Supporting Vulnerable Students: Insights from Looked After Children
Delve into the importance of supporting looked after children, who face various challenges such as low academic achievement and risks of exploitation. Understand the pivotal roles of designated teachers, social workers, and carers in making positive impacts on these children's lives. Explore effective tracking and monitoring systems, including the use of data analysis for evaluation and maintaining records for improvement planning and inspections. Gain insights on cultivating key relationships and ensuring impactful strategies for these vulnerable students.
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Supporting our most vulnerable students why looked after children in particular? Oxfordshire Virtual School for Looked After Children Walk in my shoes Conference, October 2015 Dr Alun Rees Former Virtual School Head & Consultant, University of Oxford, Department of Education alunreeslearning@aol.com Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Aims What does impact look like and how can you ensure that the strategies you adopt are likely to have impact? How can you link evaluation of Pupil Premium Plus spending to improvement planning and inspection preparation? How can record keeping make assessing impact simpler? Which are the key relationships to cultivate and how do you ensure you have the information you need when you need it? Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Why this group? Looked after children are: among the lowest achieving groups at age 16 at significant risk of offending, sexual exploitation, drug and alcohol abuse, and having their own children taken into care taken into care because we think that we, the corporate parent , can do a better job than their birth parents a specific focus for Ofsted inspection of schools and local authorities Designated teacher, social workers and carers are the people who are likely to make the biggest differences to their lives Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Track and Monitor: is this rocket science? What do you do about it? How is the child doing? Is that good enough? Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Track and Monitor: is this rocket science? Tracking Pupil Premium Google offers 65,000 options Tracking spreadsheets 6,000 examples Tracking grids 5,000 examples Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Features of a tracking system Easy to use and integrated into normal practice Visual prompts Aggregates individual data into analysis of cohort or intervention Aggregates individual data into a budget/spend model Easily exportable into other packages for further analysis/presentation Capable of producing simple descriptions of what you are doing and its impact for the website Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
The key questions What do you do about it? How is the child doing? Is that good enough? Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Theory underlying this approach Measure is too low Research says X works Apply the research Expect results Accept that there will always be some kids for whom it doesn t work no intervention is perfect Examine the cases where the intervention doesn t work Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Try to understand why Literacy is stuck Why? Cognitive issues? Gaps in earlier learning? Something else? If the intervention is designed to provide effective catch-up why should it work identically for every child? Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
How is the child doing? Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Which measure? It depends Is there an interim measure that could indicate progress on the way to literacy improvement? Emotional health & well-being? Home circumstances? How does understanding of individual needs - rather than performance against a particular measure - influence the use of pupil premium plus in your school? How you answer that question will influence the sophistication of the tracking systems you adopt Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
How often? It depends Literacy? Emotional health & well-being? Home circumstances? Attendance? Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Tracking the journey The literacy measure is a final outcome There could be numerous interim outcomes on the way to improving literacy Does your intervention create the scaffolding necessary to enable the child to improve If you can t demonstrate the instant impact of your intervention to Ofsted could you demonstrate the journey towards it Do you have a clear narrative for Pupil Premium Plus that everyone understands and can explain to Ofsted? Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Is that good enough? How regular a comparison of current actual with expected? Tracking without levels? Fisher Family Trust or other predictive methods? High expectations? Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
What will you do about it? Which intervention? Informed by evidence? Validated? By whom? How will it be delivered? Who, when, how often? Quality of delivery? Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
What should you believe? Best Buy Randomly Controlled Trial (RCT) Comparison with robustly constructed control group Systematic review Statistical correlation Worth looking at Validated local practice Promising local practice Emerging local practice Don t buy Blog posts and twitter feeds Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Pupil Premium Plus and inclusion Exclusion = disrupted learning Disrupted learning = less progress = damaged relationships = inspection risk Make sure that school inclusion strategies work hand-in-hand with the pupil premium and looked after children strategies Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Is it what, or how? Could the impact claimed depend on how the intervention is applied? Fidelity of approach? Consider how to use the suggestions, evaluate their effectiveness yourself, and modify them (or not) Knowing an interventions has had a positive effect doesn t mean you can just take it off the shelf challenge your thinking Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Could it be who with as much as what? Whole system leadership happens as networks of relationships form among people who discover they have a common cause and vision of what s possible Harvard University Centre for Public Leadership Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Doesnt deliver sustainable change, only temporary improvement Making change happen Working WITH someone delivers effective, lasting, change punitive RESTORATIVE Increasing Control (rigor/discipline etc.) TO WITH authoritarian AUTHORITATIVE permissive Develops dependency rather than lasting change DON T ACT FOR paternalistic Increasing Support (encouragement/nurture etc.) Clearly unacceptable Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Track & Monitor What do you do about it? How is the child doing? Is that good enough? Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Evaluate Cost? What do you do about it? How is the child doing NOW? Cost- effective? Is that good enough? Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evaluation/diy-evaluation-guide/http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evaluation/diy-evaluation-guide/ Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com alunreeslearning@aol.com 23
How is the child doing? AND Is that good enough? What will you do about it? How is the child doing NOW? What did it cost? AND Is it cost- effective? Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com alunreeslearning@aol.com 24
An effective Pupil Premium Plus Strategy? The gold standard of effectiveness Ofsted say it is effective The silver standard Children (and their outcomes) tell Ofsted it is effective The bronze standard Parents/carers tell Ofsted it is effective The paper standard You say it is effective What evidence will you collect to demonstrate effectiveness? Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Aims What does impact look like and how can you ensure that the strategies you adopt are likely to have impact? How can you link evaluation of Pupil Premium Plus spending to improvement planning and inspection preparation? How can record keeping make assessing impact simpler? Which are the key relationships to cultivate and how do you ensure you have the information you need when you need it? Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Identify best practice and use it Professional networks bring designated teachers together with social workers and carers and establish a joint learning enterprise; talk to your teaching school alliance The DIY Evaluation Toolkit Bring rigour to decisions about what to do and the evaluation of how it worked The Virtual School Handbook http://reescentre.education.ox.ac.uk/resources/ Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
The REES CENTRE Express interest in being involved in future possible research projects; Come along to lectures, seminars/webinars; Join the Rees Centre mailing list and receive newsletters 5 times/year: rees.centre@education.ox.ac.uk Web: http://reescentre.education.ox.ac.uk/; Comment on the Centre blog or write for us; Follow us on Twitter: @ReesCentre Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
Thank you Alun Rees Learning Limited alunreeslearning@aol.com
