MOBILISE PROJECTMobilise Case Study: Grantham Additional Needs Fellowship

One of the key tenets of the Education Endowment Foundation’s work, and indeed the approach of the Mobilise Project, is to ensure that the application of research is not overly prescriptive and can be applied by individual schools in a way that responds to their specific contexts and circumstances.

This has been no clearer than in the introduction of Mobilise to special schools. Indeed, the project has been particularly pertinent to special schools as they generally – and by necessity - tend to employ greater numbers of teaching assistants in order to respond to and to support the specific learning, emotional and physical needs of their children.

For the Grantham Additional Needs Fellowship, the opportunity to engage in Mobilise provided both a chance to ensure that practice across their schools became even more evidence-based and also a way in which they could contribute their own knowledge and expertise to ensuring the project’s relevance and application to special schools. The partnership includes two outstanding special schools: Ambergate

Sports College and Sandon School, with the former generally serving pupils with AHD or on the autistic spectrum, and the latter serving pupils with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties.

“We are very clear that using our TAs has a big impact on our practice and the outcomes we achieve for our children” says Ann White, Teaching School Director at GANF and Cluster Lead for the Grantham area. “This is because the TAs play such a key role in securing children’s progress - and no more so than in special schools. There is some very good practice across our schools, but Mobilise provided an opportunity for us to reflect on that practice with our TAs and teachers, to improve what we do, and hopefully to contribute to informing even better practice in other special schools.”

The two schools have pursued the Recommendation on improved planning between teachers and TAs and also the Recommendation on developing independent learning skills through the scaffolding framework. “In terms of improving the planning and ensuring TAs are well prepared for lessons” says Ann, “we have generally taken a similar approach to the other schools involved in the project. This has fundamentally been about creating dedicated time and opportunities for the teachers and TAs to discuss the lesson in advance – including the desired learning outcomes, the TAs’ input for specific pupils and how those pupils can be best supported by both the TA and the teacher, and how the TA can play a wider role within the lesson. The findings seem to be consistent across the board – it is about creating time for joint-planning and ensuring teachers are on board in terms of encouraging their TAs to inform planning and to have an impact across the wider classroom.”

Conversely, Ann has seen the two special schools take a rather different approach in terms of how TAs are developing independence amongst students. As with others across the project, the starting point has been the Scaffolding Triangle. However, the practical application of this has taken on varying forms depending on the needs of the children. “For our children” says Alison Redfern, Lead Teacher for Pupil Premium and Intervention at Ambergate, “the concept of independence is a very personal thing.

Above: Ann White, Teaching School Director at GANF

For some, it may be developing the confidence to speak with another child or an adult who they are not particularly familiar with. For others, it may be a step towards more physical independence, such as their ability to eat a meal with less assistance or to feel more independent in terms of their personal care. In those circumstances, the language alters as we aren’t necessarily ‘clueing’ or ‘prompting’. Instead we can be moving our practice from ‘doing’ tasks on behalf of the children to ‘encouraging’ or ‘enabling’ them to do things for themselves – for example by simply providing the option to put one’s own coat on or providing time to ask a question. It was therefore very important that we supported our TAs and teachers to be able to apply the principles without feeling constrained by the language or terminology.

This has in part been achieved by bringing TAs, teachers and other members of staff together to reflect on how they have applied the principles of the Scaffolding Framework. Through this, staff have been able to share examples of how they have enabled independence without necessarily using the same language as mainstream schools. “It’s very much been about trial and error” says Alison “and listening to what has worked for colleagues, what hasn’t worked, and to generally shift the mindsets of both teachers and TAs so that everyone is discussing children’s progress in terms of their journey towards independence and consciously reflecting on their own role in facilitating this.”

Indeed, where the use of scaffolding has resulted in a common outcome with many other contexts across Lincolnshire, it is in how it has encouraged teaching assistants to be much more self-reflective in terms of their interactions with children and how they are more mindful of their important role in facilitating children’s progress towards independence. “It’s enabled our staff to take a step back” says Sara Ellis, Assistant Headteacher at Sandon School. “Many of our pupils have significant challenges with communication and physical disabilities and it can be very tempting for all of us to step in when we sense the need to. At times that is the most appropriate thing to do. However, it’s encouraged us to identify those times where we can give the student some time to ‘have a go’ and to make those small steps that for some go on to represent a big leap of progress. I would say the greatest impact has been seen in the self-esteem of pupils who have been encouraged and supported to make those steps, and have made progress for themselves where the adult has stepped back.”

GANF have kindly provided a copy of their adapted Scaffolding Framework: See APPENDIX below.

How to become an independent learner

You can complete the task by yourself

The teacher gives you prompts to remind you of what you have learnt before

The teacher gives you clues using key words

The teacher shows you what they expect you to do

The teacher gives you the

answers

More help from

the teacher Gr

eate

r in

depe

nden

ce

Key learning points:

- Every school has room for improvement. Mobilise has benefitted high-performing schools in that it has encouraged TAs, leaders and teachers who are performing well to be even more self-reflective and to share best practice across classrooms and schools.

- Research must be applied in a way that is responsive to context and circumstances. What worked elsewhere will not necessarily work in your setting. Reflect on the key principles and discuss the implications of research findings with staff from the outset. What will work in your context and where might you face barriers to implementation (and therefore what may you look to adapt in light of that)?

- Whilst applying the Recommendations to context, be sure to stay true to the key principles, whilst providing opportunities for teaching assistants and others to adapt the guidance to their children’s needs. Where adaptations and changes have been made, encourage staff to share their experiences and learning as part of a group discussion where colleagues can reflect on the impact of the adaptation, how successfully they take forward the original findings and consider whether they can be shared more widely.

- The Scaffolding Framework is a guide. It may not be appropriate for meeting the needs of some groups of children if applied in its most literal sense and using the original terminology. Consider how you can alter some of the language and terminology, and share examples of how the framework has been adapted to meet the needs of your children. The key issue is whether staff understand and are applying the principles so that pupils are achieving greater levels of independence.

The pupil is using a symbol chart to match the bottle of bubbles to the symbol, then requesting staff to blow them. Staff model by use of the symbol chart alongside speech.

Pupils use symbol charts for a variety of activities: bubbles, colour work, matching and choosing songs amongst others.

Symbol Charts

Picture Exchange System (PECS)

The pupil is making choices about which sensory resources from a story they would like to explore.

Pupils use symbols as visual cues, and exchange for a chosen item.Pupils may make a choice from two items, or have a large number of symbols in a book, and offer the appropriate symbol to an adult.

During a food tasting activity, symbols are being used to make choices of which foods to taste.The real object is near the symbol, acting as a clue.

Supporting pupils with communication