Achievement for All
Professor Sonia Blandford
 Achievement for All takes a whole school approach to school
improvement.
 It is focused on improving teaching and learning for all children
and young people, particularly the 20% of the school population
identified as having special educational needs and disabilities,
 too many of whom are not achieving as well as their peers
relative to their starting points and are leaving education without the
skills and qualifications they need to become independent adults.
 Achievement for All has three approaches to school improvement:
 Improving the aspirations, progress and achievement of all
children and young people, through high expectations, effective use
of assessment and focused target setting supported and informed
by;
 Improved engagement with parents of children and young people
in supporting their child’s learning through target focused structured
conversations which;
 Improve the achievement, access and aspiration of children and
young people and provide a wide range of learning opportunities
in the classroom and beyond.

“AFA has put SEND back in the classroom.” (Head teacher, Bexley)

“Through AFA, teachers have a much clearer picture of this (vulnerable, SEND) group of pupils.”
(Manchester University)

“I feel listened to and really valued in the structured conversations.” (Year 5 parent)

“I know exactly what type of support my son is receiving and what his targets are so that I can help him
more too.” (Year 5 parent)

“My son is now more confident, he interacts better, he is learning more and he feels better about himself.
He used to really struggle and was so clingy with me.” (Year 1 parent)

“I feel very comfortable coming into this school even though I have not felt like this in other schools and I
used to hate school when I was a kid. I feel confident now when I help my child with her reading.”
(Year 1 parent – also has older children in secondary school)
Developing –
Achievement,
Access and
Aspirations
for All Children and Young People
Achievement for All is based on the belief
that teachers and school leaders can have a
profound impact
on all children and young people by
developing their achievement, access
and aspirations.
How?
 Learn
 Remove Barriers
 Want and know how to achieve
 This means having high expectations of what they can achieve,
working in partnership with parents to set targets for their learning
and track their progress, and increasing the range of learning
opportunities available to them demonstrating how:
 An effective teacher increases access and raises aspirations as a
means to improving achievement.
 An inspirational teacher improves achievement in a way that
changes a learners’ Aspirations, and in doing so improves their life
chances by securing Access to continued Achievement and selffulfilment.
 Achievement, Access and Aspirations are each broad terms
encompassing multiple factors that impact on an individual’s life
chances. By changing teaching and learning behaviours, vulnerable
and underachieving learners, including those with special
educational needs and disabilities, will achieve.
Access includes but is
Achievement
not limited to:
-engagement,
-exclusionary
barriers,
-opportunity,
-participation.
includes but is not
limited to:
-attainment,
-experience of
success,
-progress.
Aspirations
includes but is not limited to:
-motivation,
-orientation,
-self-concept,
-self-efficacy.
The role of school leaders
 Research has identified four key aspects of school
leadership that are particularly relevant to achievement,
access and aspirations for all children and young people.
 A shared vision - a core set of values and beliefs,
shared by all staff, that all children and young people
have the right to opportunities to develop their
learning
 Commitment – to creating an ethos and culture of
achievement across the whole school, a determination to
secure the best provision for vulnerable children and
young people and to effective continuing professional
development of staff
 Collaboration – with parents, children and young people
and others within and beyond the school, including other
schools, to develop and share best practice
 Communication – with and between children and young
people, their parents, staff, other schools and other
agencies
 The impact of achievement, access and aspiration
should change a student’s life chances and also change
the behaviours of teachers [a shift/development of
practice to lead pupils’ learning].
 Long term impact of achievement, access and
aspiration may take several years in demonstrable
terms.
 Goal: An ambitious, measurable end of the year aim for
teachers – includes each of the 3A’s
 Outcome: The result of an implemented goal
 Strategy: Interventions to achieve goal
 Story: The reporting of the journey towards the goal
travelling through the 3A’s
Data-Driven Discussion cycle:
– Assess, Analyse, Act
– teachers will be able to analyse through pedagogy
– teachers will engage in a process by recognising through recording and analysis
the impact of their strategies
– teachers will be able to identify the problem on an individual, class and subject
basis and change their behaviours accordingly.
Pedagogical Links
 Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956)
– Cognitive: mental skills (Knowledge)
– Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (Attitude)
– Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (Skills)

Alternative pedagogical frames?
– Wiggins and McTighe (Understanding by Design, 2005); Teaching As Leadership
(2009); the Leading Learning principles
 Access to high quality teaching and learning is critical
 What prevents a student achieving their goal? Access obstacles,
including but not limited to, are:
– Psychological
– Social
– Physical
– Financial
– Environmental
– Emotional
– Learning
– Teaching
 Plus access to life opportunities
 Aspiration is about having high expectations about what
individual learners can achieve
 Aspiration reflects a ‘can do’ mentality; the ‘light bulb’ moment when
a student decides that they can meet the challenges and gain
access to learning
 Achievement and Access are of little value or use without
Aspiration to succeed and to take advantage of opportunities,
learners need to identify with a belief that they can succeed.
 Aspiration can be broken down into the elements needed by
the student to learn
 teachers can define the elements needed through
discussion/dialogue with the learner
 Our understanding of “aspiration” is to break it down into:
– “motivation” (wanting to achieve something/desire to learn), and
– “mindset” (self-efficacy/belief that one can achieve through hard
work)
 The success of the goal might be measured and
documented for pupils by:
– Achievement: ‘What are the hard and soft strategies and
outcomes? What is the story?’
– Access: ‘Is the student able to access the learning in order to
achieve the goal?’
– Aspiration: ‘Do the students engage with the goal? What
strategies have been set to change behaviours?’
– For the teacher, ‘How have I changed my behaviour?’
 Achievement for All takes a whole school approach to school
improvement.
 It is focused on improving teaching and learning for all children
and young people, particularly the 20% of the school population
identified as having special educational needs and disabilities,
 too many of whom are not achieving as well as their peers
relative to their starting points and are leaving education without the
skills and qualifications they need to become independent adults.
Next Steps
• LA
• NC
• Green Paper
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