Donaldson Readiness - A Case Study
Ty Sign Primary, Risca
Supporting Subject Coordinators to be Donaldson Ready
School profile
Ty Sign Primary in Risca is a large primary school in the Caerphilly local authority where a third of pupils are eligible for free school meals and approximately 30% have additional learning needs.
What were we asked to support?
In the Summer term of 2016, head teacher Alison Dacey decided the way in which her staff taught in the classroom and supported and collaborated with each other needed to change in line with the newly published Donaldson Report. Alison contacted Impact School Improvement to support her Subject Coordinators and Senior Leaders with a particular focus on raising standards in Literacy and Numeracy across the curriculum.
What did we do?
From June 2016 we worked with the school to create a new staffing structure that reflects the Areas of Learning & Experience together with clearly defined roles and responsibilities documents for all Senior Leaders and Subject Coordinators, as well as a monitoring schedule and policy documents for all subjects. These actions were the first steps towards preparing school structures for the new Curriculum for Wales in line with Donaldson’s 68 recommendations.
Our next step was to support Subject Coordinators for all subjects, including the cross curricular responsibilities of Literacy, Numeracy and DCF to review, to evaluate and rewrite their subject curriculum maps. For Literacy, Numeracy and DCF this meant looking very closely at all school data, both quantitative and qualitative in order to accurately identify whole school skill priorities for development that should appear prominently in the new curriculum maps. This process focussed on addressing the 4 Purposes of the new curriculum. The next step in this process that some subjects have already almost completed is to renew Schemes of Learning for each subject so that they provide a breadth of experiential learning in line with the 12 pedagogical principles of the Donaldson Review.
What Impact has the support had?
Expected Impact
In response to these strategic improvements Estyn commented in a report on the school's work published in January of this year:
"A particular strength of the school is the detailed provision now in place to support the progressive development of pupils’ literacy and numeracy skills. Pupils benefit from structured opportunities to apply these skills in relevant and increasingly challenging contexts across the curriculum."
The changes implemented by the senior leadership team with our support have not only ensured that all staff are using data effectively to plan for improved outcomes but have informed a renewed Teaching & Learning Policy that is now truly a working document and sets out expectations for what the experience of learning should mean for every child.
Next steps for the school
The school has very recently begun a MAT project with our support, looking at Higher Order Reading skills for more able pupils. The focus for this project is providing a consistent, effective MAT identification process in order to develop independent, capable learners who "set themselves high standards, and seek and enjoy challenge". The long term aim of the project is to embed an understanding of how to progress analytical reading skills across the curriculum that eventually all pupils will benefit from, not just those at the top end of the ability spectrum.
As Alison Dacey Headteacher comments:
“We know Literacy is the skill that really makes the difference for our disadvantaged pupils. We’ve introduced some key interventions, but we want to see it from the perspective of mastery. How our most able learners improve should inform how all our learners can be supported to improve. So, this isn’t just ticking that MAT box, but a project aiming to improve the life chances for all our pupils.”
The long term aim of the project is to develop numerical reasoning in a similar way learning from the successes and challenges of the MAT Reading Skills project to ensure success.
A Little More About Us
Can you trust us? - We have both worked for Welsh Government supporting schools & senior leaders across Wales. We have held senior leadership posts, delivered support to strategic education advisers, and published curriculum support guidance with Oxford University Publishing...but if you need to know more visit our website for testimonials from schools we've worked with.
Why should you buy our support? - Put simply, because we believe in impact. We do exactly what our name suggests. Our school support is always bespoke, high quality and designed specifically for each school we work with. Our focus is on delivering measurable impact for pupils.
Email: enquiries@impact.wales
Website: impact.wales
Location: Caerphilly CF83 3GG, United Kingdom
Phone: 029 2167 9140
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Twitter: @ImpactWales