Why this is leading practice
• Standards and Progress in Maths and English have risen in Foundation, KS1 and KS2 well above national levels, recognised as one of the most 100 improved schools in England in 2007
• An outstanding Quality Mark inspection (April 2008) and Ofsted (2007) highlighted the effectiveness of the school’s target setting systems and procedures.
• Pupils have identified this aspect as a strength of the school and parents comment favorably on its effectiveness.
• The LA regularly send visitors to the school to see the practice in operation recognising it as ‘best practice’.
Impact to date
• Pupils really enjoy CT’s they are keen and motivated to achieve them and overtly share with SLT their progress.
• RESULTS( trends over time 2004-2008)
• FS reading improved by 20% at FSP 6+, writing increased by 58% and Maths 46% improvement
while National decreased in all areas.
• KS1 reading improved by 33% at level 2+ and 47% at level 3, Writing improved by 34% at level 2b+ and 21% at level 3 and Maths improved by 42% at level 2b+ and 26% at level 3. Nationally there was a decrease in all areas.
• KS2 English an improvement of 42% at level 4+,reading an improvement of 39% and writing an improvement of 65%. In Maths a 54% improvement. The percentage of pupils achieving level 4+ in English and Maths improved by 57% in all cases of the above the National figures only increased between 3 to 4 %
• The school was recognised as one of the hundred most improved school is England in December 2007
• LA key outcome stated “Pupil culture related to target achievement is excellent”
• School has been asked by the LA to share its good practice.
• School moved from Special Measures to ‘Good’ in just four terms with target setting procedures identified as ‘Good’
• School achieved an outstanding Quality Mark with CT procedures identified as best practice
• The systematic tracking of pupils’ progress and setting challenging targets has resulted in the raising of standards.
• Results have improved dramatically, some subjects by 54% and 57%. School was recognised as one of the 100 most improved schools in December 2007.
• Improved Teaching & Learning – all staff have a thorough knowledge of the needs of the children through their tracking systems and are well prepared and able to respond to these needs.
• Parents are much more involved in their children’s learning and want to support them to do well.
• Pupils are very motivated and enjoy the challenge of the curricular targets and the opportunity to win a big prize.
• Governors are well informed and are involved in the target-setting process as well as the analysis of results for each year group.
Rationale / Start Point
In all year groups , Reception to Year 6 pupils have termly ability related curricular targets for reading, writing, mental maths and written maths. These are identified through question analysis of termly tests which identifies whole school specific foci. These are layered back into age related targets across different ability levels. Pupils know their own targets and can clearly articulate their targets. This is because whole school systems for embedding pupil understanding of these are integral into the school day. As a result pupils have ownership of the process and care deeply about achieving them and results have risen steeply.
Key Strategies
• The whole school community is committed to raising standards through curricular targets. Pupils take ownership of their learning and Parents are much more knowledgeable about their children’s learning.
• Governors are involved in the target setting processes and attend termly pupil progress meetings.
• Class and school council vote on the desired target prizes which are then funded by school and awarded during curricular target assembly
• Pupil targets run from Reception to Year 6 and are altered termly
• Provision of targets meets individual pupil needs through the ‘layering process’
• Teachers termly up-date class target boards and provide measurable progress systems for pupils
• Identify key questions in end of term QCA Maths assessments which ‘prove’ CT achievement, which are shared with pupils
• Literacy & Numeracy leaders write school targets for reading, writing, mental and written maths.
• The targets are verified by SLT who then complete N.C. sub level and curricular target achievement for each child.
• Weekly SLT meetings identify key target setting actions.
• A MEAN board highlights how school is Monitoring, Evaluating, Assessing and determining the Next steps. This is colour-coded to demonstrate the input of each member of the SLT
Sustainability and Further Development
The school has already identified areas for future focus and development
• Every Friday there is an half-an-hour ‘surgery session’ run by the Class Teacher for those children who have been identified in the assessment analysis as requiring further support – school is monitoring this new initiative.
• School is trialling personal developments in Every Child Matters, preparing children with life skills.
• Parents who were involved with the ‘Learning Walk’ would like to repeat this initiative and perhaps expand the number of schools involved.
• School is working towards achieving ‘outstanding’ in their next Ofsted inspection.