Achievement Policy

Our Achievement Policy can be viewed below

How is underachievement identified and addressed?

At Newington Green we aspire to address underachievement at the earliest possible opportunity, to ensure that systems are put into place to promote and accelerate learning. There is systematic and early use of data and other information to identify pupils who have barriers to their learning and to ensure that personalised learning plans are put into place.

Pupil Progress meetings between Classroom Teachers, Phase Leaders, Achievement Leader, Deputy Head teacher and Head teacher allow for there to be a whole school overview of children’s progress each term. Within these meetings pupils are prioritised for additional support and different target groups or individual pupils with specific needs are identified. Current intervention groups are evaluated and children who no longer require additional support are taken off accordingly.

Poor attendance can be a major factor in children’s underachievement. The SLT work closely with our Learning Mentor and Educational Welfare Officer to promote consistent attendance at school. Children with attendance issues are highlighted at Pupil Progress meetings and this information is shared with parents in regular meetings.

The use of attainment data and target setting is fundamental to the achievement policy. There are three whole school assessment weeks each year and the results feed into whole school tracking and provision mapping. Targets for individuals and groups of pupils are set from these results and are evaluated and monitored regularly.

Roles within achievement at Newington Green

Assistant Head/ Achievement Leader

It is the role of the Achievement Leader to embed a culture of inclusion across the school community.
The Achievement leader will monitor the progress of children who are underachieving in Pupil Progress Reviews and to use provision mapping to provide additional targeted support.
To support staff in personalising learning and to ensure challenge and enjoyment for every child.
To have responsibility for SEN across the school: Enabling teachers and support staff to plan for and provide appropriate educational opportunities for children on the SEN register;
supporting teachers and teaching assistants in implementing effective strategies; compiling and analysing data and progress; monitoring and evaluating intervention programmes; liaising with parents/carers of children with SEN; liaising with external specialists, organising and leading Annual Review meetings; organising multi-agency meetings, managing the SEN budget.
To lead and manage the Teaching Assistants, HLTA, Cover Supervisor and Learning Mentor to promote achievement for all.
To promote and co-ordinate Ethnic Minority Achievement throughout the school.
To monitor and evaluate the school’s behaviour policy.

Teaching Staff

Planning, teaching and assessing learning in order for every child to make good or better progress.
To differentiate learning so that all children can make progress.
Seeking to understand any particular needs of children in the class and adapting approaches, so that they can succeed.
Creating a stimulating and inclusive learning environment that allows children to learn in different ways.
Creating open-ended learning activities that can be accessed by children at different levels.
Sharing knowledge about learner’s individual needs, barriers,strengths and talents in pupil progress meetings.
Establishing an inclusive ethos in the classroom in which different skills, knowledge, understanding, beliefs, experiences, cultures,languages and faiths are explored and celebrated.
Enabling learners to understand their own personal learning targets and how they can be achieved.
To ensure that all lessons have a language focus and that strategies are put into place to support children with EAL.

Support staff

To support learning of all children in the classroom to enable further progress.
To provide planned intervention sessions, that take into account children’s individual needs.
To work closely with the Class Teacher to ensure that learning approaches are suitable.
Making observations and assessments of learning and progress and sharing regularly with the class teacher and achievement leader.
To feedback on the effectiveness of intervention programmes to Achievement Leader and Class Teachers.
To attend professional development courses as appropriate.

Interventions

Intervention sessions are run every afternoon and before and after school. Currently the interventions include: Catch-Up reading, Springboard Maths, Speaking and Language groups, 1-1 tuition, Number box, 1-1 reading groups, guided reading and writing sessions, G and T maths, maths booster and literacy booster.

Intervention groups are monitored and evaluated regularly and adapted according to pupil’s needs. Support staff have weekly meetings where they share children’s strengths and weaknesses, offer advice and coaching and evaluate effectiveness. These minutes are then shared with the Achievement Leader who adjusts the provision mapping accordingly.

Marking

Marking is used as a fundamental tool for formative assessment, (see marking policy). Marking should be used to highlight pupil’s strengths and areas for development and should be shared regularly with the children. Responding to pupil’s work through constructive comment acknowledges achievement, promotes positive attitudes and leads to an improvement in standards.

Monitoring of marking in book looks is done on a regular basis by SMT and Subject Leaders to ensure consistency throughout the school.

Parental involvement

We value the support and involvement of parents/carers. Class teachers hold termly parent’s meetings to discuss children’s progress and decide on actions, as well as holding meetings where issues or matters of concern arise

What happens when children are not achieving

A child has special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty which calls for special education provision to be made for them.
A child has a learning difficulty if they:

have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age; or
have a disability which prevents or hinders the child from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for children of the same age in schools within the area of the local education authority.

Children may be said to have Special Educational Needs if they are not reaching their full potential due to behavioural, intellectual, physical, emotional, or social reasons.

A child must not be regarded as having a learning difficulty solely because of the language or medium of communication of the home is different from the language in which he or she is to be taught (Education Act 1996, Section 312).

Special educational provision means education provision which is additional to or otherwise different from, the educational provision made generally for children of their age in school.

Newington Green Primary School is committed to:

using the staged approach set out in the Code of Practice to identify and provide support for children with SEN.
ensuring that each child has access to the curriculum.
involving parents and carers in the education of their child through meetings and reviews. To inform them of progress and of current targets.
ensuring that every child thrives as an independent learner in our community.
providing all staff with appropriate training to help them provide early intervention, assessment and support for children with barriers to learning.
allocating appropriate levels of resourcing to pupils with barriers to learning in response to levels of need.
ensuring that procedures for assessing and monitoring children with SEN are used systematically.
anticipating additional needs before admission and to support children with SEN at times of transition e.g. end of key stage, secondary transfer, etc.

How is staged provision for SEN managed at Newington Green?

Referral to the Assistant Head/Achievement Leader

If the teacher has any concerns that a child is not making progress or is not thriving in any way he/she would meet with the Assistant Head/Achievement Leader. The reasons for the referral would be explained to the parent/carer.

The Assistant Head/Achievement Leader is responsible for deciding what type of intervention is needed. She will advise on and monitor in class support in conjunction with the SMT and Subject Coordinators. . Assessments and referrals to outside agencies are also made by the Assistant Head/Achievement Leader

School Action

Children with referrals may move on in the process to the stage of ‘School Action’ where interventions will be put into place to support pupils’ learning.
Targets will be set and class teachers and support staff will regularly evaluate children’s progress towards their targets. Targets are shared with parents/carers in meetings and they are encouraged to work with children at home to support the targets.
Children may move on and off the ‘School Action’ stage according to need.

School Action Plus

A child who has more complex needs or who has not progressed at ‘School Action’ will be referred to outside agencies for assessment and support e.g. Speech and Language Service, Educational Psychologists, Paediatrics etc
A child at the ‘School Action Plus’ stage will usually still have an IEP and the targets set will be informed by external specialists. .
The Inclusion Manager liaises with external specialists and ensures advice is implemented. Many different specialists work in school with individuals and small groups of children.

Statement

A child who has severe needs may have a ‘Statement of SpecialEducational Needs’. In this case the parent or the school has requested that the local education authority (i.e. CEA Islington) implement a full statutory assessment.
This is a formal process where the borough requests reports from the school and all specialists involved. If the authority agrees to a full assessment then all reports are collected and a formal document called a ‘statement’ is drawn up. The statement describes the pupil’s needs and how the needs should be met in school.
Parents of pupils with a statement will be invited to a formal ‘Annual Review Meeting’ once each year. Outside specialists and the classteacher attend the meeting to look at progress over the year and to set objectives for the following year. A formal report is compiled and sent to all those at the meeting as well as to the Education Authority SEN department.

Support Services

We make full use of support services to help us to achieve our aims for children with SEN.
Parents are informed and permission is sought before any outside agencies are involved in the education of their child. External agencies that work with the school include:

Educational Psychology service
Learning Support service
Autism support
Visually Impaired service
Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties team
School Health service
Speech and Language service
Educational Social Work service
Physiotherapy service
Extended Schools Family Information service

Our school nurse provides links with the health services.

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