BESA CORNER
In our regular feature highlighting the work of members of the UK education suppliers’ trade body BESA, Education Today this month hears from EMILIE-KATE KIDD of Earwig Academic; and SEB FRANCIS, co-founder of Titus Learning.
EMILIE-KATE KIDD, Co-Founder of Earwig Academic, trustee of SEN charity Parents in Need and parent to her SEN child talks about the surprises within the Rochford Review and what its recommendations mean for SEN teaching.
The most important event in the SEND teaching world in 2016 was the publication of the Rochford Review. It looks into how learning objectives for all special needs children are set and how progress against these is measured and reported.
The DfE put the review out to
consultation and is due to publish its conclusions on the matter any time now. The likelihood is that the recommendations will be accepted and implementation will start next year. But even if it isn’t taken up completely, the review’s recommendations will influence SEN teaching and assessment for the foreseeable future. The Rochford review makes several predictable suggestions. But it also includes a few recommendations which are downright revolutionary, and it’s these which are causing some furrowed brows among SEND school SLTs.
The first surprise is that large and rigid curricula and assessment frameworks, like P-Scales, are out. Instead the report wants to see teaching objectives set specifically for each child, so that progress is assessed against these individualised curricula. The panel go even further and insist that each of these customised teaching schemes should have the child’s Education Heath and Care Plan as the curricula foundation – the content of which is negotiated between the school and the local authority for each special needs child, each year. While this is clearly a sensible way to go, it does place an additional administrative load on the school to draw up these curricula, work with the local authority to evolve them each year, and then record, analyse and report progress against them.
However, the recommendations then take one further step. They recognise that at all levels of disability, but particularly at the severe end of the spectrum, physical or intellectual progress is not the only measure of achievement. Another equally valid measure is the pupil’s level of engagement in the task. From the teacher’s perspective, progress is made if the child demonstrates any improved enthusiasm or commitment, even if they don’t make tangible physical or intellectual progress. So the panel recommend that assessment schemes should also include a measure of engagement, and consequently keep evidence records to verify these assessment judgements.
It’s easy to see why most are in support of a more tailored curriculum for each child, and agree that detailed tracking of both tangible achievement and engagement will enable even the smallest progression to be tracked. But the problem is the consequential workload.
What is needed is some clever software which will allow schools to import EHC Plans, generate individualised teaching schemes based on these and enable teachers to capture their teaching evidence and make assessment judgements on the spot. Once all this information is in the system it is then relatively easy for a sophisticated software package to generate analysis and reports to order. Which, of course, is where the bulk of time and stress will be saved. There is currently no software package that comes close to achieving this (and it’s still early days). But it will be interesting to see what the EdTech industry can come up with to help get special needs education to the next base.
www.earwigacademic.com 8
www.education-today.co.uk
BESA member Titus Learning is a certified Moodle Partner providing smartly tailored e-learning services for schools and colleges around the world. Co-founder SEB FRANCIS writes about the work they’ve done with one of the UK’s most prestigious schools, Stockport Grammar.
Founded in 1487, Stockport Grammar School (SGS) is the oldest educational institution in the North of England. Titus Learning were first introduced to the school in 2014 when they were seeking a partner to help integrate their Moodle learning platform with the iSAMS school information management system. We’ve collaborated on a number of e-learning projects over the last three years, mainly focused on ensuring that the school’s Moodle meets their staff, students and parents’ needs as precisely as possible.
The work we’ve done at Stockport Grammar centres around three core areas, which I believe apply to any school looking to improve e-learning provision: integration, usability and engagement.
Integration
One of the first areas we addressed at SGS was integration between Moodle and iSAMS, allowing processes such as course enrolments and reporting to be streamlined or automated, thereby reducing teaching time spent on administrative functions. This is a great example of how technical solutions can create tangible benefits in terms of day-to-day workload. “We were already using Moodle alongside iSAMS, although without any link between the two we didn’t feel we were making the most of either system,” said Quinn from SGS.
Usability
The key next step was to ensure that users at the school could access and benefit from the new functionality. We implemented a bespoke theme incorporating an intuitive interface to make day-to-day use of Moodle at SGS a straightforward process.
The new theme improved on the previous one in several areas: saving time by streamlining common tasks such as adding content, a “my apps” menu to give quick access to commonly used features, and a personal dashboard showing vital user info.
“Titus Learning have completely redesigned our VLE to give a much more attractive feel both on desktop computers and mobile devices. With the redesigned theme we’re seeing much higher engagement from both staff and students,” Quinn said.
Support and training
To tie all of this work together, and ensure the platform is used to its full potential going forwards, it was vital that an ongoing support plan was put in place.
We began with a customised training programme, delivered through Moodle – so staff at the school could get to grips with the redesigned platform from day one.
Moving forwards, we proactively review the Moodle installation to ensure it’s meeting the school’s needs, and stay in regular contact with teachers and administrators to suggest alterations, improvements or adjustments on an ongoing basis.
This gives us a user-led view of how Moodle is utilised, and allows us to target our support and training services to the areas in which it’s most useful, as well as informing future development.
Currently we’re working on new integration with Google’s G Suite for Education and Office 365, as well as designing a next generation Moodle theme to further boost engagement and usage. This person-led rather than tech-led approach helps ensure that Stockport Grammar continues to provide the highest standard of education to its 1,500+ students, 530 years since its foundation.
Website:
www.tituslearning.com Twitter: @tituslearning
October 2017
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