Pupil Progress Data

BROADMEADOW SPECIAL SCHOOL

HOW DO WE MEASURE PROGRESS?

Children at Broadmeadow have learning difficulties and so do not reach age-related expectations. Their starting points are very low and specialist teaching strategies are used to develop pupils’ skills. Children at Broadmeadow are typically 4 to 9 years old. From September 2021 this has increased and will continue to do so until children reach the age of 11 as we become a primary school. Currently, we do not have data to compare between Key Stages but in future, we will.

Rochford Review

As a result of the Rochford Review 2016, national reform of SEN assessment, it was recommended that schools stopped using P levels (a nationally agreed set of assessment descriptions starting at the earliest levels) and that children at the earliest levels are measured in terms of their engagement with activities. Children engaged in subject learning, ie starting to count, or recognise words, should be assessed using Pre-Key stage 1 descriptions.

At Broadmeadow, we have embraced these changes and work on ensuring that all of our children are engaged n meaningful activities, when they are beginning to show subject learning skills they then move onto our own BM levels of assessment. As a school, we have used our own experts to create a 100-step assessment scale for all of the areas that we think are important to access and track.

Speaking. Listening and Understanding; Reading (including Phonics); Writing (including Fine Motor)

Number; Practical Maths

PE

PSED- Independence Skills; Relationships and Well-being

Exploring and Experimenting- Computing and Science

Each child is assessed in each area on entry and then at the end of the academic year, some children will be working on engagement scales for some subjects but then working within the BM levels for others, eg PE. All of our BM levels are referenced to the Key Pre-stage indicators, and work up to end of Key Stage One expectations.

In each subject we have 10 bands A-J, of 10 steps- they are broadly developmental in most areas. Children are given a score for attainment and a band which indicates where the next step of learning sits. With 100 steps for each area, creating percentages and making comparative data year on year will be a simple task.

COVID

The first year of using our new BM levels was 2019, however as National Assessment was cancelled due to the closure of schools and lockdown, we were unable to take an end of year attainment score in the Summer 2020. For this reason, 2020-21 is our first full academic year of using the new assessment; we have had closures, and nationally assessment is again cancelled- however we have remained open throughout to most children and we know our children have made significant progress; it is important to capture this.

Some disruption continued into 2021-22 and DfE has directed schools NOT to use any data produced within this time as a comparison. For us, each child is individual/ we have continued to assess and collect information to support the measurement of progress for each child.

TARGET  SETTING

In the Autumn term, we set challenging targets for pupils in areas identified for school improvement. At the mid-point in the year we check progress against the targets so that additional interventions can be planned to ensure that children have the right amount of support and opportunities to achieve them. Nationally these are no longer required, however at Broadmeadow we feel they support school improvement and maintain a focus on progress in those priority areas.

For 21-22 we predicted:

Success at Midpoint meant these targets were adjusted to :

Results in July 2022 showed:

Analysis

• Results in the 3 subjects are excellent- easily meeting or exceeding the whole school targets that were set
• No children made no progress in all 3 areas, but 2 of our early sensory children made no BM level progress in 2 areas. These children are working at engagement and both have significant medical conditions.

PROGRESS

In year progress

This table shows the average number of steps achieved within each subject in the school year of 2020-2021 and 2021-2022. We are also showing progress of pupil premium children and numbers working at Engagement. Points to note:

• There are similar average progress levels across subjects each year, the main difference is in reading with less progress this year than last and PE with more average levels of progress in 2021-2022.
• Least amount of progress is in science and then computing; for 2021-2022 we have to add phonics to this list. This is our Exploring and Experimenting curriculum- for many of our children there is a lot of exploring to do before they can get onto the core learning of these areas of learning- this is why for many children a sensory curriculum is essential in the pre-learning for these areas. Similarly phonics is a higher order skill and requires lots of pre-learning.
• Pupil premium children appear to make more progress across all subjects compared to all pupils. Science is the only area that is lower but only by one average level of progress which is not significant.
• We appear to have more children working at engagement level compared to 2020-2021, but we have increased in pupil numbers from 56 to 75 in that time.

Progress since entry

Points to note:

• Children generally appear to make more progress as time goes on, this data is not completely reliable as the children in school for the longest time have no entry data (they joined at a time when the previous system was in place)
• Progress for pupil progress children appears to be in line with whole school since entry, although number and PE appear to show much lower levels. There is a big variation to the groups sizes which could have impacted on average levels.

Conclusions and recommendations

• Children in receipt of pupil premium are making good progress, as a group they appear to have made less progress in PE and number than children not in receipt of pupil premium since entry.
• Data over time shows a general pattern that children make more progress the longer they are in school
• Targeted strategies work well and children have done very well in meeting the targets set
• Targets for 22-23 will focus on phonics, computing and number

Download Data Summary 2022-23