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The merger of The National College and The Teaching Agency-A golden opportunity to develop a highly qualified school workforce, with the specialist skills to address closing the gaps in schools in England.

26/1/2013

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There are two accepted truisms which drive educational standards across the world.  The first is 'the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers[1] and the second is that the quality of leadership is the most important determinant of pupil’s success.[2] It is, therefore essential that we have the highest quality of teachers and leaders if we are to continue to raise standards and close the gaps in attainment for different groups of pupils in England.

The announcement made by the DfE last week that the Teaching Agency and The National College are to merge under the leadership of Charlie Taylor, will mean that for the first time there will be one executive agency responsible for the recruitment, supply and development of both teachers and leaders for schools in England. The new agency (with a name to be determined) will therefore play an important role in ensuring the highest quality of teachers and leaders for our schools.   The purpose of the new agency which will be operational from the end of March this year, is to enable the best leaders and best teachers to work together to develop a self-improving school system and be responsible for the recruitment, supply, initial training and development of teachers. The new agency, will also oversee the development of a cadre of system leaders such as National Leaders of Education (NLE’s), Local Leaders of Education (LLE’s), Specialist Leaders of Education (SLE’s) and Teaching Schools whose remit is to focus on leadership development, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and school improvement to address under performance across the education system. 

This merger provides a golden opportunity to refocus energy on the current gaps in attainment in England by enabling system leaders and teachers to develop the requisite skills, knowledge and understanding to address this key challenge, which permeates within and across schools, thereby contributing to the long tail of underachievement.   

Closing the gaps for different groups of pupils is high on both the DfE and Ofsted’s agenda, with schools being given considerable amounts of additional funding to address the gaps in attainment that exist for pupils who are eligible for free school meals (FSM) through the Pupil Premium[3].  However, although no one disputes the impact that poverty has on attainment which remains a major factor in preventing pupils getting to age related national expectations, there are many other factors such as a pupil’s gender, ethnicity, special educational needs, disability and language background which can and do impact on attainment.  Indeed, for many pupils it is not just poverty alone, as many of these groups tend to have rates of FSM than average, but an amalgamation of these factors or “intersectionality” which impacts on outcomes.  

The new agency will be responsible for recruiting and providing a ready supply of high quality teachers and leaders, with Teaching School Alliances taking on the role of providing high quality professional development. In order to maximise the potential of the teaching workforce it is essential to not only ensure that staff have high levels of knowledge and understanding of the subjects they teach and are able to deliver high quality teaching which impacts on learning and pupil progress, but also it is equally important that they are able to meet the specialist needs of the range of pupils for whom closing the gap remains an issue too.  The acquisition of these specialist teaching skills and in – depth understanding and knowledge of individual needs of a range of pupils should be developed alongside teacher’s subject teaching skills from the outset of their career. Presently, there are many teachers who are able to personalise their teaching so that it impacts on all learners in their class and their teaching is classified as “outstanding”, using Ofsted terminology.  Others however can find this a challenge and feel less confident in meeting the needs of the wide range of pupils who are currently not performing in line with national expectations.   Despite this, they are expected to deliver high quality teaching which impacts on pupil’s learning so that they make faster than average rates of progress in an academic year. In order for them to deliver high quality teaching, specialist demands are made of the teacher for which they may not have received the necessary training, support or professional development opportunities at key points of their teaching career.

Using the example of pupils for whom English is an additional language (EAL). This group has been chosen to illustrate the issue facing some teachers, although this would be equally applicable for other closing the gap pupils such as those with special educational needs, disabilities, the more able, certain minority ethnic pupils, and cutting across gender and socio-economic status too.   

The annual census taken in January 2012 by the DfE showed that there are approximately 1 million pupils whose first language is other than English. The numbers of EAL pupils have more than doubled since 1997 when the first census was taken.  The graph below illustrates the increasing number of EAL pupils in primary and secondary schools in England from 1997-2012.


[1] “How the world’s best performing school systems keep coming out top”, Morshed M and Barber M, McKinsey and Co. 2007
[2] Seven Strong Claims About Successful School Leadership, Leithwood, K., Day, C., Sammons, P., Harris, A. and Hopkins, D, NCSL, 2006.
[3] When the Pupil premium was introduced in April 2011, schools received an additional £488 for each of its pupils eligible for free school meals.  In April 2012 this was increased to £600 with further increases announced for this year taking it to £900, amounting to £1.65 billion in the financial year 2013-2014.  By 2012 the Pupil premium will be worth £2.5 billion of additional money coming into schools.

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Source DfE Census 2012 and NALDIC.
The graph shows that in 1997, the percentage of pupils learning EAL in the primary school population was 7.8%.  Over 15 years this percentage had more than doubled to 17.5% by 2012.  In secondary the figures were 7.3 % in 1997 compared to 12.9% in 2012.  The census also showed a rich tapestry of languages being spoken by EAL pupils in English schools with over 360 different languages being recorded.   The percentages of pupils classifying themselves as EAL of course varies considerably from school to school and LA to LA, with Tower Hamlets and Newham LA’s having the largest recorded at 74% and 71% respectively and other large LA’s such as Birmingham with 40 %. In contrast LA’s such as Halton and Redcar& Cleveland only have 0.8% of EAL pupils. Projected demographics show that the number of EAL pupils in schools will continue to grow at comparable rates over the next decade and beyond.

However, despite the growing number of EAL learners in school there appears to be no clear nor focused strategy at a national level to address EAL learner’s needs at a time when there can be significant attainment differences between pupils for whom English is an additional language and for those who speak English as their first language.  The largest differences between the two are more pronounced at the Early Years Foundation Stage with gaps narrowing to some extent by KS4 as EAL pupils learn the academic English language required to be successful in examinations.  However, it should be noted that there still remain significant differences in attainment with EAL pupils in inner and outer London attaining much better than their peers in other regions such as Yorkshire & Humber where large and persistent gaps in attainment continue to exist.   

One of the ways EAL learner’s needs should be addressed is by ensuring that teachers are better trained so that they have the requisite knowledge, skills and expertise to teach EAL learners. EAL learners are not a homogeneous group and can have a wide variety of needs.  Therefore, it is essential that teachers understand the wide variety of EAL needs and how they can support pupils across all four skills of speaking listening, reading and writing in the lessons they teach, particularly in the academic English required to be successful in examinations.  The challenge for teachers is to keep the cognitive demands of the lesson to high level by providing contextual and linguistic support to the EAL pupils in their class. Many teachers will never have had any training or CPD to support them in teaching EAL pupils over the course of their career and as EAL has not been a subject specialism in teacher training for many years now, access to training can be extremely varied, with some Initial Teacher Trainers (ITT) providers preparing their students very well and others not touching this area at all.   

The above picture is supported by the annual surveys undertaken by the then Teacher Training Agency (TDA) of Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) who had successfully completed their ITT.  Over the years, whilst the training of NQT’s in this area has improved with approximately 45% of NQT’s stating that their training was good or very good in 2011 – more than double that in 2003, there still remain more than half of new entrants to teaching feeling less well equipped in this area. The graph below shows percentage of NQTS who felt there training was good or very good in preparing them to teach EAL learners and minority ethnic pupils from 2003 – 2011.



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Source NALDIC and Training and Development Agency for schools (TDA) survey of Newly Qualified Teachers 2011

With the shift in emphasis from Universities and Colleges of Education to Teaching Schools as providers of ITT via the new Schools Direct Programme, the issues highlighted by the TDA annual survey will need to be closely monitored and addressed.  Teaching Schools will need to ensure that these new school based programmes prepare and equip NQTs better than before so that they are able to teach currently under –performing groups to the highest standard.

The new Teacher Standards 2012 outline the teaching and professional conduct expectations of all teachers.  Many of the teaching standards are implicitly relevant to EAL pupils and other groups of pupils too, but standard 5 explicitly states:

 “A Teacher must ……….

·         have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs; those of high ability; those with English as an additional language; those with disabilities; and be able to use and evaluate distinctive teaching approaches to engage and support them”.


In this context it is essential that we are preparing all our teachers to understand the needs of our closing the gap groups and our diverse pupil population.  Through relevant training and CPD, including Joint Practice Development (JPD), continuing with the example of EAL pupils they can gain in-depth understanding of second language acquisition theory and pedagogy and use appropriate teaching strategies to enhance their own teaching.  This would impact on closing the current gaps in attainment that exist for too many EAL pupils, many of whom are of now of second and third generations of communities settled in England.  

Focusing now on the role of system leaders such as NLE’s, LLE’s and SLE’s who are beginning to drive the development of the self-improving school system.  They too have an important role to play in closing the gaps for different groups of pupils.   These system leaders in their various roles are providing support to other schools.  Many of the schools they are likely to support, albeit not all, have higher concentration of pupils for whom closing the gap remains an issue.  The schools they are supporting may be situated in very geographically different contexts to their own schools with the school community facing a plethora a challenges not experienced by the more successful school. They too should be given the opportunity to develop the specialist skills in addressing the needs of different pupil groups for whom closing the gap is an issue, as they may not have had experience of addressing these pupil needs within their own school context or career due to the nature of their pupil cohorts.  This additional professional development opportunity which could be delivered by Teaching Schools through their existing leadership development programmes such as NPQH, NPQSL, NPQML[1] or alternatively through bespoke programmes which address the needs of under- performing groups of pupils within their locality.  This would no doubt enhance the proven track record and leadership skills these system leaders have already gained in their own schools thus enabling them to be more effective when supporting schools in different contexts.

Many Teaching Schools at the moment are running the “Outstanding Teacher Programme” and the ”Improving Teacher Programme” which are without doubt having an impact on improving the quality of teaching in schools. However, these programmes could be even more effective if teachers on these programmes were able to develop the specialist skills required to address the needs of closing the gaps groups alongside generic high quality subject skills.  This would mean that teachers were better prepared to teach the actual pupils in their classes and the communities their schools serve. In the case of The London Challenge where these courses were first developed and delivered, there was some flexibility to adapt these courses to meet a variety of needs on this basis.

These are exciting and opportune times to make educational changes for the better and if the self-improving school system is to impact on current gaps in attainment not only in terms of EAL pupils but other underperforming groups too, then the new agency has the opportunity to take proactive action to address these areas in an ambitious way by incorporating the suggestions above into all aspects of the new agencies work.   This would ensure that the new agency was preparing its teachers and leaders for the current and future needs of its pupils and by doing so realising the ambition of raising standards of attainment across the board.

[1] The newly revamped NPQH, NPQSL and NPQML does give aspiring leaders the opportunity to study modules on Closing the Gaps and Achievement for All.  However, it is only the NPQSL where the Closing the Gap module is essential.
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PUPILS NOT CLAIMING FREE SCHOOL MEALS  -  IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOLS AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES

19/1/2013

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The Pupil Premium is a valuable additional resource given to schools for each pupil on their school roll who is eligible for free school meals (FSM), looked after children and those from families with armed forces.  The Pupil Premium is directly linked to eligibility for free schools meals, which is used as a proxy indicator for determining disadvantage.

The Pupil Premium is aimed at addressing the current underlying inequalities that continues to plague outcomes for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in England.  When the Pupil Premium was introduced in April 2011 schools received an additional £488 for each of its pupils eligible for free school meals.  In April 2012 this was increased to £600, and further increases this year have already been announced so that it is now worth £900, amounting to £1.65 billion in the financial year 2013-2014.  By 2015 the Pupil Premium will be worth £2.5 billion of additional money coming into schools, which in these austere times is a considerable amount of money and  if used effectively could close the gaps in attainment and go quite a way to transform many young people’s educational outcomes and life chances.  


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In September 2012 Ofsted conducted a survey of 262 school leaders to seek their views on the Pupil Premium and to find out how it was being used and the impact this resource was having on pupil outcomes. The report was called The Pupil Premium: How schools are using the Pupil Premium funding to raise achievement for disadvantaged pupils.  As part of its many recommendations Ofsted stated:

“Schools should continue to seek ways to encourage parents and carers to apply for free school meals where pride, stigma or changing circumstances act as barriers to its take-up”.

However, this important recommendation seemed to have got lost in the discussions and focus on how the pupil premium should be used to ensure maximum impact.   In addition, although this report made this recommendation it did not actually identify how many pupils who were eligible for free school meals and were currently taking it up, which areas of England this may be an issue for nor the characteristics of the type of pupils who this may apply to. Therefore, a recent report published by the DfE has revealed some interesting information with regards to estimates and proportions of pupils not claiming free school meals even though they are entitled to it.  

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The researchers Samaira Iniesta-Martinez & Helen Evans in the DfE Research Report called Pupils not claiming free school meals published in November 2012, used data from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Tax Credits and Benefits data alongside School Census data published by the DfE.  The researchers used School Census data to look at the patterns of pupils actually claiming FSM which they call the registration rate and how this varies by age, region and LA, and they were able to estimate the likely number of pupils who were not claiming free school meals but were likely to be eligible.  The report also provides valuable information on the likely characteristics of pupil’s not claiming FSM.

From their analysis they estimate that around 200,000 pupils which is 3% of all pupils aged between 4-15 years old in maintained schools are not claiming FSM even though they appear to be entitled.  They derive this figure by comparing the number and percentage of pupils who are registered to claim FSM from the School Census data in 2011- 2012 which was 1.2 million pupils or 18% of 4-15 year old pupils against the benefits data from HMRC which suggests that around 1.4 million pupils  or 21% of pupil

The report also highlights variations in the age profile of pupils claiming FSM with younger pupils more likely to be entitled to claim FSM compared to older pupils (25 % of 5 years olds compared to 18% of 15 year olds), with the proportion of those not claiming FSM being the same across both primary and secondary.

Interestingly, they also found wide variations across regions with the following LA’s showing full registration rates for FSM eligibility:   

  • Birmingham 
  • Bolton 
  • Darlington 
  • Halton
  • Hartlepool 
  • Islington
  • Middlesbrough 
  • Newham
  • Plymouth 
  • Stockton-on-Tees 
  • Stoke-on-Trent 
  • Sunderland 
  • Tower Hamlets
  • Wigan

In comparison, the following 10 LA’s had the highest non-registration rates:


  • Bournemouth 29%                                                            
  • Buckinghamshire 33%                           
  • Richmond upon Thames 33%      
  • Suffolk 32%                                                             
  • Surrey 32%                                                             
  • Bath and North East Somerset 31%                                              
  • Bromley 30%                                                                    
  • Poole 30%                                                              
  • Milton Keynes 30%                                                  
  • Bracknell Forest 30%                                                                                                                             

The research report also provides a useful checklist of pupil characteristics, not directly linked to FSM but which lead to a lower likelihood of claiming FSM, after other characteristics have been taken into account.  These are pupils:

  • living in a less deprived area;
  • attending schools with a lower school FSM rate;
  • from families with higher status occupations (i.e. professional rather than routine occupations);
  • living in a family with higher parental qualifications; and
  • of Chinese ethnic origin.

They also point out that there is some evidence to suggest that families entitled to FSM while in some part-time work are less likely to claim FSM than those on out-of-work benefits.

Ofsted in its report, last September stated that:

“The average amount of Pupil Premium funding received by all schools nationally in 2011–12 was £30,940 and the median was £19,520.[1] An average-sized secondary school with the average proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals would have received around £77,000. An average-sized primary school with the average proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals would have received around £23,000. The average amount of Pupil Premium funding received by the schools who answered additional questions on HMI-led inspections was £49,056, and the median was £38,052.”

Bearing in mind the increased figures for this year and forthcoming years involved in the Pupil Premium, schools and LA are advised to read this valuable DfE report, consider the implications for their area and develop a strategy based on their analysis and need, to ensure that all the pupils who are eligible for free school meals are actually benefiting from it and more importantly that this resource is used so that it has  maximum impact for these pupils.  Colleagues may wish to read an earlier post Effective classroom strategies for closing the gap in educational achievement for children and young people living in poverty, including white working-class boys on this blog, as well as read futur
e blogs which will focus on this area.
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How can we change people's behaviour for the better?

12/1/2013

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One of the many skills highly effective teachers have is making their teaching fun and engaging, so that more of their students are actively involved in their learning and make better progress.  This raises an interesting question for me - How can a teacher change pupil's behaviour for the better so they are actively engaged in their learning for longer and hence make better progress?   This reminded me of the campaign Volkswagon launched a few years ago, which they called  thefuntheory.com  The primary purpose of  thefuntheory.com was to use innovative ways of thinking and practice to change human behaviour for the better by making it fun to do.  Three examples of the way they did this was through the Piano Staircase, The World's Deepest Bin and the Bottle Bank Arcade.   I am sharing the Piano Staircase video below but the other two are readily available on YouTube should you wish to view them too.  
I would be interested in hearing from fellow teachers and staff working in schools who either already use fun and interactive teaching to change pupil's behaviour for the better, or can share new ideas and possibilities.  I suspect pupils would be able to come up with a valuable and interesting list of suggestions for us to consider.

I suppose the real challenge is how you can change behaviour for the better, so that it becomes the norm and in the case of teaching impacts on learning so that pupil's progress at a faster rate.   In the above example of the Piano Staircase 66% more people took the stairs instead of the escalator.  However, I personally would like to know if this high figure remained the same after the novelty of using the piano staircase had worn off or whether it was maintained over time because the challenge for teachers would be to maintain the fun factor but at the same time establish this as common practice!  

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Closing the Gender Gap - Act Now

7/1/2013

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“Gender equality is not just about economic empowerment. It is a moral imperative. It is about fairness and equity and includes many political, social and cultural dimensions. It is also a key factor in self-reported well-being and happiness across the world. Many countries worldwide have made significant progress towards gender equality in education in recent decades. Girls today outperform boys in some areas of education and are less likely to drop out of school. But the glass is still only half full: women continue to earn less than men, are less likely to make it to the top of the career ladder, and are more likely to spend their final years in poverty”

The Gender Gap - Act Now, OECD, Dec 2012.
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Just a few weeks ago the OECD released a detailed report called Closing the Gender Gap - Act Now”.  The report covers four key areas of gender inequalities ranging from general public policy, employment and entrepreneurship along with education.  The three key areas provide a holistic overview of gender inequalities affect many facets of life with education being one of these.  The report is fascinating and it provides a wealth of information on the issues affecting gender in education, along with proposals made by the OECD to policy makers to overcome them.

The key findings will no doubt be familiar to many, such as the fact that boys are more likely to drop out of secondary education, which results in young women becoming increasingly better educated than young men in many OECD countries.   It has also been well documented that:

  • Boys lag behind girls at the end of compulsory education in reading skills, by the equivalent of a year’s schooling on average. 
  • Boys are also far less likely to spend time in reading for pleasure.  
  • In contrast, although boys perform better in mathematics, the gender gap is narrower than in reading.    
  • There remain high disparities in the choice of subject to study, with girls still less likely to choose scientific and technological fields of study,
  • Even when girls chose these subjects they are less likely to take up careers in those fields which leaves major implications for the potential career and earning prospects for women in the world of work.

The report argues that a major explanatory factor in these gender disparities is due to differences in attitudes. In order to address these disparities they outline key policy messages for governments to note such as getting “girls more interested in mathematics and science and boys more interested in reading in OECD countries, for example, by removing the gender bias in curricula and raising awareness of the likely consequences of male and female choices of fields of study in their careers and earnings”.   They also suggest the use of apprenticeships to encourage women who have completed their science technology and mathematics (STEM) studies to work in scientific fields. 

Focusing on the role of educational aspirations which are formed in early life, the report recommends that more attention should be devoted to changing gender stereotypes and attitudes at a young age. It outlines how gender stereotyping takes place in subtle ways at home, in schools, and in society and the messages children and young people form when:
  • they have primarily women teachers in primary schools and male science teachers in secondary, 
  • text books which perpetuate gender stereotypes and
  • how teachers themselves can perpetuate their beliefs about girl’s and boy’s abilities in particular subjects.  

Although these points relate to what happens at the school, the report recognises the fact that attitudes are also crucially determined by what happens at home.  This highlights the important fact that whatever teachers do in school they also have to consider how wider societal and family issues can affect outcomes in schools and any strategy to address these gender disparities should also focus on changing attitudes within the context of what goes on at home.

Due to the nature of this posting I have only focused on a few issues highlighted in the report.  For those of you wishing to read the full report it is available here.


“To reap the highest economic and social return on education investment, therefore, it is important to find out just why there are gender differences in attitudes towards reading and mathematics, then to discover ways to reverse the imbalance.”

The Gender Gap - Act Now, OECD,  Dec 2012.

Boys Reading

The OECD report focused on many issues affecting gender inequalities in education across the world.  Moving closer to home the issue of boy’s reading in particular persistently remains an area of priority for most schools in England and the UK.  The All Party Parliamentary Literacy Group Boys' Reading Commission working jointly with the National Literacy Trust found that ”three out of four (76%) UK schools are concerned about boys’ underachievement in reading despite no Government strategy to address the issue”. 

The commission published a report in July 2012 this year.  In it they reveal that the “reading gender gap” is widening and says action needs to be taken in homes, schools and communities.  The reading commission report provides a comprehensive overview of the issues, with evidence coming from three sources, including a survey of young people themselves.  What will be particularly useful to schools and colleagues interested in closing the gender gaps in reading is that it also provides plenty of practical solutions of how boy’s literacy has been successfully supported by schools, thereby providing those of you wishing to address these issues with practical strategies of “what works” to implement in your own schools or classroom contexts.

Links to the National Literacy Trust page on the Boy’s Reading Commission, which includes the report along with other relevant papers are available here.

Please note that any of the views expressed above are mine alone and not necessarily those of the OECD or The National Literacy Trust.
Equitable Education is available to provide specialist consultancy to schools in closing the gender gaps in education.
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How Canada is closing the achievement gap 

4/1/2013

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A couple of years ago I led a Teacher’s International Professional Development (TIPD) visit to Ontario, Canada to look at best practice in meeting the needs of its diverse communities.  I was accompanied by eleven other colleagues from three secondary schools and four primary schools in Leeds with a high percentage of Pakistani heritage pupils.  We wanted to find out more about what it was they did in Ontario to close the achievement gap for its diverse communities,with a particular focus on Pakistani heritage pupils. We were there for a week and were lucky enough to visit both primary and secondary schools run by Peel District Education Board (PDEB ) headed by Tony Pontes who is their Director of Education.  Tony was born in Portugal and moved to Canada as a child when his family migrated there.  Amongst his enviable record in education and leadership skills, he also has the empathy and understanding with his personal experience of having been an English Language Learner (ELL) the equivalent of our English as an additional language (EAL) learner here in England.  PDEB covers the municipal areas of Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon which are just outside of Toronto.


I was, therefore, interested in watching this video “How Canada is closing the achievement gap” released by Edutopia in 2012. 
Two general points really struck me - one was the fact that children and young people generally were not required to wear uniforms and were dressed very informally, with many of them being allowed to eat and drink even in lessons.  This seems to support the findings of the Sutton Trust - Education Endowment Fund, Teaching & Learning Toolkit 2012, which states that “There is no robust evidence that introducing a school uniform will improve academic performance, behaviour or attendance”.  Despite the informality, the whole atmosphere in classrooms and around school was one of respect for adults and other students.  Interestingly the pace of teaching was quite slow compared to the expectations made of teachers here in England.  Despite this slow pace students generally behaved well with very little if any behaviour issues seen. The major difference we saw was the role of the PDEB which has much more power over its schools than Local Authorities have here in England.  Generally the District Education Board is responsible for the overall strategic direction and values which it wishes its schools to follow and all schools are expected to implement these.  Even the hiring and deployment of teachers is a task that is undertaken by the District Education Board with Principals, as well as teachers moving schools when required. Although Principals do have a role to play in appointment of teachers they are not the final decision makers of which teachers are appointed.  I can’t see many Heads in England agreeing to the LA choosing their teachers today!  Each school also has a superintendent – the equivalent of our Advisers.  All these functions seem very familiar to the role of the old Local Education Authorities we had here in England when I first started teaching and raises interesting points to consider within the present context of the diminishing role of LA’s! 

I have just touched on a just a few of my own personal observations and impressions from my visit.  Colleagues interested in finding out more about Ontario’s education system and the reasons why it is one of the most successful may wish to read the attached
OECD publication “Ontario, Canada: Reform to Support High Achievement in a Diverse Context” which is available to download below.
oecd_ontario_canada_reform_to_support_high_achievement_in_a_diverse_context.pdf
File Size: 314 kb
File Type: pdf
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Pupil Premium

3/1/2013

1 Comment

 
Many of you will be aware that the Pupil Premium is an additional amount of money given on an individual basis to schools for pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) and for pupils in care who have been continuously looked after for six months.  This year the amount has increased from £488 given last year to £600 and it will continue to increase in future years.   The DfE also made an announcement in November 2012 that secondary schools “will receive an additional premium of £500 for each Year 7 pupil who has not achieved at least level 4 in reading and/or maths (maximum £500 per pupil) at Key Stage 2. The premium will be available to all state-funded schools with a Year 7 cohort, including PRUs and special schools”.   

It is worth remembering that pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) covers a wide range of pupils, with many, especially pupils with SEND and some minority ethnic pupils having higher rates of eligibility for FSM.  Therefore, schools should consider how this valuable resource can be used the most effectively when considering the multiple needs or intersectionality of pupils who come under the category of being eligible for free school meals.   The DfE has provided evidence and guidance notes to schools to assist them in the use of the Pupil Premium.  These are available here.  The DfE has also provided additional guidance for the use of the Year 7 Pupil Premium for pupils who did not achieve a level 4 in reading and/or maths at Key stage 2 “. This is available here.

Just a reminder that although the pupil premium is not ring-fenced, schools are expected to publish on-line though their school website details of how much Pupil Premium they have been allocated, how they plan to use it in the current year along with an account of how last year’s was spent.  Most schools have included this information on their websites.  What is less evident is the impact the Pupil Premium has had on the educational attainment of eligible pupils.   It is also worth noting that schools are expected to publish this information on a school academic year rather than the financial year in which it is allocated, so it will require some calculation of amounts of funding per academic year.  



If schools require any information on the points raised in this post or on how they can use the Pupil Premium most effectively to ensure impact on attainment based on the needs of eligible pupils in their schools, please contact Equitable Education on [email protected]
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    Equitable Education's blog keeps you updated with the latest news and developments in closing the gaps in education.  We regularly share best practice materials and case studies of proven strategies to close the education gaps, along with the latest research from the UK and internationally.

    The blog is written by Sameena Choudry and the views are entirely her own or of her co-authors when written with colleagues.

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