“The Whole Education SEND project clearly links with other school priorities and is part of what we are already working on. It’s pulling things together for us.”
Delivered in partnership with David Bartram OBE, Whole Education SEND works with local authority leaders, school leaders and SENCOs to establish self-improving systems for SEND.
Whole Education SEND places collaboration and the mobilisation of local knowledge at the heart of improving SEND provision by embedding an effective model for peer review over the course of three years.
Why Whole Education SEND?
Sustainability and scalability
WE SEND utilises expertise that already exists within local schools. Areas of good practice are identified through an initial self-evaluation and schools with the strongest provision are trained to become coaches, supporting participating schools to improve in identified areas for development.
As relationships are built and a culture of peer review developed, the model becomes increasingly sustainable. SEND leaders that have participated in the project often progress to a coaching role the following year, meaning there is a greater number of local coaches to support schools. The project can therefore be progressively scaled year on year.
There is an increasing body of evidence that shows peer review can be used as a powerful driver of school improvement. A recent report conducted by NAHT found that “working together in a structured way towards actions and outcomes, teachers and schools can improve faster and more sustainably” (NAHT, 2019).
SEND peer review builds capacity and expertise in individuals across local authorities, improving the quality of SEND provision for vulnerable learners. It supports schools to better understand and showcase their strengths and provides an opportunity to collaborate with peers on areas for development.
To ensure the peer review process is effective and having maximum impact, the project expert carries out quality assurance of the project. Depending on the needs of the local authority, this will involve either a visit to participating schools to meet with the SENCo and headteacher, or quality assurance of action plans.
Builds capacity
SEND leaders have appreciated the increased capacity they have as a result of the work. The simple and specific action plan helps streamline priorities and enables those involved to spend time refining their school’s SEND strategy.
High-quality training
Those involved benefit from high-quality training in self-evaluation, action planning, peer review and coaching. In addition, webinars are delivered throughout the year by national SEND experts on specific focus areas such as maximising the impact of teaching assistants and provision mapping. Previous speakers have included Natalie Packer, Marc Rowland and Gareth Morewood.
Evidence progress over time
Whole Education SEND collects qualitative and quantitative data at each stage of the project so that progress can be accurately tracked over time.
Self-evaluations are carried out online at EvaluateMySchool. After self-evaluating against a series of statements across seven focus areas, school and SEND leaders can immediately identify strengths and areas for development. Scores can be updated at any time so the self-evaluation becomes a working document and not completed then forgotten about. Local authority leaders can easily analyse data across groups of schools, which is also used to inform school groupings and coaches.
Quality assurance is carried out by a national expert, who reviews all action plans and meets with each school individually to review their experience.
The process:
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Schools are identified through expression of interest or by nomination. WE is currently working with groups of between 24 and 50 schools across seven different areas.
Schools work with their coach to complete an action plan, which becomes the focus of peer review visits.
Once identified, schools receive training in the following areas: Self-evaluation, action planning, peer review and coaching.
All schools in the region have access to a series of virtual professional development webinars on areas such as working with learners and families, provision mapping and SEND assessment.
Triads meet at least twice, either in person or virtually. At the end of each visit, a progress summary of each action plan is completed. Between visits, coaches maintain regular contact with their schools, providing support where necessary.
Schools complete an online self-evaluation, that is used to identify coaches and group schools in to triads.
At the end of the year, schools complete an impact summary and join an event in which they share the learning that has taken place. Self-evaluations are updated and a summary report of the project is produced.
