How assessment is helping one MAT raise the bar

Raising attainment

Dan joined White Horse a year ago and sees raising attainment over time, as well as ensuring financial stability, as his key priorities. Reliable, standardised data has a crucial part to play in both but when it comes to attainment, Dan says it pays to be able to benchmark nationally over time and to be forensic.

“We know from GL Assessment data what a child’s possible SAT score is from where they were in Year 3. So, if a Year 6 child is on track not to make it across the line, but their assessments in Year 4 and 5 indicated they would, it is likely a question of provision and not the child.”

White Horse uses the New Group Reading Test (NGRT) across the trust, as well as its speech and language screener, WellComm.

“We assess using NGRT twice a year in every year from Year 3. We have about 900 pupils in each of our year groups, and being able to have a standardised, benchmarked assessment across those 900 gives us surety.”

“We don’t have to rely on predictions that indicate a child can’t achieve his or her expected level when we have data showing that wasn’t always so. We know it because children took those assessments over time, and we know what’s possible. So, when we try to raise the bar we can ensure that children are not sold short.”

“I’ve heard it said elsewhere, in other schools, ‘You can’t read too much into numbers…’ But if a school, say, is getting low SATs scores over two years, it is likely to relate to poor provision. You can definitely say those children are getting a poor deal.”

Identifying issues early

WellComm, which can identify speech and language issues from a young age, plays an important part in the trust’s strategic plan: “It fits in with our best start in life approach, which is a key part of our new strategic plan: ‘Catch up, Keep up.’ We aim to ensure that we close gaps before they open, or at least start to narrow them as soon as we can,” Dan explains. “If a child does very well by the end of Year 3, we need to keep them up in Year 4 and not let them drop.”

An added advantage of the GL Assessment data, says Dan, is the wrap around support – particularly data interrogation and expert analyses – that are always to hand if teachers need it. “My colleagues are very positive about the information they are able to access and the analysis and support if they need it.”

All school assessment scores are published internally in a trust league tables, not to ‘shame and blame’ but because heads find transparency useful, it supports improvement. “They might say, ‘We need to do better’. But nobody’s looking at a table saying, ‘Oh, look at you at the bottom.’ Instead, they’ll ask how they can help each other to raise the bar. It’s about all colleagues having a shared responsibility for all children.”

Thinking children not percentages

Dan says when it comes to attainment, he encourages his school leaders to think of individual children rather than percentages. “Think about what Johnny, Mohammed or Isabel can do and what they need rather than if you can get to 60%. Whatever you’re doing with those three, can you get another two over the line doing the same? And as in sport, you encourage, praise and urge them on to the next level.

“I’m obviously proud of the trust’s academic performance, but I’m as pleased about the fact that in the last eight inspections, we earned seven outstanding grades for personal development. Children need to feel success and they should feel it in a number of different ways.”

White Horse’s reputation for personal development was only enhanced when it won the prestigious TES ‘Inclusive Trust of the Year’ award earlier this summer. Dan attributes the trust’s success to having its own internal alternative provision, which has cut suspensions and exclusions, an excellent SEND network, a standardised SEND framework and early assessment.

“If SEND issues are identified very early, interventions and support can either remove some of the barriers or provide long-term support. It’s also important to remember that early assessment can spot potential that may be masked by issues that are presenting up front.”

According to a recent survey, financing and funding remains MAT leaders’ top priority, and while recruitment is less of an issue as primary numbers fall and graduate jobs contract, the challenges posed by SEND and AI have become more prominent. Dan says it’s a similar picture at White Horse, though its relative maturity gives it an advantage. “White Horse has been around for 13 years; we do a lot of things well and we’re able to add value. Trusts should be more than the sum of their individual school parts but, to actually deliver that dividend, you have to do some things together and better.”

Standardisation pays dividends

Standardising assessments across a trust is one of those things that pays dividends, he says. “We need a level of standardisation because we can’t afford duplication or to have services and products that aren’t being used. When I meet with school leaders, I need to know we’re talking about the same data in the same way, with assessments that are being sat in the same manner, so that when they go up on the screen, we’re talking the same language about the same things.”

When it comes to the future, Dan is alive to the potential as well as the pitfalls of Artificial Intelligence for schools. “We’re going to have to acknowledge that people are using AI regardless of how it’s monitored. In my opinion, it’s best to be open about that and redesign tasks rather than seeing AI merely as a means of cheating.”

He thinks there are clear opportunities for schools, particularly when it comes to teacher workload – marking, lesson plans, admin and writing and updating policies. “There’s a lovely quote about how AI won’t take over the world but humans that use AI will. On the other hand, as AI use grows, I can imagine a time when the currency for genuinely human-only created stuff will appreciate. And I think schools and universities will be at the forefront of thinking, how do we get the best value out of this?’”