Foreword
1. Introduction
2. Context
3. Characteristics of low-attaining young people and the risks and barriers they face
4. The achievement gap
5. What works in raising achievement?
6. Curriculum, Learning and Teaching
7. Leadership
8. Partnerships
9. How can we move forward?
10. References
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Most of our young people perform well at school and leave appropriately prepared for the next stages in their lives. There are, however, a number of our young people whose life chances are considerably reduced through low achievement at school, many of whom end up in the group who are not in education, employment or training (the NEET group). By the age of 21, a young male who has been in this group for six months is three times more likely than average to have mental health issues, five times more likely to have a criminal record and six times less likely to have any qualifications. Responding effectively to the needs of this group of young people while they are still at school is complex. Their problems are not new, nor are they soluble by schools entirely on their own. Various forms of social disclocation, often associated with deprivation, pose immense challenges to us all. However, it remains essential that the needs of these young people are addressed strategically and individually by all of the public services which exist to support them and their families.
A number of important steps have been taken nationally to create a better strategic context. Ambitious, Excellent Schools sets out a range of measures designed to raise the ambitions of schools, instil belief and ambition in pupils, extend their opportunities and transform their life chances. The Additional Support for Learning Act applies not only to educational services, but to a range of agencies, including social work and health. Together with Getting It Right for Every Child, it encourages services to work together to support children at risk of missing out and to improve their educational achievements.
Real improvement will, of course, only be achieved through the direct actions of our schools, teachers and the full range of social services. For those actions to be well focused and effective, we need to be clear about the precise nature of the problem to be addressed. We should reflect carefully on why local authorities vary in the proportion of pupils they have in the lowest performing twenty per cent nationally. It is crucial that schools and providers of services to children and young people are aware of the factors at play for children who are at risk of missing out on educational opportunities.
A number of signposts to effective practice in schools come through from inspection. Early identification and prompt intervention are essential. Responding to each young person as an individual, maintaining high expectations and providing relevant, challenging and enjoyable learning experiences can all contribute to sustaining early gains. The emphasis placed within
A Curriculum for Excellence on developing the capacities of our young people offers opportunities to create a curriculum which will prepare young people more effectively for life after school. Determined To Succeed also helps by pointing the way to a much better understanding of the role of enterprise in the educational experience of all pupils.
The problems which lie behind underachievement are not amenable to quick or easy solutions. There is encouraging evidence from a recent international study that Scotland is closing the gap in attainment. Sustaining that improvement will require effective and determined leadership at all levels in the system. Since the publication of Count Us In (2002), HMIE has taken a number of steps to identify and spread best inclusion practice. This report is a further contribution to that process. We will soon be publishing materials on excellence in schools that focus on ways in which we can improve further the effectiveness of schools for all childen and young people. To achieve excellence, we must ensure that those children at risk of missing out do not.
Graham Donaldson
January 2006
Over the period 2003-2005, HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) carried out a task to investigate some of the approaches which schools and education authorities are taking to raise the attainment and achievement of all pupils. This report aims to highlight characteristics of good practice, raise issues and suggest further ways of improving the overall performance of pupils.
In carrying out our investigation, we focused particularly on approaches aimed at improving the performance of the lowest-attaining 20% of pupils. We sent questionnaires to all education authorities and a sample of schools across Scotland, examined relevant statistics and carried out a literature search on aspects of under-achievement. We also visited a number of primary and secondary schools with effective practice in tackling underachievement. In addition, we drew on evidence from related tasks and from our national inspection programme.
As well as revealing some good practice, our findings highlighted a number of issues including a lack of consistency and clarity across Scotland in identifying, measuring, and tackling underachievement for the lowest-attaining pupils.
Some questions explored in this report include the following.
The Scottish Executive’s Ministerial Task Force on Poverty and Inclusion published its first report, Social Justice: a Scotland where everyone matters, in November 1999. The report set out the Executive’s vision, policy and targets for tackling social exclusion in Scotland. The following two of the five themes are important for this report.
For Children
For Young people
More recently, the Scottish Executive has published a report on the NEET ‘workstream’ as part of its Employability Framework for Scotland and a NEET Literature Review which examines some of the issues and risks facing young people at the transition stage of leaving school. In terms of school education, a powerful driver for change for children at risk of missing out (and who subsequently may become part of the NEET group) is the implementation of the Additional Support for Learning Act along with the associated Supporting children’s learning: code of practice. The Act places duties not only on educational services, but on a range of agencies to work together to support children at risk of missing out.
Within the context of community planning, Integrated Children’s Services Planning has been introduced to assist local authorities, NHS Boards and their local partners to deliver successful outcomes for children and young people. This relies on an integrated, holistic approach among service providers working closely in partnership together with the young person and their family. Getting it Right for Every Child is the Scottish Executive’s review of the Children’s Hearings system. In addition to proposals for change, the review recommends a unified approach to children’s services requiring a single assessment, one plan and a greater focus on outcomes. The National Review of Guidance sets out standards of personal support for children and young people in schools and clarifies roles for staff involved. In this regard, all staff need to be aware of the difference that positive relationships can make to the lives of young people.
An integrated system of inspection of children’s services will be introduced by 2008. It will evaluate the impact and quality of outcomes for children and families and the effectiveness of joint working across services. Inspections will cover all services for children including education, health, social work, social care, youth justice and police. The inspection framework complements the Scottish Executive’s quality improvement framework.
A main way of identifying the lowest-attaining 20% of pupils has been through analyses of the ‘tariff scores’ derived from pupils’ performance in Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) courses. The tariff scores give some indication of the numbers and characteristics of young people with the lowest scores.
The lowest-performing group of pupils includes:
A challenge for schools faced with the current national target, which is an aggregate across schools, is to identify those pupils in the school who are in the lowest performing 20% nationally. A more useful perspective is to examine the barriers and ‘risk factors’ facing each pupil. Recent research reviews point to factors associated with being at risk of missing out on opportunities.
Supporting children’s learning: code of practice identifies four main categories of factors which may hinder effective learning. These factors can be described as follows.
In order to identify pupils affected by these factors, schools have to assess the risks facing each pupil and how best to address their personal needs. For most pupils, their needs will be met through providing high quality learning experiences and effective personal support and advice, the normal work of an excellent school. For others, an analysis of their needs and the risk they face will reveal that additional support is required. Schools cannot provide all the support themselves. This is recognised by the duties placed on other agencies to work in partnership with schools in supporting those pupils who need it in order to raise their levels of achievement. Schools need to be more proactive in seeking and expecting such support. In the case of secondary schools, staff must also ensure that, as new approaches are explored and adopted in pupils’ support and guidance, these approaches are targeted at tracking pupils’ progress and reducing barriers to learning.
The highest proportion of low-attaining pupils live in the most deprived areas of Scotland. For example, twice the expected proportion of pupils who leave school with no qualifications are to be found in the 15% most deprived areas of Scotland. Deprivation and low achievement are inextricably linked, and this link persists over time and across generations. A multiplier effect comes into play too. The greater the number of risk factors, the greater the likelihood that low attainment will get worse. Consequently, approaches that target resources to where they are most needed should continue to be adopted.
Individual schools and intervention programmes do make a difference in raising the performance of low-achieving pupils and increasing their life chances. It is therefore essential that we identify vulnerable children and young people at the earliest possible stage in order to address their needs and break the downward spiral of under achievement. Once identified, pupils’ progress should be rigorously and continuously monitored so that prompt intervention can take place at the first sign of difficulty. Evidence from Better Behaviour-Better Learning, shows the value of prompt and staged intervention approaches.
Taking a close look at the relationship between the group of pupils with the lowest recorded attainment and the post-school NEET group shows that the issues are not straightforward. Some pupils do not get credit for their successes. Many pupils with additional support needs attain well against their personal objectives at school but do not necessarily gain high tariff scores. The NEET group contains many ‘gap-year’ young people who will not pose long-term problems. In addition, the composition of the NEET group can be fluid, particularly in the first year after young people leave school and it remains a challenge for education authorities to find reliable statistics to describe this group. Nevertheless, schools and education authorities need to pay more attention to leavers’ destination figures. Authorities should consider how best to work with other agencies and partners such as Careers Scotland to track the destinations of young people over a longer period. They should develop their understanding of the relationships between the lowest-attaining pupils, the NEET group and wider community developments and support for families with a view to improving — and sustaining — positive leaver destinations. The Scottish Executive will shortly publish a comprehensive strategy for tackling the issues surrounding the NEET group with a view to improving the outcomes for those concerned.
Tariff score2 analyses indicate that the average attainment of the highest-performing pupils at S4, in terms of SQA National Qualifications (NQs), is gradually increasing whilst the figures for the lowest-attaining 20% of pupils have remained fairly constant in recent years. This suggests that the ‘gap’ in attainment is increasing slightly. However, whilst tariff scores have some value in identifying the characteristics of low-attaining pupils, we should be cautious about using them to quantify any attainment gap. Tariff scores do not count successes in NQ units that are not part of full courses and do not take account of some award-bearing courses, such as Right Track, the Princes’ Trust XL, Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network courses, and Duke of Edinburgh Awards. In addition, no account is taken of other broader areas of achievement such as work experience, residential experiences, arts and cultural activities or enterprise activities.
In order to have such award-bearing courses recognised, it is important to have these placed appropriately on the SCQF sysem so that they can be measured in equivalent terms to NQ and other awards.
Not all pupils in the lowest-attaining 20% of pupils are performing poorly. Some pupils with additional support needs who achieve highly against personal targets are counted among the lowest-performing 20%. For some of these pupils, SQA courses are not appropriate. Indeed pupils with additional support needs may have successfully achieved or exceeded their targets but the tariff score does not take this into account. Current tariff scores denote differences in attainment amongst higher-attaining pupils by larger numbers of additional points than is the case for lower-attaining pupils. For example, a pupil who improves from a B to an A Grade at Higher gains 12 points, but a pupil who improves from a B to an A at Intermediate 1 gains four points.
Other sources of information can help in analysing these issues. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) provides an alternative perspective on the achievement gap. This project, run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), assesses the performance in reading lieracy, mathematical literacy and scientific literacy of 15-year-old students in its member countries. The PISA 2003 results suggest that Scotland is closing the gap in attainment. It indicates that between 2000 and 2003, the performance of the lowest 25% of students in reading literacy has improved, and that the gap in scores narrowed by 15%. Whilst this was not statistically significant, no other OECD country had narrowed its gap in scores by as much. Scotland had the smallest gap in mathematical literacy.
We know that pupils’ early experiences are critical to their future success. The national 5-14 data for reading, writing and mathematics shows that the proportion of pupils who are not achieving the expected level is falling, which is good news. However, the proportion of pupils exceeding the expected level is rising at a slightly higher rate so the gap at 5-14 is slowly increasing. It is important that the future Scottish Survey of Achievement builds in the ability to analyse changes in the performance of the lowest-achieving group to track changes over time.
In the light of the differing conclusions that can be drawn from the various sources of information about the differences between low- and high-attaining pupils it is more constructive to focus on improving the achievement of pupils in the lowest-attaining group nationally. We should focus more on the extent to which schools can improve the achievement of particular groups, what works in removing barriers, and how to assess risks and meet pupils’ needs rather than on measuring differences in performance between groups.
Overall, we should seek excellence by aiming to raise the attainment of children and young people in a way which enables all of them to reach their potential, and reduces the overall spread of achievement from the lowest to the highest achievers. In particular, we should seek a greater proportional increase in the performance of the low-attaining group.
Schools which were improving the life chances of low-attaining pupils through raising their achievement, used a number of approaches. Some introduced a variety of award-bearing courses to motivate and achieve success. They used curriculum flexibility so that pupils gained awards in courses at colleges of further education, and extended work experience and activities were accredited by voluntary organisations. Few of these awards were recognised through tariff scores and consequently the success of these pupils was being underestimated.
Schools which were successful in raising attainment and achievement for all pupils demonstrated the following characteristics.
Teaching that provided the highest quality learning experiences
Leadership and a shared mission
Partnerships including those with parents and families
Reflection on practice that valued people
Ethos of ambition/achievement
The next three sections look at some of these aspects in more detail.
Effective schools made well-judged use of curriculum flexibility to enhance the achievement of lower-attaining pupils. While all recognised that some pupils were not achieving as well as others, frequently the focus was not on all of the lowest-attaining ones. Nevertheless, some schools knew who such pupils were and used curriculum flexibility and personalised, and less linear, pathways to progress. Such schools provided pupils with opportunities to achieve in a range of areas and very good support and alternative approaches to learning. The approaches used included the following.
High quality learning and teaching experiences were crucial in motivating pupils to behave, learn and achieve. This was true of all stages from early intervention with language and literacy in early education settings to meeting pupils’ educational, social, emotional and behavioural needs throughout primary and secondary education, and beyond. Vulnerable pupils often benefited from out-of-school learning experiences which built their confidence and self-esteem whilst developing their skills of independence and team working.
Example of good practice
In an inner city primary school, in an area of multiple deprivation, the headteacher had worked well with parents and pupils to raise attendance to above the national average. With the support of her staff she carefully monitored the progress of each child and set them targets which the teachers discussed with pupils at regular intervals. If a child was in need of support it was delivered promptly. The school celebrated success very well. The headteacher monitored learning and teaching very effectively and discussed issues with staff and gave praise when it was due to both staff and pupils. The school was successful in driving up attainment to above the national averages in language and mathematics.
In the best practice, staff had ambitious and realistic expectations of what pupils could achieve. Teaching helped pupils to recall and build on their prior learning. They shared with pupils what they expected them to learn and why they should learn, by linking what was being learned to the skills needed for everyday living.
Teachers also sought pupils’ views on the quality of their learning and teaching. They made use of information and communications technology to motivate and help pupils to learn. Staff celebrated success in the classrooms and across the school. Teachers consulted with pupils to set appropriate targets and provided effective support for those who were having difficulties. In some schools, staff worked successfully in improving attendance and reducing exclusions. Pupils responded well to a brisk pace of learning which was stimulating, motivating and enjoyable, and when they were actively engaged in thinking for themselves.
In seeking to improve achievement and set expectations at an appropriately high level, it is important that schools have appropriate benchmarking data in order to set their own standards against those of schools with similar characteristics. A range of approaches to assessment would ensure that pupils in need of support are identified at the earliest stage and that challenging but achievable targets are set for their learning. Rather than rely on free meal entitlement alone, more robust indices should be used to monitor children’s progress and achievements.
Example of good practice
A large primary school used a number of approaches to improving behaviour, including ‘Pupil of the week’, house points, certificates and other forms of rewards. Pupils understood and were able to describe clearly the behaviour policy and its operation. They spoke well of the end-of-term excursions for almost all pupils who had avoided significant spells of disruptive behaviour. Displays, including pupils’ work, were used to good effect in classes and around the school to promote attendance and good behaviour. Class teachers were supported well by learning assistants. They tried to ensure that reading materials were suitable for all, especially for boys. The school had provided a number of playground games to make break time fun and to improve relationships.
Teachers made effective use of resources to motivate pupils and make learning enjoyable. Lower-attaining pupils were well supported in class and through the work of learning support staff and senior managers.
All of the schools which we visited for this task and which were successful in raising achievement for all pupils, including the lowest-attaining group, had highly-effective leaders. Their leadership was characterised by the following features.
Leadership qualities
Professional qualities and commitment
Relationships with people and development of teamwork
Example of good practice
In a large inner city school, the headteacher adopted a high profile role in the drive to sustain school improvement and raise the achievement of pupils. He had a highly visible presence in the school and its immediate environment, being seen to engage with pupils, giving signals about school values and relationships, and being available, receptive and welcoming to parents. Expectations of pupils were transmitted through such daily exchanges, for example the regular prompts on standards of dress and behaviour, and opportunities for informal communications with a range of staff. The professionalism in the work of the school had the effect of demonstrating to pupils and parents that the school’s work was important because people are important and success mattered to all. This ethos was signalled in presentations to, and communications with, parents. In addition to the school handbook, a wide range of informative and welcoming leaflets on areas of school life and values were made available for parents. Extensive use was made of photographs celebrating activities, participation and successes.
The headteacher gave a strong lead and direction in all matters to do with raising attainment. The school used a range of data and tests to assess performance and to allocate classes. Staff at all levels undertook rigorous analyses of examination results and then agreed on strategies and action plans to secure improvement in all subjects. The school had taken measures to improve the performance of lower-attaining pupils through smaller classes in English and mathematics in S1 and S2, and by creating enhancement classes in S3 and S4 core subjects.
In one authority, a Family Literacy Project encouraged parents and carers to develop literacy skills together with their children. The project aimed to raise children’s educational attainment and achieve increased confidence in literacy and numeracy for both parents and children. Staff recruited, trained and employed local people as ‘parent enablers’ to work with parents in early education settings, schools, libraries and other community venues. The project provided high quality resources to support family learning.
Several schools had made very effective use of home-school link workers to support pupils and their families. These workers played a key role in raising parental expectations of children’s achievements and in providing advice on areas including parenting skills and anger management.
Good practice involved links with partners and other agencies. This included the following.
Example of good practice
One education authority had developed a very strong partnership with colleges of further education within its area and the adjacent council area to provide courses in construction, travel and tourism, and care. Pupils achieved well in these courses and many went on to gain apprenticeships in their chosen vocational pathway. The Council also provided course placements in their administration and construction departments. After successful completion, pupils were guaranteed an apprenticeship, a Skillseekers post or a college placement. Most pupils succeeded in these placements.
Schools, education authorities and partners should work together to seek improvements by considering the following.
Improved measurement approaches
Early identification and prompt intervention
Partnership working
Meeting needs through targeted, flexible practices
Schools, partner agencies and education authorities need to learn more from each other’s existing good practice. This practice should be actively shared and should feature in national good practice events such as those organised by HMIE for the Count Us In conferences and the Excellent Schools initiative.
Much good practice exists in Scotland in raising levels of achievement for our lowest-attaining pupils. However, there is also much room for improvement.
To improve practice in the round, there is now a need to:
A Curriculum for Excellence, Scottish Executive 2004
Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act, Scottish Executive 2004
Ambitious, Excellent Schools — agenda for action, Scottish Executive 2004
Better Behaviour, Better Learning: Report of the Discipline Task Group, Scottish Executive 2001
Count Us In: Achieving Inclusion in Scottish Schools, Scottish Executive 2002
Determined to Succeed: A Review of Enterprise in Education, Scottish Executive 2003
Employability Framework for Scotland, Scottish Executive 2005
Getting it Right for Every Child, Scottish Executive 2004
Happy, safe and achieving their potential — a standard of support for children and young people in Scottish schools: the report of the National Review of Guidance, Scottish Executive 2004
It’s everyone’s job to make sure I’m alright, Scottish Executive 2002
Learning with Care — The Education of Children Looked After Away from Home by Local Authorities, Scottish Executive 2001
Literature Review of the NEET Group, Scottish Executive 2005
Personal Support for Pupils in Scottish Schools, HM Inspectorate of Education 2004
Social Justice: A Scotland where everyone matters, Scottish Executive 1999
Supporting Children’s Learning: Code of Practice, Scottish Executive 2005
1 The opening of Records of Needs is being phased out following the introduction in November 2005 of the Additional Support for Learning Act.
2 Average tariff scores are based on the Unified Points Score Scale which is an extended version of the Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS) Scottish Tariff points system.