and situation and individual resilience depends on the resilience in other parts of the system (Masten, 2015). However, school leadership teams do not have to feel alone or lost in their efforts to help pupils, families and staff regain their strength. The factors that support the process of resilience for children include: 

• A sense of belonging 
• Strong relationships
• Agency 
• High expectations 
• The opportunity to participate as valued members of the community 

In line with these factors the Schools and Community Psychology Service (SCPS) has helped to promote pupils’ participation in their community through questionnaires at various points during the pandemic. These have explored how children and young people have felt throughout different parts of the pandemic and come up with strategies from what the pupils themselves have shared. 

“I just wanted to feedback on the surveys – I have been through them individually and it has been really fascinating. There were only a small number of children in each year group who flagged concerns, but the majority of those were children who would have slipped under the radar otherwise. It has been a really useful exercise and we now know which children to target the interventions to. Thank you so much for your expertise in this, the questions were spot on in pointing out the children who need extra support” (Feedback from primary school HT)

We have also thought with our schools about how to promote a sense of belonging with the help of the Top Ten Tips poster. The shift in practice and the strategies that come when we give voice to our children and young people are always the most relevant. Examples of strategies that pupils and young people inspired our schools to implement include:

• Playground zones with group activities that promote friendships whilst maintaining social distancing and friendship benches
• Development of participation strategy within a specialist provision with a particular focus on those pupils who present with social/communication difficulties alongside other physical and sensory needs. 
• A secondary school reflected on the limited opportunities children with SEND get to be included in group work and group projects and worked with the EP to think about how different departments could improve in including differentiation as part of their group work planning. 

Building community resilience- it’s all about coming together to think

Here at the Schools and Community Psychology Service, we are in awe of how our schools have remained strong and determined during the pandemic, showing incredible stamina and focus on whole community well-being when it mattered the most. We supported school leadership teams through ‘Wellbeing for Return conversations’, the development of resources for creating resilient classrooms and ELSA check-ins. Throughout the pandemic the SCPS ran free sessions for school senior leaders, SEMH leads and SENCOs. Each session focussed on one of the principles for adjustment as well as staff, parents and pupil wellbeing. It was a great way to bring schools together to exchange ideas and provide support to each other. 

We also created resources for parents and helped schools think about how to best support parents in their community. Some schools used their Educational Psychologists (EPs) to offer parents ‘Space to Talk’ and help them think about how to support the learning and wellbeing of their children whilst juggling the challenges of home schooling and work.  

Schools at the heart of community recovery

Community recovery is a long, slow process. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Despite the challenges, attention to their most vulnerable members of our community was at the centre of our work with schools.  And now it’s time to take a step back, listen to the stories of surviving and focus on the community as a whole and this starts with you thinking about and creating your own story for the future. 

Why? 

When people go through challenges or trauma, they are more likely to recover when they are living in supportive and validating communities. Successful community recovery comes from the vision, dreams, hopes and challenges of community themselves. It is about community choosing what their future looks like, and then acting on it with the support of services. It is about community recovery and it is more than that — it is COMMUNITY LED RECOVERY. 

There are a number of EP led initiatives that have provided support before and during phases of the pandemic that would also support our school communities with rebuilding the future too. Some examples include: 

• Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope (PATH) – A tool to support planning and problem solving for individuals, teams and organisations. ​It is a way for a group of people, who share a common problem situation to align their purpose, understanding and actions and visualise a journey towards a positive and possible future.
• SEMH audit – A process to help schools with identifying strengths and areas for further development in relation to whole organisation emotional wellbeing and mental health
• Reflective Space for teachers – The Reflecting Team approach (Andersen, 1987), has been adapted to offer a unique opportunity to staff to bring an issue to a group of colleagues for group reflection. With the help of group thinking and positive feedback, staff are provided with the time and space to consider a variety of new ideas and perspectives for challenging situations. 

Community recovery requires local knowledge and the belief that individuals and families are inherently resilient and able to recover. The Schools and Community Psychology service comes from a solution focussed and strengths based consultation model that recognises the expertise of the school communities that have already contained our families, day in and day out for the last 15 months and understand their strengths as well as ongoing needs. With our understanding of risk and protective factors as well as the steps towards collective recovery, we will continue to offer our support to schools in order to create stories of growth and hope together.