How data riches enabled one school to unlock SEND potential

The Royal School in Wolverhampton is not a typical school in many ways. It’s a state-funded free school that used to be a fee-charging independent one, it has seen phenomenal growth in pupil numbers, which have tripled in five years to about 1400, it has large numbers of children who are looked after or have an Education and Health Care Plan [EHCP], and it has a residential arm with about 100 boarders.

In other ways, however, the challenges it faces are common to schools up and down the country as it deals with the after-effects of lockdown and prepares to manage transition without national data. Fortunately, says Louise Hale, Vice Principal who is responsible for curriculum, learning and teaching, the school has a wealth of data to fall back on. “As we have years of GL Assessment data, we can baseline assessments easily. Using CAT4, for instance, we’ve been able to compare this year’s cohort to previous years and build a robust profile.”

Strong datasets

As an all-through school for 4 to 19 year-olds, The Royal has several entry points, and it uses assessments extensively for existing pupils and new entrants. Pupils are assessed with CAT4 in Years 3, 5, 7, 10 and 12 – and the New Group Reading Test and Progress Tests are also widely used. “We’ve tried to build a set of data that tracks children all the way from Year 2 through to the senior school,” says Kathy Jefferson, Deputy Head of the primary school. “We’ve done this for a number of years, and now we have a very strong dataset to rely on.”

Many of the school’s boarders come from overseas and have no comparable records of attainment or reliable data, where again the CAT4 test is invaluable. Assessments are also extensively used with the school’s large cohort of special needs and looked after pupils. “We have 46 children with EHCPs and 32 looked after children, plus several pupils from overseas who arrived as unaccompanied asylum seekers,” says Susanne Afifi, the Senco who is also responsible for assessing gifted and talented pupils. “In the SEND department we tend to use assessment much more on an individual, one-to-one level to understand their needs and potential.”

Robust SEND profile

Susanne says she really values NGRT and Progress Tests for children with SEND because they can give teachers a robust profile over several years: “You can look at a child’s assessment history over one, two, or three years and see how they make progress. Even if their standard age score remains below 100, assessment will show progress over time.”

Her pupils have no aversion to taking assessments, she says. “The children don’t feel under pressure. They don’t have to prepare, and they are used to it. All of them will have to sit a test at some point and it’s an extremely useful and unpressured way of introducing SEND students to testing.”

Louise explains that being able to call on a robust dataset built up over the years has been useful in other ways too. “Assessing sixth-formers with CAT4 tests on entry over time has enabled us to get a more accurate picture of student ability. CAT4 identified that we were catering to a broader range of abilities than we did previously, and that some of those students would struggle if we only offered an A Level curriculum.

“Now we offer a wider curriculum that includes vocational qualifications to cater to the pattern of abilities picked up by CAT4 testing.” The school also uses GL Assessment’s Dyslexia Screener, Louise says, to identify children who might need additional support and an access arrangement for their exams.

Triangulation helps

As The Royal uses a variety of assessments, teachers are adept at triangulating different datasets to obtain a clearer picture of pupil ability. “The first thing we do is look at the outliers and ask if the score is a true reflection of what we know of the child,” says Kathy. “For instance, if their score was really low in one assessment but another shows, or the teacher suspects, that they could do better we ask them to sit a re-test, which can often identify difficulties that might not have been picked up earlier.” An additional bonus, Kathy says, is that standardised tests can be used in staff training to benchmark internal assessments and pinpoint potential bias.

Susanne says triangulation is invaluable for SEND departments, too. “We triangulate NGRT and Progress Test data to pick out strengths and weaknesses and then share the results with teachers.” And she gives two final reasons why assessments can be so useful for SEND departments: “Firstly, because they allow teachers to see progress and provide feedback on interventions, and secondly, because a test like NGRT lets you see if a child has the reading age to access the curriculum.”