Cae Top Primary School

Pupil Learning Communities and the School Effectiveness Framework (SEF):

Perhaps the most exciting part of the SEF work at Cae Top was the creation of a children’s effectiveness group. Having trialled the concept at the school initially, it was expanded to include another four schools, which established groups that included pupils from a cross-section of abilities and social backgrounds.

The children’s effectiveness group was tasked with looking at the children’s version of the School Effectiveness Framework and discussing each aspect outlined on the SEF ‘pizza’ diagram. Each school was visited to kick start work with the children, asking ‘why is your school an effective school?’ and ‘how are we going to make an effective school more effective?’

Pupils understood they would be helping to look at ways to make their school more effective, that all of their voices would be heard and respected, but that their schools may not be able to meet all of their requests! Instantly noticeable was how very positive all pupils were about their schools.

Cae Top’s Pupil Learning Community

Pupils were split into pairs and asked to choose an aspect of the ‘pizza’ to focus on. Having shared the elements of the SEF among the group, they set to work, with no guidance other than the knowledge of how to go about gathering data (such as questioning fellow pupils, dinner ladies, parents and governors etc)! Two weeks later they came back together, before the school’s inspection team, to give their feedback. The majority of the observations made were positive, but the group also had some suggestions:

• The home-school agreement and the reasons behind its existence were thought to be unclear; and so the school set about simplifying it.
• The way reports were handled at end of year (sealed for parents) was unpopular; and so the school set about reviewing the whole procedure for reports, aiming to create a ‘feel good’ factor and child friendly design. This system received very positive feedback from fellow head teachers and has now been implemented in other schools.

Feedback from parents about the new, pupil friendly reports has been fantastic; the new format seems to have engaged parents who had previously been difficult to reach, as well as more active parents who liked their children being involved in the process, and the fact that their children felt proud rather than fearful at report time.

Inter-school Pupil Learning Community

Pupil teams from each of the schools in the PLC group were brought together at Cae Top in the summer term to share good practice, make new friends and have fun. Each team gave a PowerPoint presentation on the SEF work in their school. They were then mixed into five different groups to tour the school and discuss the two key questions: ‘what makes an effective school?’ and ‘how can we make an effective school more effective?’ The different ways schools had gone about the implementation of the SEF sparked some interesting discussions.

Cae Top Teaching and Learning Pupil Learning Community

The pupil group was tasked with looking specifically at Teaching and Learning within the school. The group walked through the school, focusing on teacher- pupil relationships (and looking for the ‘Buzz’ and ‘X factor’!) They considered the question: ‘What makes a child wake up in the morning and be excited to go to class?’ Some teachers were initially a little intimidated, but ultimately it proved a very positive experience for everyone, with all staff fully on board. The pupils really enjoyed the experience and their work was validated when staff took heed of their input. One example was where a group of children reported they didn’t think their ideas were appreciated in class. The reason behind this was where the teacher would listen to only a few responses in a class full of waving hands, many pupils felt their opinions were not valued. The staff responded with conscious efforts to move to more pupil centred activities, incorporating regular paired and group discussion, and the Senteo voting system on Smartboard. Pupils are now working with two elected governors to move their ideas forward; this includes gaining greater variation in the after school clubs on offer, which are currently mostly sports based.

Governing Body PLC

Introducing the School Effectiveness Profile (SEP) to the management PLC and presenting ideas about SEF to the staff and governors at Ysgol Dewi Sant, led to governors from both schools asking to meet to discuss ways to improve effectiveness. Both governing bodies have visited each other’s school and are undertaking joint work looking at the SEP and (Common Inspection Framework) CIF, to see how it’s possible for governors to assist school management to implement the new self-evaluation system.