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BESA CORNER


This month, in our ongoing feature highlighting the work of members of the UK education suppliers’ trade body BESA, JIM BARLOW, Head Teacher at Congleton High School tells us how BLUSESKY EDUCATION has helped his school; and we hear from VERITY LEE, Year 6 Teacher and Assistant Head at Sunnyside Spencer Academy, about READING PLUS from READING SOLUTIONS UK.


Reading Plus: Reading SATs EXS increases 33% in one year at Sunnyside Spencer Academy thanks to the online reading programme


VERITY LEE, Year 6 Teacher and Assistant Head at Sunnyside Spencer Academy discusses how Reading Plus improved pupils’ fluency and comprehension, boosted engagement, and increased SATs results.


How does Reading Plus allow you to fulfil your school motto, ‘Making Every Moment Count’? Budget constraints in school mean that children don’t have a wealth of books to read. Reading Plus allows pupils to access a vast range of texts, as the online programme has over 1,000 fiction, non- fiction, and informational texts. The students enjoy talking about what


they’ve read with their teachers and peers. I particularly like that Reading Plus


motivates our boys to read more. They are competitive, and they want to see their scores after answering each comprehension question.


What has been the impact of Reading Plus in your school? The initial assessment pupils sit when they first start on the programme gives us baseline data and makes it clear which pupils need to focus on fluency or comprehension. We found that pupils may have high fluency but low


comprehension. The nature of the programme, and features such as the Guided Window, encourage pupils to pace themselves, not rush and refer to the text if they are unsure so that they can comprehend what they are reading. Pupils can now independently make a point, find the evidence, and explain without any adult support.


What gains have you seen? In 2019, our reading results for Y6 were EXS 63 per cent and GDS 13 per cent. After using the programme, their recent SATs results increased to EXS 86 per cent and GDS 41 per cent. Our Y5 class have shown the most progress. Used as specified, in one-year pupils make an average of 2.6 level


comprehension years in gains on Reading Plus. At Sunnyside, 71 per cent of pupils made 2.6 gains or more, two pupils gained 6.6, and one pupil progressed 7. The average reading speed of pupils has increased 42 per cent to


200 words per minute (wpm), while the national average for Y5 is 175wpm.


How does Reading Plus influence reading lessons? Reading Plus is not a replacement for reading lessons, but it does allow pupils to apply their newly learned skills independently. The Skills Feature provides intervention materials such as PDFs and


lesson plans, saving time when planning and supporting staff with the scripts to ensure high-quality teaching. Thanks to Reading Plus, pupils have developed a love of reading.


They love finding out more, and at the end of each lesson or during a spare five minutes, they ask to go on Reading Plus – Making Every Moment Count.


www.readingsolutionsuk.com 14 www.education-today.co.uk


BlueSky helps Congleton High School streamline and strengthen approaches to CPD, performance management and self-evaluation


"With BlueSky we can link each objective to a strand of the development plan, so it encourages people to focus more on whole school priorities, as well as their own professional career development." - JIM BARLOW, Head Teacher, Congleton High School


Congleton High School in Cheshire introduced BlueSky Education in 2010 to help improve performance management. "We wanted more consistency across performance management than the paper-based system we were using," says Head Teacher Jim Barlow. "People were spending too long at appraisal time searching around for bits of paper for evidence of their CPD activity over the year. Plus, we were keen to track clearly where people were on our pay scales so that we could check they were broadly equal and gave them the same opportunity to progress up the scale." The school also wanted to use BlueSky to align staff targets and


professional development more closely with the school development plan. "Ensuring performance management and targets cohered with and reflected the development plan was important for us," Jim adds. BlueSky enables staff to upload evidence of their performance quickly


and easily, an aspect that teachers have greatly appreciated for its timesaving and efficiency. The school uses it for recording all CPD, encouraging staff to record all activity and build up a record over the year. "Even if it's just a meeting with another school or a webinar or an article they have read, staff record it on BlueSky. Colleagues who have come to us from other schools who have used the system there can bring the record with them," Jim says. "Probably the most important benefit BlueSky has brought to the


school in the last five years is the support it offers for quality assurance and self-evaluation," says Jim. "Ofsted is always focused on impact, and in our development plan and SEF we had talked about the impact of marking and feedback, which we had been tracking by using the templates in BlueSky. We have a quality assurance calendar for when middle leaders should use the templates and they are moderated by senior leaders. "We were able to show the inspectors the picture 18 months


previously, and what it was like four terms later. We were able to show how we had improved over the period and the impact on results. Being able to show them that information in visual form very quickly and easily is a huge benefit, and for the short Ofsted inspections, where there is little time, very efficient." "Staff see it as a useful tool for organising themselves at all levels. It has


made them mindful of keeping their CPD records up to date and keeping evidence for performance management so they are thinking around career development and adding to their portfolio of evidence across the year." For leaders, BlueSky is now instrumental in helping them to keep track


of the school development plan and holding people to account. "I moderate all of the performance management objectives each year so there's a clear structure for doing that," says Jim. "BlueSky is very good for ensuring that people at different points on their scales of pay or career are working at levels we expect them to. It's good in terms of school improvement and helps with self-evaluation.” Following the success at Congleton High School, the Learning Alliance Trust has now adopted BlueSky across all the schools in the partnership, to support Trust-wide objectives and strategic planning.


https://www.blueskyeducation.co.uk/


March 2022


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