Education
Scotland
SPRING 2016
NEWS
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Closing the
poverty-related
attainment gap
Page 4
The new National
Improvement Hub
A major portal for
educational improvement
resources and support
Page 3
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FOCUS ON
ATTAINMENT
The Attainment
How
good is our School?
Advisors
4th
Edition
Page and
9 expertise
Using their– skills
New
copy collaboratively
being distributed
to
to work
with
all local
schools
authorities and broker
additional support.
Page 6
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1 Education Scotland NEWS
FOLLOW US
CONTENTS:
The National Improvement Hub
3
The Scottish Attainment Challenge
4
Who is my Attainment Advisor?
6
Exemplars of Practice
8
Interview with Graeme Logan
and Janie McManus
10
HGIOS 4 and Attainment
11
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A Word from Bill Maxwell
Making the shift from
self-evaluation to self-improvement
Bill Maxwell
Chief Executive of
Education Scotland
Dr Bill Maxwell is responsible
to Scottish Ministers for the
management, performance
and future development of
Education Scotland. He chairs
a management board of
executive and non-executive
directors.
Developing our system so it delivers ‘excellence with
equality’ is our national ambition and I believe it is
through focusing relentlessly on the equity part that
we will make progress.
Last year the First Minister announced
the Scottish Attainment Challenge;
a major initiative with a strong
commitment and substantial funding
over a sustained period. I believe
the way it directly puts the greatest
resources to those schools and
communities facing the greatest
scale of challenge will contribute to
young people realising their ambitions
regardless of their background.
There is a clear determination to ensure
that every authority, and potentially
every school, can benefit through
Education Scotland’s Universal Support
package, including from the support of
an Attainment Advisor who can help
broker the support practitioners need.
Education Scotland has also recently
released the National Improvement
Hub. We are working closely with
local and national partners to create a
comprehensive and accessible ‘portal’
of research, evidence and examples
of practice. The alpha site allows the
early involvement of practitioners and
education improvers, to ensure that it
works the way they need it to.
So, let’s grasp the challenge – if
we pool our energy we can make a
difference over the next few years.
Dr. Bill Maxwell
Chief Executive of Education Scotland
02 Education Scotland NEWS
THE NATIONAL IMPROVEMENT HUB
GOES LIVE
The ‘alpha’ version of the National Improvement
Hub recently went live, featuring research,
resources and practical illustrations to support
practitioners across education to improve.
An ‘alpha’ release allows practitioners to try out aspects of a
proposed digital service and influence the shape, design and
content. Depending on the feedback, some or even all of the
site will be changed in the design of the next version, the ‘beta’.
The National Improvement Hub will become a main source of
advice, support and social networking for education improvement in
Scotland, and already features a valuable range of resources that
can be easily accessed on PCs, tablets or smartphones. Some of
these have been transferred from the Education Scotland website,
including How Good Is Our School (4th edition) which was revised
last year (see page 11).
The work of the Scottish Attainment Challenge will feature
prominently as part of the National Improvement Hub. As well as
providing up to date information about the Scottish Attainment
Challenge, it will draw on information and learning from Attainment
Advisors to enable practitioners to share exemplars of practice and
evidence of what works. The combination of self-evaluation toolkits,
research and advice will support them in taking forward priorities to
reduce the poverty-related attainment gap.
Education Scotland has started an extensive programme of stakeholder
consultation to make sure the new site works for practitioners. Visitors
to the Hub are encouraged to complete an online survey. A programme
of regional meetings and detailed user testing is also planned.
“As practitioners prepare children and young people
for a digital world, their own support and development
infrastructure needs to be evolving in the same way,” said
Maureen Mallon, who is leading the National Improvement
Hub development project. “We have designed the project so
that we can capture user feedback from a very early stage,
aiming to design a site that really works for practitioners”
KNOWLEDGE
INTO ACTION
BRIEFINGS
Among the resources on the Hub will be
the new range of Knowledge Into Action
Briefings. These summarise current research
and are presented with a particular focus on
applying the knowledge with children from
disadvantaged backgrounds. The first two are
titled Differentiated Learning In Numeracy
and Mathematics, and Early Reading. Teachers,
local authority staff and other practitioners
may find them a useful starting point.
The Briefings can be
found by using the
search function on
the Hub.
Education Scotland NEWS
03
THE SCOTTISH ATTAINMENT
CHALLENGE – A SUMMARY
WHAT IS IT?
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The Scottish Attainment Challenge is a major Scottish Government
initiative to help close the attainment gap between children living in the
areas with greatest and least levels of socio-economic deprivation. It is a
joint project between Education Scotland and the Scottish Government,
and is identified as a priority in the 2015-16 Programme for Government.
During the budget debate on 24 February 2016, the Deputy
First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution
and Economy announced that the Government plans to double
the amount of funding allocated to the Attainment Scotland
Fund over the next three years from £80 million to £160 million,
bringing the total investment over four years to £180m.
Tackling the attainment gap is a challenge for everyone involved
in Scottish education to relentlessly focus efforts on reducing
the impacts of deprivation on educational outcomes. The First
Minister launched the Scottish Attainment Challenge in February
2015 in order to bring a greater sense of urgency and priority to
this issue. The Challenge offers support for Scotland’s schools
to reduce the poverty-related attainment gap. It focuses and
accelerates targeted improvements in literacy, numeracy and
health and wellbeing. The Scottish Attainment Challenge builds
on a range of initiatives and programmes already in place
to raise attainment and reduce inequity for children across
Scotland.
The Attainment Scotland Fund is providing targeted funding for
seven Challenge Authorities and also in 57 schools as part of
the Schools Programme. More than 300 primary schools are
benefitting from the Attainment Scotland Fund.
Attainment Advisors
Every local authority in Scotland has access to an
Attainment Advisor. Provided by Education Scotland, they
work alongside local authority staff and provide a blend of
support and challenge to assist with Scottish Attainment
Challenge priorities.
They will support collaboration, professional learning
and enquiry to make network links, and broker additional
support for practitioners. They will have a key role in
building the capacity of practitioners and leaders to
undertake self-evaluation and to plan effectively to support
continuous improvement. This is achieved through working
in partnership with local authority staff on agreed priorities
which support the Scottish Attainment Challenge.
Attainment Advisors can help with:
• Building capacity through developing knowledge and skills
• Establishing, facilitating and brokering relationships and
networks
• Delivering professional learning
• Sharing exemplars of practice of what works
• Coaching in context
Find out more:
Scottish Attainment Challenge: http://ow.ly/XDBG9
Challenge Authorities and Schools: http://ow.ly/XDBUR
Twitter - @attainmentscot
• Promoting collaborative learning enquiry across and
beyond schools
• Supporting inter-authority improvement partnerships
• Brokering additional support and expertise for schools and
authorities where required
Find out more: Ask for support, share professional
learning and contact the Attainment Advisors on the
Glow #SAC site
04 Education Scotland NEWS
National Improvement
Framework for Scottish
Education
The National Improvement Framework for
Scottish Education was announced as the
centrepiece of the Programme for Government
in September 2015. Following a period of
consultation the final publication was launched
by the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon
MSP, on 6 January 2016. The publication sets
out four key priorities that everyone in Scottish
education should be working towards:
•Improvement in attainment, particularly in
literacy and numeracy;
INNOVATION FUND
•Closing the attainment gap between the most
and least disadvantaged children;
•Improvement in children and young people’s
health and wellbeing; and
The Scottish Attainment Challenge Innovation Fund was
launched by the First Minister in January 2016. It provides
support to schools in all parts of Scotland to help them make
progress on narrowing the poverty-related attainment gap.
•Improvement in employability skills and
sustained, positive school leaver destinations
for all young people
The core purpose of the Innovation Fund is to identify,
fund and evaluate creative and innovative projects that
will raise attainment in literacy, numeracy and health and
wellbeing for children and young people experiencing
socio-economic disadvantage. It should help to build
capacity in schools in a way that does not require ongoing national funding.
The Framework builds on a strong record of
improvement and will drive work to continually
improve Scottish education and close the
attainment gap, delivering both excellence
and equity. Alongside the Scottish Attainment
Challenge, the Framework aims to raise
attainment and ensure equalities of outcomes
for all children and young people. As part of
the Education (Scotland) Act 2016, the reporting
procedures for the Framework have been placed
on a statutory footing.
Find out more: Make an application to the
Innovation Fund at https://t.co/ye67ZqPefa
The Framework identifies 6 key drivers of
improvement – progress across all of these is
needed to deliver the improvements we want to
see for all children:
Building on Existing Initiatives
The Scottish Attainment Challenge
builds on existing initiatives to narrow
the attainment gap by providing extra
resources and focus to accelerate
improvement. It will support the
benefits already being delivered
by Curriculum for Excellence, the
literacy and numeracy hubs, Read,
Write, Count campaign, Schools
Improvement Partnership Programme and the Raising
Attainment for All programme.
Find out more:
Existing initiatives: http://ow.ly/XDCzm
Education Scotland NEWS
•
School leadership
•
Teacher professionalism
•
Parental engagement
•
Assessment of children’s progress
•
School improvement
•
Performance information
The Framework is designed to bring together
key evidence and information to evaluate
performance, build a sound understanding of
what works and share good practice more widely.
The work already happening on improvement,
planning, reporting and evaluation leads to and
from the National Improvement Framework, as
will work across many of Education Scotland’s
key programmes.
05
INTRODUCING...
THE ATTAINMENT
ADVISORS
Attainment Advisors are working directly with local authorities
and schools to carry out a range of improvement activities.
Eilean Siar
To find out more about Attainment Advisors, and to get
in touch with them, visit the #SAC Glow site.
Inverclyde
Council
Cara Cooper
West
Dunbartonshire
Council
Argyll and
Bute Council
Alison Drever
Renfrewshire
Council
Patricia
Scullion
Gail Copland
East
Renfrewshire
Council
Mary-Ann
Hagan
North Ayrshire
Council
Janice Neilson
Maeve
MacKinnon
The Highland
Council
Arlene Wilson
East
Dunbartonshire
Council
Elizabeth
Montgomery
Glasgow City
Council
Sharon
Hayward
South Ayrshire
Council
Jackie
Gallagher
North
Lanarkshire
Council
Patricia Leeson
East Ayrshire
Council
Heidi
Fawcett
South
Lanarkshire
Council
Patricia Lennon
06 Education Scotland NEWS
Orkney Islands
Council
Liz Paterson
The Moray
Perth and
Kinross
Council
Ron Cowie
Dumfries and
Galloway
Council
Simon Ross
Aberdeen
City Council
Sarah Webb
Angus
Council
Louise Glen
Stirling
Council
Council
Maggie Fallon
Liz Thomson
Clackmannanshire
West Lothian
Council
Carol
Copstick
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Aberdeenshire
Council
Susan Duff
Council
Alan
Urquhart
Shetland
Islands Council
Suzanne
Hargreaves
Dundee City
Council
Audrey May
Fife Council
Hugh Martin
Midlothian
Council
Joe Walker
Falkirk
Council
Jim Fanning
The City of
Edinburgh
Council
Jacqueline
Scott
East Lothian
Council
Susan Gow
Scottish
Borders
Council
Linda Rae
Education Scotland NEWS
07
EXEMPLARS
OF PRACTICE
The Attainment Advisors are helping to develop
a network of expertise across Scotland. Working
closely with their local authority, they support
practitioners with advice on what works in literacy,
numeracy, health and wellbeing, encouraging a
strong culture of collaborative learning.
Here two Attainment Advisors share examples of
what is working in their area.
Cara Cooper,
Attainment Advisor,
Inverclyde
Inverclyde Coaching and Modelling Team
Each of the Challenge Authorities has its own improvement
plan, tailored to local requirements. Inverclyde Council’s plan
has included the setting up of a dedicated team of Coaching
and Modelling Officers working with directly with practitioners
in classrooms to improve literacy, numeracy and health and
wellbeing.
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Our work illustrates the importance of combining data with
relationships. By combining the SIMD data with other information,
including Performance Information in Primary Schools (PIPS) and
observations using POLAAR, we can identify children who are at
risk of under-attainment.
Support is then put in place for them, their teachers and schools.
Drawing on their experience as practitioners, the Coaching and
Modelling Officers work collaboratively, developing relationships
with the leadership team, classroom teachers and pupils. They are
finding that this is paying off, and helping them support initiatives in
the classroom.
Interventions used include developing nurturing approaches, and
using commercial numeracy and literacy products for particular
target groups. Results are shared across all the schools, and to the
wider attainment network through my role as advisor.
While only a few months into their role, the team are encouraged
to see improvements in vocabulary and reading in target groups,
which we know is a key factor in future attainment.
Julie, Grace and Elaine express great passion, commitment and
enthusiasm for their role.
As Inverclyde’s Attainment Advisor, I have been working closely
with the team, supporting them as they train practitioners in the
use of the Primary One Literacy Assessment and Action Resource
(POLAAR available at http://ow.ly/XDWgn).
The Coaching and Modelling team has been together since last
autumn, and comprises 3 teachers who have additional experience
in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing; Julie Hall, Grace
McKelvie and Elaine McLoughlin. The council has prioritised 6
primary schools for additional support in year 1, chosen after an
analysis of relevant data, including SIMD. Based on this data and
the ‘start small, think big’ model for improvement, 3 further schools
will join in each of years 2 and 3.
08 Education Scotland NEWS
The club is now in its second year, and is used by 22 families, an
increase from 12 last year. Headteacher Nancy Clunie told me that
all parents got the opportunity to take part, and parents register for
a variety of reasons. Some of the most vulnerable families in her
school attend, and she has noted a considerable increase in parent
confidence.
The Mums I spoke to told me that they love the chat, the fact the
children get outside, and that they find it easier to get homework
done at the club than at home. One pupil told me that the food is
also a big attraction: I’ve been thinking all day about what we’ll get
at The Club tonight. I hope it’s curry!’
As an established project that pre-dates the Scottish Attainment
Challenge, Dalmarnock Family Meal/Homework Club has valuable
achievements to learn from.
Sharon Hayward,
Attainment Advisor,
Glasgow
Dalmarnock Family Meal/Homework Club,
Glasgow
As soon as you arrive at Dalmarnock Family Meal/Homework
Club you are aware of the relaxed and happy atmosphere, as well
as the wonderful smell of cooking! The club meets in Bridgeton
Community Centre once a week, and brings both parents and
children together, supported by teachers and community workers
through the Community Planner Partners project.
The school serves an area of considerable deprivation with
83.5% of children living in the 30% most deprived postcodes
measured by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD).
In the past three years, the roll has almost doubled to 420 as a
result of Commonwealth games legacy housing, and the range of
languages families speak has expanded from 3 to 36.
As children do their homework, they are helped by both educators
and sometimes parents, who are supported to hear reading and
ask good questions even though this is not a primary function of the
club.
Afterwards, while the children play outside in the park or in the
centre’s computer suite, the parents are supported in creating a
two-course hot meal which is then enjoyed by families together. For
parents with no or limited English, the team offer simple language
cards with ingredients printed and written in English and simple
instructions translated. It’s an opportunity for parents to support
each other, for example discussing children’s faddy eating habits.
Education Scotland NEWS
09
SCOTTISH ATTAINMENT
CHALLENGE:
AN INTERVIEW WITH GRAEME LOGAN AND JANIE MCMANUS
Education Scotland is working in partnership with
Scottish Government and Local Authorities to
implement the Scottish Attainment Challenge. As
Strategic Director, Attainment and Improvement,
Graeme Logan is leading the Challenge for
Education Scotland. Assistant Director Janie
McManus is responsible for the Universal Support
elements, including the Attainment Advisors.
It’s been a year since the Challenge was first
announced. What has been achieved?
Graeme: A huge amount. We have put in place our team of
Attainment Advisors, who are working with local authorities
and schools as they implement their projects. We have also
launched the Scottish Attainment Challenge National Hub
and set up professional learning communities on GLOW to
support practitioners. Schools across Scotland are using data
to identify the size of the attainment gap in their context. We all
need to be ambassadors for children living in poverty.
Work has been underway to close the attainment gap
for some years. Why is this initiative needed?
How will the work of the National Improvement
Framework and Scottish Attainment Challenge work
together to support children and young people?
Graeme: The National Improvement Framework is intended
to drive both excellence and equity in Scottish education. We
want to deliver both excellence in terms of ensuring children
and young people acquire a broad range of skills and equity so
that every child has the same opportunity to succeed, with a
particular focus on closing the poverty-related attainment gap.
The Scottish Attainment Challenge is designed to accelerate
progress on a key aspect of the Framework – closing the
poverty related attainment gap.
What can I expect from the Attainment Advisor in my
local authority area?
Janie: Attainment Advisors will work with local authority staff to
support the range of strategies in place to improve attainment
for children from the most deprived communities in order to
close the poverty-related attainment gap. They will have a key
role in supporting effective self-evaluation to support school
improvement and will share learning about what is working
through the #SAC online communities on Glow and the
National Improvement Hub.
Janie: As a former teacher and headteacher I know how
committed staff are to ensuring they meet the learning needs
of every child through learning and teaching and putting in the
right support at the right time. What is remarkable about the
Challenge is the scale of the commitment, and the positive
response across Scotland from schools to work together to
tackle the poverty-related attainment gap.
10 Education Scotland NEWS
HGIOS 4 AND
ATTAINMENT
Using How Good Is Our
School (4th edition) to improve
attainment was a key theme of
the professional learning events
held throughout Scotland during
autumn 2015 following the
launch of the revised framework. • having clear information on learners’
This new publication has a
strengthened focus on:
• Learners and their families
• Equality, inclusion and wellbeing
• Equity
• Partnership and collaboration
It is focused explicitly on making a
strong contribution to closing the gap in
attainment and achievement between
the most disadvantaged children and
their peers. HGIOS?4 can be used
to evaluate how well learners of all
backgrounds are achieving literacy and
numeracy skills and how effectively
their wellbeing and skills for learning,
life and work are being developed.
Within the publication the quality
indicators (QIs) are arranged under
the 3 organisers of leadership and
management, learning provision and
success and achievement. Raising
attainment can be easily identified as a
theme which runs right across all 3 of
these organisers.
The level 5 illustrations prompt
practitioners to question how they
demonstrate all aspects of attainment,
including:
Education Scotland NEWS
attainment across all curriculum areas
• consulting families to ensure their
literacy, numeracy, health and
wellbeing outcomes are being
met, and that they have increased
aspirations as individuals and as
families
• putting in place effective strategies
which are improving attainment and
achievement for children and young
people facing challenges
Looking inwards:
knowing ourselves
inside out through
effective self-evaluation
“The most important
first step to securing
improvement is effective
self-evaluation,” said
Patricia Watson, HM
Inspector, “and we’ve
included examples relevant
to attainment in the level
5 illustrations, features
of effective practice and
challenge questions.”
Looking outwards:
learning from what
happens elsewhere to
challenge our own thinking
Looking
forwards:
exploring what
the future might hold for
today’s learners and planning
how to get there
11
NOW AVAILABLE...
Resources to support practitioners in raising attainment.
National Numeracy
Progression Framework
This resource has been created to deepen practitioners’
knowledge and understanding of progression within
the experiences and outcomes for numeracy and
mathematics. It shows the progression milestones in the
numeracy organisers; key milestones and building blocks
in mathematics and exemplification of building blocks
showing good practice.
Primary One Literacy Assessment
and Action Resource
The Primary One Literacy Assessment and Action
Resource (POLAAR) is designed to help P1 teachers
identify and assess children who are most at risk of
developing later difficulties with reading and writing.
It is based on a staged intervention model of ‘observeaction-observe’ which helps identify the most effective
intervention to take at classroom and child levels.
Approaches to physical activity
in the primary years
Engaging parents and families:
A toolkit for practitioners
This toolkit is a comprehensive online resource which
will support parental involvement and engagement. It
will provide practitioners with support for self-evaluation
and self-improvement through links to research, effective
practice case studies, examples of improvement journeys,
and professional learning materials that can be used by
individuals or in groups. The toolkit has been developed
in partnership with Scottish Government and a variety
of parental and family organisations including National
Parent Forum of Scotland, Scottish Parent Teacher Council
and the Scottish Parental Involvement Officers Network.
This resource explores different approaches to increasing
physical activity taken by 3 Scottish primary schools. A
series of short video clips establishes the contribution
physical activity makes to the wider health and wellbeing
agenda, then offer 3 different examples. The impact on
learners’ mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing
and their continued readiness to learn is highlighted.
All can be downloaded from the
Education Scotland website:
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/resources/
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