BESA CORNER


This month, in our ongoing feature highlighting the work of members of the UK education suppliers’ trade body BESA, we hear from THE CAMBRIDGE CENTRE FOR EVALUATION & MONITORING and READING SOLUTIONS UK.


How The Perse Preparatory School uses the Cambridge Wellbeing Check from The Cambridge Centre for Evaluation & Monitoring to holistically support their pupils


The Perse School, Cambridge, is a coeducational independent day school for children aged 3 – 18. It is a school committed to helping children develop as confident, smiling, interesting and interested individuals, and within this vibrant and energetic environment, every


child will develop their academic curiosity and a lifelong love of learning. Children thrive on challenges both in and outside the classroom, with great emphasis placed on developing breadth and balance through first-rate sport, clubs, music, art, drama, trips and outdoor pursuits. All of these opportunities and experiences help build a supportive community which develops each child’s self-confidence and happiness.


The Perse Preparatory, for children between the ages of 7 and 11, are users of Cambridge Centre for Evaluation & Monitoring’s (CEM) primary baseline assessments. After extensively researching various options for pastoral assessments, they have recently started using the Cambridge Wellbeing Check, as well, to gain a deeper understanding of their pupils’ wellbeing and help all children achieve their best.


This year, pupils completed the 20-minute Wellbeing Check toward the end of the first half term of the academic year. The school then analyses the individual and cohort results, developing ‘total wellbeing scores’ to identify children who may need additional support. Many of these children were already on their radar; however, they ensured a conversation was had with all children below the additional support threshold, involving parents where necessary.


The Prep then decided to further analyse the data to determine whether there were any links between academic attainment and wellbeing by comparing pupils’ baseline assessment data with their Wellbeing Check data. After discovering that there were no obvious correlations, they delved further into the data to analyse patterns and trends in wellbeing across the school or across a cohort, in terms of which areas the children were feeling more negatively towards. They also calculated an average wellbeing score for a group of children to make general comparisons between groups, for example based on gender or SEN status.


Teachers and members of staff were then presented with this data to discuss how they could address areas that needed attention and develop interventions.


The Prep are planning to administer the Cambridge Wellbeing Check once more this academic year, towards the end of the Summer Term, to gain an up-to-date insight as to how their pupils are feeling. This will also allow them to monitor the impact of interventions put in place as a result of the first Wellbeing Check. They will then do similar analyses with the new data but comparing them to their in-house end of year assessments.


“We’ve found the Cambridge Wellbeing Check really helpful in giving us another piece of data which we can use to ensure we are supporting children in the best way we can, both academically and pastorally,” said Jessica Evans, Head of Tracking at the Prep. “We use the individual Wellbeing total scores regularly in meetings where we discuss pupil progress, which allows us to have a fuller, more rounded data picture of each child.


Over a number of years, we hope to build up a bigger picture of Wellbeing across different cohorts and hope to continue to use this data to offer more support to any child who might benefit from it.”


14 www.education-today.co.uk May 2024


Director of Teaching and Learning at Aim High Academy Trust shares how DreamBox Reading Plus impacts SATs results


HEATHER MARCH sat with Reading Solutions UK to discuss how the online reading development programme was the ‘missing jigsaw piece that was needed to help accelerate their progress’ ahead of SATs.


What measurable results did you see with Reading Plus? Our children have increased their reading speed by an average of 32 words per minute in just two terms. Also, on average, our Year 5s have made 1.8 levels of progress in less than one term.


For the children using the programme in Year 5, we now have 14% achieving Greater Depth scores in our standardised end-of-year assessments. This is also backed up by teacher assessment judgements. In this year group, we had only two children (5%) working at Greater Depth in Reading when they initially started the programme.


Not only are we now seeing an impact on fluency and overall comprehension, but we can also see how this has enhanced our reading-for- pleasure culture.


How has Reading Plus impacted SATs?


A common barrier to SATs success is reading fluency. The quantity of text pupils have to read is incredible - children need to read 185 words a minute to get through the paper.


In one school in our trust, when the current year sixes were in year five, they were academically very low, with a high proportion of SEND and disadvantaged pupils. That’s when Reading Plus came in. Initially, this cohort would not have been able to access the paper, but now our year six teachers are feeling really confident and pleased. Across our trust, SATs results were all in line with or above the national average last year, and we’re optimistic that we’re heading the same way this year as well.


How do you use Reading Plus?


Reading Plus merged seamlessly with our well-established Reading Curriculum.


We use the programme three times a week. This helps teachers save a lot of time as no planning is required – the usability of the site is a huge bonus. On Reading Plus, you can see the KS2 Content Domains, where children are doing well and where they’re struggling. Teachers use that assessment to inform their guided reading sessions.


They’re constantly monitoring children’s progress on the teacher dashboard and using that to support them - whether on a one-to-one basis or a whole class issue.


Our children enjoy Reading Plus. Engagement is excellent, and the children are motivated.


What was reading like before Reading Plus?


Before Reading Plus, engagement was varied. For our lower-attaining pupils, progress was also low.


Now, engagement is high, and children confidently talk about the texts they have read. They are also reading a greater range of cross-curricular texts they wouldn’t have previously accessed and can now make links between subjects and across their reading.


Reading Solutions UK is dedicated to improving children’s life chances through education, and they continually do so with the online reading development programme, DreamBox Reading Plus.


They also organise an annual International Reading Conference that is free for all educators to hear from education experts worldwide about best practices and innovative strategies to foster confident, lifelong readers. The conference will take place on the 11th, 12th, and 13th of June.


For more information about the International Reading Conference, the Reading Plus programme, or to try a free four-week pilot at no obligation, please call 0191 389 6078, email info@readingsolutionsuk. com, or visit www.readingsolutionsuk.co.uk.


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