The current cost of living crisis and the impact it is possibly having on you and your staff cannot be ignored.  The squeeze on the costs and standards of living is being felt by all and, for some, difficult choices are being made about food and heating, and reliance on food banks is increasing.

The impact can also stretch more widely than an individual’s financial health.  Overall wellbeing is impacted when choices have to be made about the activities people engage in to help them relax and unwind such as gym membership, trips to the cinema and meals out.

The overall wellbeing of your staff is important, not only because you care but because it will impact on their ability to deliver their role successfully.

This comes at the same time as school budgets being squeezed and our ability to increase pay or offer additional benefits is limited.

We may also see the impact of this through staff attending work when they aren’t well enough to do so as they cannot afford unpaid days.  Or more staff taking on a second job. 

So, what can you do? Talking about someone’s personal financial circumstances is often seen as a taboo subject, not one we would ask someone about and not always easy for an individual to raise with their employer.  As a leader, offering space for someone to talk confidentially is a good place to start.  We are not expected to be financial experts or to be able to solve problems, but we can be the person to signpost someone to the right support and resources. 

There are a wide range of resources available and here are just a few for you to consider;

Did you know we have partnered with Wesleyan Financial Services? Wesleyan can run financial wellbeing surgeries on your school site covering a number of financial topics: Wesleyan Financial Services.

If you have a school Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), they will likely include support to an employee on finances and debt. You may have signed up to a specific EAP service or have access to one through your absence insurance. Here you can find details of EAP providers: HR wellbeing - Employee Assistance Programme. HFL Education are procuring a new EAP offer for schools for the Spring term. Promoting any service you have through staff meetings, noticeboards and email is important to make sure everyone is aware of what they can access. This gives everyone access to the information discreetly and sensitively, without them having to ask for help.

Other avenues of support that could be highlighted to staff;

Hertfordshire County Council: Help to manage the cost of living

Citizens Advice

National Debtline: Debt advice

StepChange Debt Charity: Free expert debt advice

MoneyHelper: Free and impartial help with money, backed by the government

Money Saving Expert: Energy help, credit cards, flight delays, shopping and more

Gov.UK: Benefits calculators

Work with your staff to see if they have ideas for reducing costs, could you have a car share scheme to save on transport costs? Could you buy into an employee reward scheme where employees get discounts or cashback, for example Hertfordshire Grid for Learning: Staff benefits: Herts Rewards

Showing that you are aware and acknowledging the position many find themselves in is a very positive step.  Making sure staff know about support available allows them to engage with it at an earlier stage and make decisions for themselves.

What is reading fluency?

At HFL Education, we have been rather obsessed with shouting loudly about the benefits of pedagogical approaches for reading fluency for quite some time. Take a look at this blog from 2016. We don’t like to think of a ‘fluent reader’ as a child who has reached ‘lime band’ and is now permitted to access the rich and varied world that literature has to offer. We recognise that fluent reading of literature can happen at all ages and stages. As Kirsten points out, a 3 year old pointing to the lure of the golden arches is fluently reading for their age! The letter m is being beautifully read with appropriate comprehension.

So how ought we define reading fluency? In a document produced by the EEF and in collaboration with HFL Education, reading fluency is defined as being a combination of automaticity, accuracy and prosody. When a child can apply these three components of reading to a text which is appropriately pitched for them, then we might say that they are reading fluently. The hope is that, when a child is able to read fluently, there will be cognitive space for comprehension, as brain power is not being consumed in the act of decoding.

What’s the difference between accuracy and automaticity?

Accurate reading could be defined as being able to correctly decipher the code that is the written English language. We feel it is essential that children have a strong systematic, synthetic phonics start. They need to know the GPCs present in the texts that they’re reading in order to be able to decode the words. When a child reads with good accuracy, we note that they are able to read an appropriately pitched text with few or no mispronunciations, word substitutions or word omissions.

On our HFL Reading Fluency project, we often have teachers talk to us about children like Jai. Jai was in year 5; he had passed his phonics screening check. When reading a text which felt nice and easy for him, for instance a much-loved key stage one picture book or indeed a series of flash cards, Jai could decode with accuracy. However, when asked to read a more complex text, pitched correctly for year 5, all of that phonic knowledge seemed to disappear. Jai’s ability to read with accuracy deteriorated. He started stumbling over words and forgetting to use those strategies of sounding out and blending which he does possess. Jai had a lack of automaticity. We often find, when supporting schools, that children like Jai are given additional support in the form of catch-up phonics. However, we discovered Jai’s accuracy was sound when reading words in isolation; he needed to build his automaticity. He needed to be able to read those words instantaneously, on sight, without overtly sounding out and blending. This would put an end to the stumbling and crunching through words that we were seeing, and the disregard for punctuation. There was simply no cognitive space left to think about how to read with flow and expression as all the space was being consumed in the act of word reading.

How can we support our children like Jai with improving their automaticity? One of the key approaches which we employ on the HFL Reading Fluency project is repeated re-reading. In the act of reading the same text over and over, automaticity, and therefore accuracy improve. We employ strategies to make the repeated re-reading of a chosen text enjoyable and motivational. For instance, asking children to practice and perform a poem really incentivises reading over and over for an authentic purpose. Once they have done this a few times, all the words on that page will be read with automaticity and of course, many of those words appear in other texts.

Prosody

In addition to accuracy and automaticity, prosody is the third component forming the definition of fluency. Prosody is the reader’s use of expression, fluidity, phrasing and musicality. This happens both orally and in the reader’s head. Reading with prosody is clearly an outcome that we could expect our comprehensive readers to demonstrate. However, we have discovered on the HFL Reading Fluency Project that prosody is also a precursor to comprehension. When reading out loud or when reading in our heads, we use the musicality and phrasing in our internal voice to support us with comprehending the text at the point of reading. Applying prosody at the point of reading actually supports us to understand the text. There are various strategies which we employ on the HFL Reading Fluency Project to support children with developing a sense of prosody when reading. These include echo reading, choral reading, and assisted reading. When these are artfully combined with strategies for repeated re-reading, we see really powerful impact on reading achievement in a really short space of time.

Impact

Let’s consider Jai again. A child who perceived himself to be a non-reader. A child who actively avoided participating in reading lessons and one who rarely read for pleasure. As a result of 8 weeks of intervention, where comprehension has been allowed to flourish as fluency developed, Jai was able to leave primary school having reached the expected standard in reading, with a sense of pride and a determination, fully ready for the challenges of key stage three. Jai’s self-esteem improved and his teacher and parents were overjoyed with his newfound enthusiasm for books. We have now worked with over 2000 children, supporting them to achieve all that Jai did. Employing strategies designed to address reading fluency, like those outlined in this blog, will have a huge impact on those children who need it the most.

For recent analysis of our Fluency Project’s qualitative and quantitative data, please see our Reading Fluency project blog. 

To join us on the next round of the project (which is delivered remotely): KS1 (years 2-3) and KS2/3 (years 4-7).

With a wide following in Hertfordshire and beyond, Teach in Herts is the dedicated recruitment platform for the county’s schools, trusts and settings, and lists around 7,000 vacancies every year across four main categories: teaching, leadership, early years and professional & support.

Created as a local authority initiative in 2001 to support teacher recruitment, the site became part of Herts for Learning (now HFL Education) and a new, upgraded version of the site followed in 2015. Over the following years the site has developed a strong brand identity, with a busy events calendar and powerful social media presence. The site now welcomes over 50,000 visitors per month.

Although it was originally created to support teacher recruitment, Teach in Herts aims to be agile and responsive to changes in the employment market and as a result we now help to recruit for all roles involved in the smooth running of educational and childcare settings, with almost 700 employers now using the platform as their primary recruitment resource.

Schools and settings tell us that they get an excellent response to their adverts through Teach in Herts, and really appreciate the advice and guidance provided to support them in the recruitment and selection process, particularly in key areas such as EDI. The site also supports the management of applications, with easy feedback to candidates and a GDPR and safer recruitment compliant online application form that can even be automatically anonymised for shortlisting following our 2020 updates.

As well as online resource, our team deliver specialist recruitment training and contribute to key briefings and strategy groups. We also oversee the HFL Supply Framework to help schools with temporary staffing where needed. In addition, our social media targeting service works as a valuable add-on to promote harder to fill roles, and data shows that this increases the reach by around 53%. We also manage third party agreements with additional advertising platforms such as TES where needed.

Since the start of the COVID pandemic we’ve seen the average number of support roles advertised each month increase by 72% and we’ve recently launched an exciting new #notjustforteachers campaign to try to help schools and settings to meet this increased need.

Whether in the school classroom, with younger children at a day-care setting, in administration, human resources, business or finance, there is a wealth of opportunity for those starting their career or looking to retrain.  Many settings offer term time only contracts, with flexible working hours that make this an ideal sector for those looking to improve their work-life balance or get back to work after a career break. There is also a great training and support network available in the county through HFL and a BAME forum that offers extra support to those from minority backgrounds.

With excellent transport links into London and around the UK, Hertfordshire is not only a great place to live but is also one of the highest performing education authorities in the country, and home to a wide variety of schools and settings from small primaries with mixed year classes, to much larger primary and secondary schools in busier towns. We have a great mix of privately run, maintained and academy settings, as well as specialist faith schools and SEN provisions. It’s a great place to work and we pride ourselves on attracting exceptional individuals to inspire our young people, and support both to the highest level. 

As well as listing vacancies, the Teach in Herts website houses a library of online information and guidance and includes links to teacher training and apprenticeship scheme providers to ensure candidates have access to all the information and resources they need.

The site is easy to use with automatic job alerts and an online application form that can be tailored as needed to suit each vacancy. Candidates have told us that they especially value the facility to research schools and jobs in their chosen area as well as the testimonials from existing staff, which help to illustrate what the job is really like.

Our team organise and attend numerous webinars and events at universities and colleges around the UK, meeting students and talking to them about opportunities in Hertfordshire. For many years we have been fortunate to meet trainee teachers, who later registered and found a job with us.

The highlight is our free, annual Teach in Herts recruitment fair, which is a really popular event and an opportunity for applicants to come and meet schools and settings face to face - we look forward to seeing you!

Rose Ridgeway & Lucy Makins

Within this blog you will discover how to receive a free whole school Explore and Engage Poetry Plan!

An exploration of how to set about planning a poetry sequence:

In preparation for our vocabulary conference, I set about writing a whole school Explore and Engage plan in honour of our opening speaker - Children’s Laureate, Joseph Coelho. To say that I felt overwhelmed was an understatement. How could a mere mortal such as myself do this great author and poet of our time justice? Seriously, I had to breathe deeply every now and then and use mindfulness techniques to convince myself that I knew what I was doing. I only share this with you as some of you might feel the same when it comes to planning poetry for your pupils. Currently, colleagues from quite a few of my schools are keen to get poetry back on the menu as it were, back in the limelight and back where it belongs as a priority and not an after-thought within the scheme of teaching sequences.

My thinking as to the purpose of this blog is to share with you my journey of planning a whole school poetry plan based upon Joseph Coelho’s poems and I have aimed to relay some tips to help you to relax and enjoy the process of planning and teaching poetry.

I was fortunate enough to have experienced Joseph performing one of his poems a few years ago and this was where I sought my initial inspiration. This is the link that I used to re-engage with the poet’s voice, style and skill. I could relate to this poem on a few levels when I heard Joseph perform this and it has stayed with me.

In writing the plan for KS1 and KS2 pupils, I chose to use the following two anthologies:

• Poems Aloud by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Daniel Gray-Barnett
• Overheard in a Tower Block by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Kate Milner

Advice bite 1

Try and forge a personal engagement or relationship with the poem/s you choose for your pupils. If you love the poem, this joy will permeate through your plan and is likely to impact upon the children. Attempt to seek a clip of the poet reciting or performing their poetry. Always have in mind the joy of learning the poem off by heart and how certain lines, refrains and verses might be performed.

Advice bite 2

If you are using a collection or anthology of poems, take time to read them at your leisure, away from work and just absorb them as a reader, not as a teacher. Recognise why you connect with some poems and think about how you might support your pupils to gain that sense of connection.

Advice bite 3

Once you have selected your poems, read them again as a teacher and appreciate that your pupils may come to them from a different perspective than you did. What might be their difference of opinion/view based upon their feelings or experiences? Is your plan open and broad enough to allow for individual interpretations as this is the beauty of poetry teaching and learning? Do you need to plan for real experiences to enable a ‘taste’ for the poem?

Advice bite 4

I think it is important that primary aged children experience the playfulness of poetry as well as be guided through anything within the poem that might trigger an unexpected reaction from them based upon their lived experience. The best poems can be completely playful and inventive, and some might resonate with a child’s lived experience. Be prepared for this and plan how you will manage the children’s opinions and interpretations.

Advice bite 5

Decide if you are planning for a free form interpretation of the poem or if you are going to provide models from the poem for the children to mimic. The latter might be the case when you are using particular poetic forms such as limericks or haikus. It could be that you choose a refrain for the children to build their own version or use a particular verse as a start point.

Advice bite 6

Brush up on poetic terminology if in doubt! I don’t think that we need to labour at ensuring that the children use terms such as refrain or couplet for example, but it can be good to know them, as an upper KS2 teacher. Revise figurative language terminology such as alliteration, personification, simile and metaphor. If some of you feel that these terms are not suitable for your KS1 pupils, try and think of how you can reinforce the learning without using the terminology. Some KS1 teachers I know have said that they have introduced the concept of metaphor without over emphasis on understanding the term and that the children have been able to use this technique in their poems without realising it!

Advice bite 7

I am going to end with lucky number seven! My final thought is…. please enjoy the poems that you choose to teach your children. Absorb them, feel them, and imagine them being interpreted and performed by you and your class. Feel the rhyme, rhythm, or other emphasis that the poet uses and practice how you would read it aloud and perform it. This might even involve some personal rehearsal of movement, actions and even a little dance routine that helps to bring the poem to life for the children. Think carefully about how you will engage the children with the poem and then onto how you will support their exploration of it. Love poetry and value the wealth of vocabulary that it introduces the children to: engage, explore and enjoy!

As teachers and leaders we are well-versed saying we want to provide a ‘broad and balanced’ curriculum for all children in our schools. We want children to experience a rich, engaging, well-planned and sequenced curriculum, that builds in both knowledge and skills. In fact, I’ve yet to meet someone who says they don’t want children to have this. But we also know that there are several hurdles on the way to feeling like we have accomplished this aim;

• the National Curriculum is quite brief in many foundation subjects. For example the requirements for art and design at KS1 and KS2 fit on less than 2 pages, and is made up of just a handful of attainment targets for each key stage (however these statements encapsulate a large amount of knowledge and skill that take time to develop).
• as primary school teachers we teach a wide range of subjects, many of which we may not feel specialist in and as subject leaders we may take on subjects but not feel like ‘an expert’ in the subject/s we lead when we take them on.
• but we know we have a moral imperative to enable all pupils to feel success in their learning. We want to reflect our local context and value the families in our community in the curriculum we offer, whilst also giving pupils experiences beyond their immediate locality.
• we also have the framework in which Ofsted inspect schools. Ofsted’s handbook states that  inspectors will look at ‘… how carefully leaders have thought about what end points the curriculum is building towards… how leaders have broken down the content into components and sequenced that content…’

The full paragraph 211 from the current Ofsted handbook (Sept 2022) is given below.

211. Inspectors will consider the knowledge and skills that pupils will gain at each stage through the school’s curriculum (we call this ‘intent’). They will look at the scope of the curriculum, including how carefully leaders have thought about what end points the curriculum is building towards (with reference to the national curriculum and, where relevant, the EYFS). They will also look at how leaders have broken down the content into components and sequenced that content in a logical progression, systematically and explicitly, for all pupils to acquire the intended knowledge and skills. Inspectors will also consider the rigour of subject-specific planning.

Paragraphs 212 and 213 go on to outline implementation and impact.

Supporting schools to manage these hurdles

Aware of this, HFL Education has developed it’s primary offer to include ‘Beyond the core’ curriculum. HFL has long been known for it’s support for schools and is a respected provider of resources, training and consultancy for primary English, maths, science, languages, computing and assessment. We are expanding this offer to include the rest of the primary foundation subjects and more general subject leadership support.  

We understand that with the National Curriculum for foundation subjects slimmed down and the more recent focus from OFSTED on the coherence of the curriculum, schools have needed to think more deeply about their curriculum offer. We also respect the moral imperative schools feel to have sequences of learning that are well-planned and relevant in all subjects, reflecting and valuing our communities whilst also giving children broad and meaningful experiences.

Knowing that that not all teachers and subject leaders feel like they have the expertise in all the foundation subjects, we will be able to offer subject leadership and subject knowledge support, both in the form of a central training offer and in bespoke consultancy, staff meetings and INSETs for individual schools and MATs. We will also develop our blogs, of which this is the first and our regular newsletters.

Questions schools might want to consider, reflecting on your curriculum:

• which subjects do you feel are (already) well planned and sequenced, so that the learning builds towards defined end points?
• would any subjects benefit from further support, training or consultancy to develop the planning and sequencing, to allow learning to build towards your defined end points?
• which subjects do you feel are well led, with a leader who feels able to provide subject specific support, and evaluate whether provision enables pupils to learn effectively?
• would any leaders benefit from further support, training or consultancy to develop their understanding of subject leadership, evaluation and action planning?
• would teachers benefit from training and CPD to develop their subject knowledge further, to enable them to better understand and sequence key learning?

We are looking forward to exploring the above questions further with teachers, leaders, schools and MATs, as we shape our offer.

Our training flyer for the coming term can be found here:

The courses can also be found here on CPD Hub: Beyond the Core – training for spring 2023

Our ‘beyond the core’ team look forward to championing the foundation subjects – providing support, blogs, training and consultancy to schools and MATs (in Hertfordshire and beyond).

Get in touch: beyondthecore@hfleducation.org

Earlier this year, the ESFA published the academies trust handbook for 2022. There were minimal changes to this however one notable exception was the changing guidance around indemnities, with academy trusts now able to enter into indemnities which are in the normal course of business without seeking approval.

So, what does this mean for Trusts? Firstly, we need to look at what an indemnity is.

The ESFA defines an indemnity as “a contractual agreement of one party (indemnifier) to compensate a loss to the other party (indemnity holder), due to the actions of the indemnitor or any other party. Indemnities are included in agreements usually to offer protection to one party in the agreeing to the contract if one party cannot fulfil their contractual obligations.” 

Essentially, this is about protecting one party (the indemnity holder) against a loss by paying compensation should a specified event happen. For example, schools have building insurance in place to indemnify them against any damage to the building.  The insurer is the indemnifier who will reimburse the school as the indemnity holder. 

An indemnity is written into a contract using something called an ‘indemnity clause’. What is covered will vary and depend on the specifics of each agreement.  

Supplier contracts with indemnities are common within academy trusts. Some examples are: 

• catering contracts 
• utility contracts 
• data-sharing contracts  
• commercial IT and other professional service contracts 

What should schools do? 

Trusts no longer have to obtain consent for the ESFA to enter into contracts with indemnity clauses, however trusts need to be ensure that they continue to obtain legal advice on these contracts and are fully aware of the terms.

It is recommended that trusts:

• Add details of indemnity clauses to the contract registrar
• Give trustees an opportunity to challenge and review these contracts
• Decide whether a contract and any subsequent indemnities are within the normal course of business in which case the school can procure this contract within their own procurement guidelines
• if a contract can be considered ‘novel, contentious, or repercussive’, prior approval from the ESFA is essential. Further guidance can be found in the Academy Trust Handbook - Part 5: Delegated authorities
• when looking at new contracts, it is important to look at details of the indemnity contract and any protection this offers. Does this offer value for money? All the terms and conditions should be considered. It may be that the flexibility offered by a break clause e.g. exiting the contract early may add to the contract costs but this may be advantageous to the business need of the school or trust
• importance of independent legal advice – for contracts with a high value or more unusual clauses it may be advantageous to seek legal advice to ensure the contract is suited to the school’s needs

Issuing contracts with indemnity clauses  

An example is school lettings agreements; a well written contract here will protect the school and their assets.   

Some things to think about here: 

• break clauses may be used here to allow flexibility for either party to terminate a contract early
• a common indemnity clause will ask a hirer to obtain public liability insurance with a minimum indemnity of a sum (agreed with the school) which is enough to cover legal liability for incidents resulting in injuries to persons and/or damage or loss of property

In conclusion: 

All the terms and conditions including indemnity details needs to be considered before deciding whether to agree to the contract terms. If there are any doubts, legal advice should be sought.  

Jackie Wilson and Toni Nichols

When I look back over my career in the education sector, my sleepless nights have either been people or procurement related. I can’t offer any pearls of wisdom to overcome the people induced insomnia but have come to realise that for school leaders and business management professionals, there is a solution to procurement stress: frameworks.

In an unprecedented era when the pressure on school budgets is unrelenting, frameworks provide the option to invest precious resources elsewhere. We are a public body and are therefore bound by the requirement that our procurements must achieve “the best mix of quality and effectiveness for the least outlay over the period of use of the goods or services bought”. I see our role as adding value to the schools, settings and trusts that choose to work with us by procuring the best-in-class products at the most competitive prices by using our position as an aggregator. In short, we do the extensive legwork, enabling you to invest your time and efforts where it really matters. This means no more stress around the risk of delays, litigation or poor outcomes.

As we approach a new school year, school leaders will need to generate efficiencies to pay the utility bills and to meet the costs of staff pay increases. We all know that most efficiencies have been realised and the reality is that schools will need to do more with less. Having a contract register from which to base future procurement is not going to bridge the gap in budgets resulting from rocketing energy bills and pay awards, but it may enable you to realise some savings by accessing the products you identify as best-fit.

The HFL Education Multi-Supplier MIS Framework is a great example. Our framework enables schools, settings and trusts to procure licenses for Arbor, Bromcom and ScholarPack at up to a 35% discount. We have used our position as an aggregator to drive the best possible deal with these key MIS providers. In addition, schools, settings and trusts can save at least 4 months in procurement time compared to running an open procedure with a fraction of the work and staff time to complete a procurement. Finally, the icing on the cake is that the procurement risk is borne by HFL Education. Schools, settings and trusts can ask HFL Education to call-down on the Framework on their behalf, safe in the knowledge that it is a fully-compliant Public Framework.

Attention to detail is key, when considering options, ensure you are comparing apples with apples.

The inflationary increases that will be applied between contract years is an area of detail often overlooked. Inflation plus a couple of % is a standard clause in many contracts and with inflation running so low for so long, hasn’t been a factor for so many. However, schools, settings and trusts may be looking at a 12% increase in licence costs this year if inflation stays where it is. This is the detail that matters and the that expert organisations will look to secure the best deals for schools, settings and trusts in.  look at inflation between contract years to ensure you are getting the very best deal.

When I started my career in education, procurements needed to be run at Local Authority or school level because be-spoking software to user needs was seen as essential. The world has moved on, and we all now accept that tweaking our processes to adapt to off-the-shelf products is a far more efficient and effective way of operating. The recognition that off-the-shelf is the right path has made the traditional procurement route for licences for software, largely redundant. Why reinvent the wheel when you can leverage better value and save time and risk by choosing a compliant Framework? The market has matured with expert Public Bodies able to offer scale to vendors through national procurements that makes offering great terms easy.

We all recognise just how tough this year will be for school leaders and business management professionals financially. With around 75% of school budgets committed to staffing, realising efficiencies in operating costs is essential. There are inflation-busting deals to be had out there, like the HFL Education MIS Framework. Holding a Contract Register and shopping around for the best Framework deals in good time is one way to stretch your operating cost budget further. Sleepless nights over, stretch don’t stress!

If you are considering changing your MIS and would like to speak with us further about our MIS Framework, please email us at misframework@hfleducation.org or visit HFL Education: Multi-supplier MIS framework.

(Updated for 2022/23 - originally published in 2021/22)

Key Stage 2 SATs return this summer, after a 2-year hiatus, and with them have also returned a steady stream of queries regarding children for whom English is an additional language. The queries tend to fall into these three categories:

• do the children need to take the tests?
• what support can we provide?
• how will it affect our data?

I will address all of these aspects within this blog.

Firstly, though, let’s just define what we mean by ‘EAL’. According to the DfE, “A pupil is recorded as having English as an additional language if she/he is exposed to a language at home that is known or believed to be other than English. It is not a measure of English language proficiency or a good proxy for recent immigration.” In the Spring 2018 census, 36% of EAL learners were assessed as being fluent in English, with a further 25% assessed as competent.

In other words, the ‘EAL’ label covers the complete spectrum, from the fluently multilingual (including fluent in English) to those with no knowledge of the English language as yet. It includes pupils who have lived most or all of their lives in this country and it includes the very recently arrived.

It is worth reminding ourselves, therefore, that many EAL learners will not require any access arrangements to be able to fulfil their potential in the KS2 SATs, whilst others may require significant support.

It is important that the support put in place is matched to the needs of the individual child. There is no one-size-fits-all approach here.

And so to the three areas of frequently asked questions.

Do the children need to take the tests?

If any child is unable to access a test because they are working at too low a standard to be able to score any marks (even with appropriate access arrangements in place) then they should not be entered into the test. You would record this on the test attendance register with the code B.

NB the DfE guidance (section 6.1 of the Assessment & Reporting Arrangements) states that ‘The tests are designed for pupils who … are working at the overall standard of the tests’. This is not to be confused with ‘working at the expected standard’. The language is slightly ambiguous, but what is meant is that if you anticipate that a child would be able to score at least 2 or 3 marks on the test, they should be entered. Only those children who you would not expect to be able to score any marks at all (or perhaps just 1 mark) should be classified as ‘working below the standard of the tests’ (code B). In such circumstances, you are required to submit a teacher assessment, made using either the Pre-Key Stage Standards or (for children with severe SEND, not yet engaged in subject-specific learning) the Engagement Model. (NB it is extremely unlikely that any child for whom the Engagement Model is appropriate would be learning within a mainstream setting.)

Code B would apply to any EAL children for the reading test (and probably also grammar/ punctuation/ spelling) if their level of understanding of the English language is not yet at a stage where they can access the language of these tests.  But it might not apply to maths – if a child’s level of understanding of maths (assessed using their first language) is at an age-appropriate standard, then they are not working below the standard of the test in this subject. They should be entered into the maths test, with appropriate access arrangements where necessary – see below.

There is also the possibility, where a child has very recently arrived in your school and you have not yet been able to access the appropriate language support to be able to ascertain their level of competence in maths, that you don’t enter the child into the tests and record this using code J, which means “Pupils whose performance cannot be established because they have just arrived in school” (see section 6.2 of the Assessment & Reporting Arrangements).

Furthermore, you might have the situation where you have been able to establish that a child is competent in maths when questions are asked in their first language, but you are unable to access any appropriate language support (such as a translator) for the mathematics reasoning papers, meaning they will not able not to access these papers. You would not enter the child in this scenario. This would be recorded using the code U (“Pupils working at the standard of the tests but who are unable to access them”). This would not be ideal though. A better way forward would be for the right support to be put in place to enable the child to take the test, which I go on to explore below.

(A quick aside about not entering children into the tests for any of the above reasons – people sometimes use the word ‘disapply’ in this context. This is not the correct term. There is in fact no such thing as disapplication from the tests, strictly speaking.)

What support can we provide?

As stated above, every case is different and the support provided needs to be the right match for the child’s needs. It should also be ‘normal classroom practice’ for such support to be provided to enable the child to access the curriculum and should never create an unfair advantage.

Please note, the reading test and the grammar, punctuation and spelling test must be conducted in the English language. No translation is permitted, except for directions or instructions that are not part of the test questions.

In the context of the maths test, there are various options that you could put in place, depending on what is most appropriate to the needs to the child and what is normal classroom practice. These could include:

• a translator who orally translates the questions where necessary (this scenario is counted as ‘use of a reader’)
• a translator who prepares a written translation of the questions where necessary
• the child speaks their answer in their first language and the translator writes the answer for them in English - this is counted as ‘use of a scribe’
• the child writes their answer in their first language and the translator provides a written translation – this is counted as ‘use of a transcript’

For more details on any of these options (including what you must notify the STA) see the Key Stage 2 Access Arrangements Guidance.

Adults working with children during the KS2 tests must also adhere to the KS2 Test Administration Guidance. For example, they should take care, if providing a translation of a mathematical word, not to explain the word, as the child’s understanding of the meaning of the mathematical words is part of what is being assessed. Adults should also not read out mathematical symbols.  

Please note, a translator cannot be related to the child for whom they are translating. 

In the case of preparing a written translation, schools are automatically allowed to open the test papers up to one hour before the test will be taken for such purposes as this (subject to appropriate test security). If a translator is likely to need more than that one hour, then apply for early opening of the test papers via the Primary Assessment Gateway. (NB the deadline for these applications is Friday 10th March 2023.)

How will it affect our data?

Well, in the case of attainment data, any child not achieving the Expected Standard will count against you in your percentages, whether they have been entered into the test (and not scored enough marks) or not been entered. (The ‘average scaled score’ reported for your school would be affected though, as this average is based only on those children who achieved a scaled score.)

In terms of the progress data, if the children were not in the country at KS1, they won’t form part of the progress calculation anyway. If they were in the country and have KS1 data, then progress scores will be calculated for them. Where children are working below the standard of the test and Pre-Key Stage Standards are submitted, these are used in the progress calculation. (Scores are allocated to each PKS standard for this purpose: PK6 = 79 points, PK5 = 76 points, and so on, dropping by 3 each time.)

After all tests have taken place, in the following September, there is a process by which Headteachers can apply to remove recently arrived EAL learners from the validated (published) data. This is the DfE’s ‘Tables Checking Exercise’ . This allows you to apply to remove a child from the published data provided that child:

• arrived from overseas and was admitted into an English school for the first time within the final two years of KS2 (i.e. Y5 or Y6); and
• came from a country that does not list English as one of its official languages; and
• has English as an additional language (or doesn’t speak English at all)

The initial (unvalidated) data release in ‘Analyse School Performance’ (ASP) and in the Inspection Data Summary Report (IDSR) would include the results of all Year 6 children, but the later (validated) release of ASP and IDSR ought to reflect any changes made in the Tables Checking exercise. 

ASP does of course (in the detailed tables) show the data for ‘Non-mobile’ pupils (i.e. filtering out those pupils who joined the school during Y5 or Y6) - so this can be used to demonstrate the outcomes for the pupils who have been in the school for at least 2 years.  The interactive elements of ASP (and the FFT Aspire tool) also allow for filtering data based on named pupils, so it becomes relatively easy to discover what the school data would look like if particular individual pupils had not joined the cohort. This could be useful, for example, when discussing school performance with governors, as a means to demonstrate the school’s effectiveness with the children who have been on roll the longest. However, it should never be used as a means to excuse poorer outcomes for particular children. Whilst we might want to explore our school data in different hypothetical scenarios, we must always be driven by the desire for every child to achieve the best they possibly can, particularly when those children are vulnerable or facing challenges.

Spring may not be quite sprung yet (or anytime particularly soon), but as we move into this new term, it is a good time for Year 2 and 6 teachers to reflect and take stock of the progress our pupils are making towards their summer statutory assessment goals. That makes it also a good time for Ben and me to cast our mind back to last summer’s moderations and share some of the key observations from successful visits.  

Summer 22 saw us brushing off our moderation teams and getting back out into schools for the first time after the pandemic hiatus. It is always a pleasure to spend time looking at the wonderful journeys that pupils have been on, and last year that was additionally so due to the fantastic work that teachers have been doing in helping pupils get back on track and achieve despite the challenges to their learning over the previous two years. 

Throughout the 2021/22 year, most of the schools we spoke to were predicting that their percentages of pupils achieving the expected and greater depth standards were likely to be lower than pre-pandemic. All the efforts for catch-up and addressing gaps were fantastic and successful, but with so much missed or not secured, there was a limit to what was achievable in a year when covid was still affecting attendance. For Year 2 pupils, the disruption to their Reception and Year 1 had substantial implications across the curriculum as did the big chunk of Key Stage 2 for our Year 6 pupils. At times it felt as though we all needed to channel our inner Stoic and accept what ‘is’ and where we were, rather than wishing for what could or ‘should’ have been in a world of no lockdowns or absences. It came as no surprise then, that when we collated and looked across the Herts data, the impact of the last few years was clear:

We know that we are advised not to make comparisons between 2019 and 2022 data but we can certainly see the difference that lockdown learning had on our pupils securing their key stage knowledge and skills.

Without wanting to sound overly pessimistic, it is probably realistic to say that the situation is not going to magically be better this year, particularly in Key Stage 2. End of key stage assessment assesses entirely that - the whole key stage - and for our Year 6 pupils, there were two years of disruption and absences whose effects can still be seen. In recent Year 6 writing clusters, we noticed that many of the common issues being raised related to curriculum content from Years 3 and 4 and lingering insecurity with Key Stage 1 content ranging from spellings and punctuation to sentence structure. These gaps in knowledge will have an impact on whether pupils will be able to secure all the ‘pupil can’ statements for WTS and EXS, so tracking back and plugging gaps will need to continue being a feature of Year 6 writing lessons for this year.

We have already gravitated towards writing, so let’s continue by considering some of the good practice we saw at both key stages.

Quantity and quality

Making a secure teacher assessment judgement is so much easier when there is a range of writing to go on. Collections where there was plenty of writing across a range of text types where pupils can show specific skills in a few places were a feature of moderations that went well. Where teachers could see the pupil demonstrating the ‘pupil can’ statements (or not) regularly, they could make more accurate assessment judgements for the cohort.

I am not suggesting this is easy. Many teachers have shared how tricky it has been getting pupils to produce sustained or extended writing over the last year or so. The periods of time where pupils were learning remotely and perhaps not writing as much or at length and certainly without the resources that they have in school have had an impact for many on their writing stamina. It could be that focussing more on building pieces over a couple of lessons rather than in long periods then working on extending the writing could be a method, or indeed including some relatively shorter writing opportunities alongside the longer ones so that pupils can still be demonstrating what they remember and know in different contexts without as much pressure on their stamina. A few Key Stage 1 teachers have shared similar approaches of building some ‘free writing’ time into their day (for example, after lunch) where pupils have notebooks and can write about anything they want or respond to prompts. This unstructured, low-stakes context for writing can be a place where stamina is built but also can be a useful additional insight into where pupils are with their writing. Of course, it is also worth remembering that writing across the curriculum can be included in the teacher assessment judgement, so writing in history books or from science lessons can be a way of expanding the quantity and range of writing available.

Independence

It is also important in that range of writing, that the writing can be said to be independent. I will very quickly say here that we are not taking about ‘cold tasks’ or writing that children have produced without any relevant context or teaching or usual classroom resources. This is especially relevant for Key Stage 1 where the Teacher Assessment Framework (TAF) does say ‘The pupil can, after discussion with the teacher:’ for each of the standards.

For accurate teacher assessment we need to see what a pupil can do without over-direction to be able to say that they have secured a writing skill. As we move through the spring term, we could try to reduce the scaffolding or very directive success criteria or feedback/marking and start to give a little more space for pupils to demonstrate what they can do independently. This is especially necessary if the writing scheme used is quite heavily scaffolded. There are a few approaches to writing out there that end up producing very few independent pieces and it would be useful to perhaps step away from the scheme approach and try to build in some more independent writing opportunities for pupils. Another approach that we saw in some schools to ensure that writing was good for demonstrating a pupil’s skills was where a ‘final’ piece of independent writing was done a week or two after the teaching and shared/modelled writes.

Rather than spend longer talking about independence, I will point you in the direction of an old, but still relevant, blog that explores this.

Feedback

As a development on the above section, it’s worth spending a little time talking about feedback. In schools where pupils had produced a good range of independent work, we often saw that pupils were involved in the editing and improvement process without over-direction from teachers. Earlier in the year, of course teachers were likely to be heavily involved in supporting the editing and improvement process (for example, underlining particular misspelled words), but as the year progressed, we could see them stepping back and allowing pupils to demonstrate their skills more independently. This may be done by the teacher taking a more ‘search and destroy’ approach to pupils finding and correcting errors – a dot or ‘sp’/’punc’ in the margin for a section of writing, as an example – whether that be pupils working alone or with peers to improve their writing.  Of course, there is more to editing than just correcting spelling or missing full stops, but this practice was often embedded in a classroom culture of pupils crafting their writing with periods during the writing (mini-plenaries/stop-gaps etc.) or after the writing where pupils can read their work aloud or check for errors to make secretarial or compositional changes to the work.

For Year 2 pupils, in order to achieve the greater depth standard, it is necessary for them to be able to ‘make simple additions, revisions and proof-reading corrections to their own writing’, so not just correcting spellings but also adding to their writing or changing wording to make it better. This ties in nicely with our more general aim to develop our pupils’ metacognitive skills of reviewing/monitoring and developing self-awareness, so hopefully doesn’t feel like it is just something we are doing for the sake of the TAF.

If you are looking to adapt your approach to feedback and how pupils take ownership of their writing, there is another old blog on that here. Marky McMarkface: let’s talk about feedback

Addressing of gaps/pesky habits

As we’ve talked about already, the plague-years have left a mark, and for some of our pupils that mark is that there is curriculum content from earlier years that was not quite secured in the way it would ‘normally’ be and there is then a knock-on effect when pupils are measured against the TAF at the end of key stage.

In the moderations last summer, we had a lot of conversations about how schools had identified and then addressed some of these gaps, misconceptions or ‘bad’ habits that had crept into writing and stayed there. More often than not, it was a juggling act of keeping up with the current year-group curriculum whilst also tracking back to address issues with phonics, or handwriting, or spelling, or sentence construction and so on.

There will remain issues that we will want to address over the year. Are there times when we need to spend a little time exploring the root of a pupil’s tendency and finding that it is a misunderstanding relating to word class or clauses, or perhaps doing a miscue analysis to be able to work systematically through the spelling rules or phonic insecurities to address patterns in spellings. Some of this may be applicable to the whole class, but more often than not, it will be more individualised.

Confidence with TAF inc. qualifiers and what would be a particular weakness

Just a reminder really for teachers to look at the guidance of what Standards and Testing Agency (STA) say about the use of the ‘some’, ‘many’, ‘most’ qualifiers in the TAF. It is really helpful for moderation discussions where there is a consistent understanding of how these would relate to a pupil achieving a ‘pupil can’ statement. As always, the exemplification materials and the collections used for standardisation available through the Primary Assessment Gateway are helpful for illustrating what this looks like in pupil work.

Also worth flagging is how a ‘particular weakness’ may present itself in a pupil’s collection of work. In the preamble to the writing TAF for both Key Stages, the STA outline that at times a particular weakness may mean that particular ‘pupil can’ statements can be discounted to allow for an accurate and appropriate assessment of a pupil. This is for those times where it would be absolutely ridiculous for a pupil to be awarded a lower standard because of one particular tendency or issue but where the rest of their writing is ‘belt and braces’ secure at the higher standard. Of course, this takes professional judgement. If a pupil struggles with coherence, it would be quite the stretch to discount that and say that pupil was meeting the expected standard at Key Stage 1, however, it could be that a child is writing very effectively and ticking everything from the expected standard really securely, but still struggles with some of the spellings of common exception words and can’t be said to be spelling ‘most’ correctly – in this case, the spelling may present a ‘particular weakness’ in their writing and they could still be awarded EXS.

We have yet another old blog that discusses in a little more detail what may be considered a particular weakness. Read A very particular weakness

Moderating in school or at clusters from early in the spring term

I promise this isn’t a shameless plug for our moderation cluster events, but it really was a feature of most of our successful moderations that the class teachers had been involved in moderation throughout the year. This could have been our HFL clusters, but also internally within school or groups of schools that work together. It is just so very helpful, especially in a smaller school where we have less opportunity to look at how another class is doing, to read other Year 2 or 6 pupils’ work and speak to their teachers to standardise the judgements.

Key Stage 1 maths

Moving now to looking specifically at Key Stage 1, there were also some observations that came up for maths.

The maths curriculum is jam-packed.  Consequently, the coverage and security required for the TAF meant that it was quite a struggle for teachers to move through everything needed as well as having to spend a lot of time in the autumn term plugging gaps and tracking back to address issues that had arisen from the covid times. Hopefully that is less of an issue this year for our current Year 2s but getting everything covered in time for the end of June statutory assessment deadline is always a challenge.

I never like the idea of the TAF being a tail that wags the dog, but it is sensible to cross-reference teaching sequences with the ‘pupil can’ statements to check coverage and what needs to go where. The spring term is a good time to audit if there are any things that look like they may be an issue and then rejigging where possible to give pupils a chance to learn and then apply their knowledge.

In schools where moderations went really well, they had done this and really thought about how they could gather independent application evidence throughout the year. Sometimes, the gathering of independent application was in the form of starters or plenaries that were retrieval practice of content from previous weeks or months, or in the form of a daily practice activity that again, allowed pupils to demonstrate their security outside of direct teaching. As a small caveat to this, if these activities are in an early morning maths session or similar, please do keep an eye on those pupils who may often be late and miss these. It is always frustrating where regular absence means a lack of retrieval practice and thus, evidence, for a pupil.

Collecting evidence can be low impact on teaching. What I mean by that is that it doesn’t necessarily call for teachers to be completing special TAF tests for maths or similar, but rather, that through the sort of day-to-day/regular formative/low stakes assessment , you can gather quite a lot of quality independent evidence throughout the year. That could be via morning maths, fluency sessions, integrated cross-topic activities or regular retrieval practice (the last lesson/last month/last term type activities we often talk about for formative assessment), hinge questions and so on.

As always, please do get in touch if you have any questions regarding assessment: hfl.assessment@hfleducation.org