Ellington Infant School

A Message from Lord Pickles and Lord Blunkett, followed by Ellington Infant School's best practice article

The ability to listen and learn from one another has always been vital in parliament, in business and in most aspects of daily life. But at this particular moment in time, as national and global events continue to reiterate, it is uncommonly crucial that we forge new channels of communication and reinforce existing ones. The following article from Ellington Infant School is an attempt to do just that. We would welcome your thoughts on this or any other Parliamentary Review article.

Rt Hon The Lord David Blunkett

Rt Hon The Lord Eric Pickles

ellington-infant.kent.sch.uk

1ELLINGTON INFANT SCHOOL |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE

Headteacher Nicola Brown

Discovering the importance

of caring for our world

Since arriving at the school in 2012, Headteacher Nicola

Brown has overseen a number of changes, the foremost

among which involved incorporating a play-based curriculum

for their youngest students. The school have also designed

their provision to meet the needs of their local area, offering

swimming lessons from reception to year 2. As members of the

Challenge Partners Network of Excellence, they receive a range

of continuing professional development opportunities and work

with schools across the country. Nicola tells

The Parliamentary

Review

about the changes made to the school and how they

have adapted to east Kent’s falling birth rate.

I joined the school in 2012. It is in an area of significant deprivation, with 38 per

cent of pupils eligible for the pupil premium. The school had been classed as

“good” by Ofsted, and while it had many good features that staff were justifiably

proud of, there were also many aspects of the curriculum, teaching and learning

that needed updating. There was no established assessment for learning practices

and, at that time, the school did not work in collaboration with other schools.

The school had many exciting themed days, but analysis showed that the curriculum

was narrow and that the subjects taught were not always relevant to children’s

lives or interests. As a team, we reviewed our curriculum, adapting it to make

sure that it reflected the needs of our children beyond the core subjects. We are

situated in Ramsgate, by the sea, but many of our children have had few swimming

experiences. In a seaside town, the ability to swim is a life skill, so we introduced it

for all of our year 1 and 2 students. This year, we have also expanded this to include

REPORT CARD

ELLINGTON INFANT SCHOOL

»Headteacher: Nicola Brown

»Established in 1939

»Based in Ramsgate

»Type: Infant school

»No. of pupils: 173

»School motto: Love to learn,

learn to grow

»Ofsted: Good

»Pupil Premium: 38 per cent

»ellington-infant.kent.sch.uk

Ellington Infant School

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

2| ELLINGTON INFANT SCHOOL

reception children. These lessons are

paid for with school funding, as we

view them as essential. Although these

curriculum changes began in 2013/14,

the perception that we were a “good”

school made facilitating change

difficult and the process slow. The

catalyst came in 2015 when we were

assessed as “requiring improvement”

by Ofsted. This acted as a wakeup call

for us all and increased the momentum

toimprove.

Developing experiential

learning

In an area with high deprivation and a

significant number of children entering

reception with poor language skills,

we believed our children would benefit

more from a less-formal, high-quality

play-based curriculum. We have a small

forest area with a covered pond and

have invested in wet weather gear to

allow our students to explore outside

at all times. We do not have fancy

equipment, but what we have we use

well. To support this, we recruited a

reception teacher with the remit to

develop our outdoor environment.

Following these changes, we have had

lots of visitors to see our practice, and

I was invited to speak to other heads

about the benefits of outdoor learning.

As this worked well, we began to

look at the rest of our provision. We

felt that the transition into year 1 was

quite pronounced and that we needed

to ease this. To achieve this, we have

incorporated play opportunities in Key

Stage 1. Each class now has a role-play

area and access to an outdoor area.

It was also important for us to redefine

our school values. The values of

respect, high expectations, teamwork,

happiness and courage are now

embedded across the school. These

underpin our assemblies, school houses

and newsletters and are even central

when teachers write reports. They are

core to our behaviour strategies, and

parents have reported that the children

discuss them at home. Whenever we

do anything, we check that it fulfils

the high expectations we have set

ourselves. For instance, when we

employ new staff, we ensure that their

values are aligned to ours. Over time,

this has meant that we have a body

of staff with high expectations and an

inclusive attitude.

Learning goes beyond

the classroom

In a seaside

town, the

ability to swim

is a life skill, so

we introduced

it for all of

our year 1 and

2 students

“

3ELLINGTON INFANT SCHOOL |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE

Ensuring continual

development

We are determined to continue to

adapt our style to meet new challenges

and needs. This includes professional

development, trying many different

forms of CPD. We have used a “book

club” approach in which staff study

pedagogical practices and trial them

before giving feedback to the wider

team. We also hold joint evaluation

meetings in which subject leaders

discuss the profile of their subject,

what is working and what isn’t and we

collectively agree the steps we all need

to take to improve.

After we received our successful

Ofsted evaluation, we sought to

continue our improvement, so we

joined the Challenge Partners Network

of Excellence. This allows opportunities

for nationwide peer review and

support from different schools in

different contexts. It also offers quality

professional development. We try to

source CPD from as many different

avenues as possible, and we ensure

that our focus remains on collective

development and unity.

Adapting to curricular and

population changes

One of the main challenges we faced

was adapting to a curriculum without

levels. During the period in which

we were between inspections and

classified as “requires improvement”,

we were reluctant to take risks

with our assessment systems and

adopted Kent’s School Information

Management System template. We

quickly realised that it was not fit for

our purpose. We devised our own

system to replace it, which didn’t just

capture the data but was also a “live”

document, informing planning and

ensuring that the teaching focused on

the needs of every child. This started

as a very basic template but has

evolved and is owned by both staff

andgovernors.

Another challenge we face is the

fact that east Kent has a falling birth

rate, bucking the national trend. Pupil

numbers are dropping: a problem

exacerbated by the opening of a

new free school locally and others

expanding, and currently we are 97

children under capacity. This in turn

means decreased funding, which

makes it difficult to make decisions

without compromising the quality of

our curriculum. As we look to reduce

published admission numbers, we are

left with unused areas of the school.

We hope to develop an SEN provision

on site but are aware that funding is

currently difficult to access.

We are always striving to continue

the development we have begun and

are constantly looking to improve our

provision. We work to make sure that

diminishing budgets won’t impact the

quality of our curriculum and that we

will still be able to deliver a broad and

enriching education.

Subject

leaders discuss

the profile of

their subject,

what is

working and

what isn’t and

we collectively

agree the

steps we all

need to take

to improve

“

Developing a love of

nature

ellington-infant.kent.sch.uk

This article was sponsored by Ellington Infant School. The Parliamentary Review is wholly funded by the representatives who write for it. The publication in which this article originally appeared contained the following foreword from The Rt Hon Professor The Lord Blunkett.

The Rt Hon Professor The Lord Blunkett's Foreword For The Parliamentary Review

By The Rt Hon Professor The Lord Blunkett

A new Prime Minister, a new Education Secretary and, as we're all painfully aware, a deeply uncertain future. It is in this context that the education service continues to deliver for individuals, communities and of course for our nation.

There is no doubt whatsoever that the education service as a whole, schools, post 16/Further Education, and yes, lifelong learning, needs the most enormous injection of cash. Independent analysis shows that there has been at least an 8% average reduction in the amount of spend per pupil in our schools. Those damaged most by this have been pupils with special educational needs, whose voices are sadly rarely heard. The necessity of urgent action was underlined in July by the report of the all-party House of Commons Select Committee on Education. They could not have been clearer about the need for substantial funding and a long-term 10-year commitment.

At the same time, there are a number of reviews taking place. One of them, in relation to post-16 qualifications, is in danger of a classic mistake by politicians and officials who have little or no understanding of the complex territory they're dealing with. Namely, the ridiculous proposition that BTEC National Diplomas might be set aside because 'T Levels are the gold standard'!

I'm in favour of T Levels, but in the right context and for the right outcome. They are intended to be extremely focused specialist qualifications in defined areas of employment. When and if they eventually take off – there is predicted to be just a thousand students in 2021-22 taking up the qualification – they will not replace the BTEC, which has been the workhorse providing a general and high-quality education for decades. The BTEC has equipped young people for a variety of opportunities in a very changing employment market where the development of artificial intelligence, robotics, and changed working practices makes confining the choice of vocational pathways to one narrow focus, frankly ridiculous.

Meanwhile, her Majesty's Opposition continue to throw out titbits which do not give, as yet, a very clear idea of what, if elected, Labour would do in office. What is needed is positive proposals. Abolishing this, that or the other – assessments/tests for those leaving primary school, for instance – is not the same thing as a very forward-looking agenda for radical improvement in standards and equity between those who can and cannot afford additional help for their children.

There are a handful of Labour Party members, supported by some people who ought to know better, who have decided that a full-frontal assault on private education would be a good idea. For those worried about this, stop worrying. A party that put this in its manifesto wouldn't get elected, and if by some fluke it did, it would be challenged in the courts to the point where all the contradictions would be exposed for everyone to see.

Just contemplate one simple fact. 20% of secondary schoolchildren in the borough of Hackney attend private schools! Yes, Hackney. This is because a large number of parents, some of whom scrape the money together, are sending their children to private education in London which happens to be the area of England with the best academic outcomes from state education. What's more, very large numbers (again, particularly in London) pay for private tutors. At the last estimate 40% of parents in London had at some point over the last year paid for a tutor for their child!

Perhaps therefore an opposition party, hoping to provide unity rather than division, opportunity for all rather than a futile class battle against educational privilege, would seek ways of ensuring that those who can't afford tutors have the kind of support outside school that would put them on equal terms.

One thing is very certain, no government would be able to stop parents buying additional tutoring for their children.

So, a practical agenda for equalising opportunity, for investing where it's needed most, for transforming the pipeline from school through college, apprenticeships, or university, is a goal worth fighting for. A positive way of linking business and education through political decision-making, with the delivery by excellent professionals in the education service, to the children of today and the economy of tomorrow. Surely that is a much more progressive and less negative way forward for both government and opposition.

The Rt Hon Professor The Lord Blunkett
Co-Chairman