Case Study: Gowerton School
Stage 5 - Scaling up
Looking for ways to improve
Now we looked at what we had achieved and how we could continue to improve in the future. These were some of the ways we did this:
Assessing the progression of the skills being taught and looking at how the skills develop from one year group to another in the same subject areas
Creating a skills team in school and working together to implement Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Competency
Continue NGP cluster meetings once a half term.
Develop online safeguarding practices (360 Safe Cymru) and Governor inclusion
Progression of skills
We completed regular book reviews to assess the progress of the skills being covered across the curriculum. We did this by selecting random pupils from different year groups and requested all of the books/digital work from each subject area. I was then able to establish that I was seeing good digital skills across the curriculum, however there was little progression of some skills within the subject from lesson to lesson or from year to year.
To improve on this, we held an INSET session where we discussed ways that the most common digital skills can be developed from one year group to another or from one lesson to another. Staff said that this resource was helpful as it also allowed them to give CHALLENGE to MAT pupils when required.
To the right is the presentation that I delivered to the staff on an INSET day to give advice on progression:
Inset day 11.03.19 presentation (1) (3).pptxCreating a Skills Team
Myself and the Literacy and Numeracy Co-coordinators realised that we were all trying to achieve similar goals. We decided it would be vital for consistency that we worked together on a regular basis. We spoke to the Headship team and asked if we would be able to meet up once a fortnight to discuss progress, development and plans for the skills within the school.
As a Skills Team we have already done the following:
- Creating consistent tracking maps
We decided to combine our efforts and create skills tracking maps that used the same format for tracking the progress and coverage of all of the skills across the school. By using this method we were also able to evidence the skills easily by linking to them to all 3 spreadsheets. Staff found using the spreadsheets easier due to the constancy of them. Each year the maps would be updated and we can analyse the progress being made across the school.
2. TIPS Tuesday - Form time help for pupils
As a skills team we decided to create resources that the pupils would complete during form time once a week. These sessions are 20 minutes and most of them were unplugged activities so would not require devices. We wanted this to enhance the pupils skills, give them practice but also address areas of our skills maps that were not as confidently completed cross curricular as others.
Here are some examples of the resources for each year group:
1. Social Media and Body Image - 13th September.pptx2. E Waste - 20th September.pptx3. Staff Circular TIPS
Each term would have a skills focus, so when it was Digital, I would put TIPS into the weekly Staff Circular. These were simple TIPS that staff could embed in an every day lesson. Staff have commented that these have been really useful as they were able to click on the links and use the resources on their PowerPoint or put up the information on the board as a reminder for the pupils. Here are some examples of what I have put in each week:
4. Termly Skills INSET Session
To ensure that DCF is always one of the key elements that any staff member considers when planning their SOW, at least one INSET session a year will be allocated to Digital updates and training.
Develop NGP cluster meetings
The NGP cluster was proving invaluable, so we wanted to develop what we completed in these sessions in order to work more effectively and closer as a cluster. Some of the ways we did this include:
Inviting external speakers/companies to help us with training or new technology
Sharing our resources and ideas with each other
Technical support (technology grants, licences etc)
Organising digital transition events between years 5,6,7 and 8.
Competing in digital competitions as a cluster e.g. through TechnoCamps
Discussing various training events going on in the local authority and attending them as a cluster where possible
Creating digital policies as a cluster to have consistency for pupils, staff, parents and governors.
360 Safe Cymru development as a cluster - we wanted to make sure all of our schools in the cluster worked towards the 360 award together as we are striving for one goal.
360 Safe Cymru Digital Development
It was important to us as a cluster to work towards achieving the Safety Mark as a cluster. In order to do this we invited the Leader of Learning for Digital Competence at Swansea Council to come and deliver some training on this area to us as a cluster. We then spent the afternoon going through the sections and elements to write up and evidence. We also noticed very quickly that we have completed a lot of them through the work of the cluster, again showing that working together saves us time and develops consistency. We have not yet achieved this mark, but we are working towards this in the next academic year.