INSET on tour; high parent view response rates, deaf provision; changing course
As a regular reader and visitor of the community, you’ll know we’re always helping you make connections to get answers to your questions.
What you might not know is how we use data to do it or how you can ask us to help you in a similar way.
If you’re looking ahead to projects you’ll be running in September, read on. Our Head of Insight and Learning - the brilliant Frances Ling - explains how it works because…
…We - Schools - Are In Beta - always learning (except when you’re on holiday - have a great one, you deserve it 🏖)
This week:
📅 Summer service
🚎 INSET on tour
🔎 Ofsted parent view response rates
🦻Deaf provision
📚 Setting up a new course
📅 Summer service
This is the last newsletter for a few weeks. The We Are In Beta team will be working over the summer (albeit not all at the same time). So feel free to send us a message.
Catherine for help inside the community. Fiona for help with school accounts. Fran for data driven insights. And me - Niall - if you want to talk about working with us.
Thanks in advance for your patience with us getting back to you.
How to use our member match-making service
Finding the right people to work with at the right time is really hard.
You need to know each other, have complimentary experiences and be able to get through to each other.
The chances of all three of things falling into place are really small. Even smaller if you can't lean on a large MAT or a brilliantly connected LA to help. There's just too much luck involved in networking.
We are changing that by using data to remove the luck.
How we’ve made introductions - meet the members to push you forward
This article has four examples of what we've done to introduce senior leaders to fellow members to help on the questions on their minds…
In each example below, our Head of Learning and Insight - Frances Ling - shares:
what members asked us for help with and
what we delivered to make matches and how we did it
Each * list of schools is password protected. Add a comment here for us to send you one (or more) of these.
🚎 1. "We want to find amazing schools that would be happy to host our staff teams for our #NBAontour whole-school CPD day. Where can we look to find the quietly brilliant schools?"
Asked by Ann Donaghy, Headteacher, and Simon Leach Deputy Headteacher at Noel Baker Academy.
What we delivered
Niall and I had a chat with Ann and Simon to find out more about exactly what features of schools would be of most interest.
Based on all they said, I went with a more is more approach sharing two sets of selected schools, accompanied by a wide details of demographics, recent and previous Ofsted outcomes, and multiple measures of performance at KS4 from 2019.
This gave Ann and Simon chance to get geeky and play with filters across various combinations to offer their team a wide choice of schools they could visit.
🏫 Set 1: 102 schools with Good or better on EIF 2019 with IDACI of 3, 4 or 5 (5 as most deprived communities)
View this here>
🏫 Set 2: 163 schools with 2019 P8 for disadvantaged pupils >=0.25 and above average % of disadvantaged pupils (>27%)
View this here>
🔎📊 2. "Have you compiled data on national averages regarding Ofsted Parent View?"
Asked by Manny Botwe, Headteacher at Tytherington School.
What we delivered
We dug into the management info published for Ofsted Parent View that gives both breakdown of responses to each of the 14 survey questions, as well as school-level data for schools with 10+ responses in the year.
In this, Ofsted rightly flag that the Jan21-Jan22 year is not typical as inspections were suspended or just returned for a big part of that period.
This spreadsheet gave school level data where my eye was caught by the large range of % responses and my interest piqued by those schools with the highest % returns from their parent community.
So to dig deeper, I filtered to those with +25% responses and linked together with the most recent Ofsted, NOR, FSM and IDACI quintile.
This gave 45 schools with a high response rate over the year, 23 of which are members of the We Are In Beta community.
🏫 View the list of schools here>
🔎🖐🏽 3. "We're developing an inclusive environment for Deaf and SEND pupils in a mainstream setting. What have people tried ? What has worked Well?"
Asked by Gary Callahan-Ferris, Headteacher of the Deaf & SENCO at St Gregory the Great Catholic School here>
What we delivered
We took a look at the schools with dedicated provision for pupils with hearing impairments. This found 168 .mainstream secondaries or all-through schools with such provision, 74 of them in the We Are In Beta community.
I shared with Gary the full list, including links to their websites and details of number of pupils in the school and with identified SEND.
🏫 View this list of schools here>
From this I made 10 introductions for Gary to Teachers of the Deaf, SENCOs and senior leaders across these schools so he could explore what they offeres and build his network.
💬 See these introductions here>
🔎🏆 4. "We are about to launch a new subject of Health and Social Care. Do any schools have this as a strength and are willing to share their best practice?"
Asked by Adam Blake, Deputy Headteacher at the Da Vinci Academy here>
What we delivered
I chose to look for schools offering one or more of these qualifications in 2021 to a high % of their KS4 cohort:
BTEC Technical Award L1/2 - Band C - P-D* - Health Studies
VRQ Level 2 - Health Studies
VRQ Level 2 - Childcare Skills
BTEC First Award L1/2 - Band C - P-D* - Childcare Skills
OCR Level 1/2 Cambridge National Certificate - Childcare Skills
BTEC Technical Award L1/2 - Band C - P-D* - Childcare Skills
This on the basis that there won't be a high number of entries if the subject is not well-taught and with a reputation for securing strong outcomes.
This found 512 schools with +20% of pupils entering either a Health Studies or a Childcare qualification. 236 of which are members of the We Are In Beta community.
I also included the 2019 P8 and A8 figures, as well as the 2021 no. pupils in KS4 cohort and % of those entered for EBacc for Adam. He then used the Filters to narrow down to those he would be most interested in speaking to.
🏫 View all of these schools here>
👋🏾 How can you meet people to work with?
If you want to put it to use and be introduced to brilliant fellow members…
Sent this by a friend?
Thanks for reading. Have a great summer.
@NiallAlcock and the We Are In Beta team.
P.S. 🙏:
Pastoral leaders - email about next steps for the steering group are in your inboxes. Looking forward to meeting you soon.
Homework strategists - the bank of homework strategies we’re pooling is gathering pace. Surveys in your inboxes - we’ll close off access at the end of term.
📱 Get 14,546 school leaders and teachers in your pocket - download We Are In Beta
🆕 New here? Catch up with previous editions, research, podcasts and webinars via the archive.