Making Best Use Of Your Teaching Assistants For Sats

Hi there and welcome to Thirdspace Masterclass webinar, where I'll be talking today about how to make the best use of our TAS for this year's SATs. I am Chris Dyson, head teacher at Parklands Primary School up in Leeds. Now, Parklands Primary School is the most deprived primary school in Leeds with 82% pupil premium children. But we never use that as an excuse, we don't use it as a barrier to learning. We have high expectations and we strive to make every single children, every single child in our care to reach the best potential that they can actually be. A background about myself, I've been head teacher at Parklands for three and a half years. I inherited a school that had 150 exclusions in a calendar year, which was some kind of record. There'd been five head teachers in the previous year which had five different sets of behaviour policies, which the teachers were pulled left, right and centre. A lot of the children found playing on the roof more interesting than being in lessons. And we had a lot of children that had to what we call team teach, which is when they were legally pinned down because they couldn't access the learning. Behaviour was absolutely everywhere. And within three and a half years, I'm very proud to say that the same team has worked together, they've dreamed with me together. And in September this year, we were the very first school to have an Ofsted, where in October we actually received a grade for outstanding, which really made the community shine, made the community have smiles on their faces instead of always being looked as being from Seacroft and they can't do. Suddenly there was being told there was one of the best schools in the country, in one of the toughest estates in England. The way in which we actually achieved this was basically playing music all day, every day. So the children have smiles on their faces, visitors have smiles on their faces. We made all learning fun with fully trained teachers, teaching assistants, and everybody came on the journey. It was practically the same. It was practically the same team which the local authority had deemed inadequate. And if Ofsted have actually visited three and a half years ago, I think they would have created a new grade that was lower than inadequate. But this team's followed. It's followed the dreams and the children now are working at the highest level possible. And it's been done with a no shouting mentality, certainly running with a carrot, not a stick. And the results have been quite remarkable. Maths is the focus that we sort of went down because you've got a lot of schools that excel in writing. A lot of schools that excel in reading, but not a lot of schools have the main focus as maths. Now, being a maths teacher myself, I'd seen the power that you can get through children learning, being motivated through times tables, number bonds, bringing everything together. And the end result, as we see here, our maths progress score last year was 8.47, which is actually unprecedented. This actually also includes three children that we can actually remove from the data now. So when the validated ASP comes out, we'll see this 8.47 move up to 11 points, which makes us the single highest school in the entire country when it comes to progress in maths. And it's not just been a one stop wonder because the for the last two years Parker's Primary school has been significantly above national and puts us in the top 1% of schools in the country. And we'll do the same again this year and next year. And boy, when those times table tests come out next year, we'll be right up there with the top again. So how is this possible? By using TAS effectively, by using TAS as part of the teaching staff. Gone are the days where TAS are there just to do photocopying, put up lovely displays, do some paper cutting, make a cup of tea. TAs now are highly skilled and highly trained individuals and at Parklands we give the same training opportunities for the teaching assistants as we do for the teachers. And we pay over and above we pay the teaching assistants here at Parklands. So if I give you a choice as heads, chair of governors, authorities, class teachers, if you would like in your SATs to get 60% or 77%, which one would you choose? Now everybody is going to be choosing the 77% and this is quite achievable and quite possible if we follow the tips that we're going to be looking through today. If you plan like Parklands and I'm going to share with you today how we train our teaching assistants for use in the SATs, then if you're like us with 33 children in year six, if you can get five, what we're going to be calling vulnerable children today, if you can get these five children at age related expectation, that's 17% that's worth for us. So instead of settling for 60%, 77% is very much achievable and puts you above the floor standards. So by following these simple guides, we've got the essentials that we can do from now. SATS is getting close, but we've still Got time to make that difference with these vulnerable children. What we can't do on the day is when maths paper one comes out. We can't just send for five teaching assistants. Oh, let's have one from year two, one from year three, year four. Let's get the two from year five. What we can't do is just bring these extra bodies in because we know now how important subject knowledge is. Subject knowledge and the guidance. And I would strongly Recommend Reading the DfE guidance, training the teaching assistants, because what we don't want is any maladministration by not following the correct procedures and the correct rules. So we're going to start the boosting now and we've got to use it as normal classroom practice. The first thing we need to do as a teaching assistant is the communication. We need to be meeting with the teacher. We need to know who the children are. If we look at football teams, you have a goalkeeping coach, you have a defensive coach, you have a forward coach. And what we need to do is, by all those elements working together, the team achieves. We've got to do this in our classroom situation. We need to identify the children that need a reader. The children. And again, you must refer to the guidance to make sure that if you are reading to a child that it's part of the actual guidance. So we need to know any question could be read to in the maths, but we can't change the language and things. The DfE guidance for the training for the teachers assistants is absolutely vital. But it's not the grammar test, it's not the reading test. So questions can be read. We need to understand which child needs a prompter. Okay, we've all got children in the class that daydream and drift away. And the hour test, they can't sustain that. So we've got to make sure they're on focus, they're on point. And by doing that, you just simply know where the children are sat, you're keeping your eye on them, and when you see them drifting away, you just simply go past, give them a little tap on the desk, brings them, homes them back in on the attention back onto the paper, because that hour soon goes just like that. Then we need to identify anybody who needs a rest break and a rest break. Not a lot of schools use this, but it's there as an option. Some children can't sustain a test for the full length of time. Some children need to have a mini break. Now, these children could be sat in a different room with a teaching Assistant. But I'd always, always recommend there's a second body in there as well for safeguarding and to make sure the tests are being followed correctly. But there's nothing wrong with sitting down a child in the other room, giving them 15 minutes and then stopping the stopwatch, allowing them to go outside, get a drink, go some fresh air, go on the playground, shoot some basketball hoops, kick a football around. Then when they're ready, they come back into the class, the stopwatch starts again, they may go through 20 minutes this time, they may do 10 minutes. But so long as it's part of the normal classroom routine, this is fine and perfectly within the guidelines. And if you can get these children that can then achieve get those extra 4, 5, 6 marks, then we're on for age related expectations, which is what we all actually want to see. Then we've got to identify and who these vulnerable children are. And every class has got four, five, six children that aren't special needs. Okay? At this time the special needs children need to be working on their IEPs, on iPads, on other technologies. But we've got those six children that we know. If we can get them four, five, six extra marks on that paper through the coaching techniques from the teaching assistants, then those children can achieve age related expectations. Sadly, a child that is working below year five's expectations at the moment are not going to close the gap sufficiently enough by may to be achieving age related expectations. So that's why it's essential that we're focusing on these vulnerable few children. And the way in which we do that is by the techniques which we'll be discussing out. What we don't want to be seeing is we're just giving these children test after test after test after test to do. Because if a child can't do it on Monday, they aren't going to be getting it right on Tuesday and they're not going to get it right on Wednesday, nor Thursday. It's concepts that need teaching. It's the actual identifying where the support is needed and then using the teaching assistants to basically get those concepts nailed and embedded in the learning. So some of the techniques which we use at Parklands with our teaching assistants really effectively, this is the time now when we pulled for an hour a day teaching assistants from other year groups to get the classroom routine going. And one of the ways in which we can do is what we call the pre teaching techniques where the teaching assistance is withdrawing children to work on things such as vocabulary essential. Because although you can read questions to the children what you can't do is change the question. So if it said, what's the product of 7 and 6? As a teaching assistant or a teacher, what you can't be saying is that means it's seven times six, okay? You can only read what is down. So the vocabulary that these children are learning, it's essential. And this is a whole school issue. And this really needs, starting from year one, getting the correct terminology so the children aren't suddenly hindered by a word that they don't understand by doing written methods. And again, I've got a slide coming up on that. But again, if you're doing long multiplication, then it's a perfect time in a small group for you to be actually working with the teaching assistants on those kind of strategies and then new concepts explained before the teacher is actually explaining them. So again, if you're looking at sort of decimal problems or ordering decimals, it's great practice for the teacher's assistants to have the children the day before to say, right, tomorrow we're going to be ordering decimals. What do we know about decimals? Okay, we. Which is the highest value, which is the tenths column, which is the hundredths column. So again, I mean that pre teaching technique develops confidence in the child. So when the lesson starts the next day, the children are already. Oh, we started looking at this yesterday. Precision teaching. Precision teaching is another great tool that we use at Parkinson's with our teaching assistants. But the key for this is 10 minute short blasts. I've seen and experienced other schools where children are taken out for a full hour in the afternoon, missing great things like pediatric, which they need to essentially be still doing. But they're missing an hour of the afternoon where they're going through an entire paper. By the time it gets half an hour, 45 minutes in, the child switched off, the teacher's assistant switched off and the children's not learning anything there. 10 minute short blast. Fantastic. It keeps the energy levels of the teaching assistants up because when little John is being done, you send him for a little Miranda and it keeps the flow going and you're looking at misconceptions of just one thing. You're not looking, as I said, at 4, 5, 6, 7 mistakes that the child may have made and be working on. So one concept at a time is vital. And repeat and repeat and repeat. If it's adding fractions when you've gone through, give them examples and examples for the children to do. Send some home. The children love just going home and doing five questions, which shows that the learning's been reinforced and the confidence levels are high. And again, during this precision teaching, it's reinforcing that key vocabulary. So if you're doing multiplication, what different name, what different words could they put into a question that means to multiply? I'm doing a presentation on arithmetic tips, which has got a lot more detailing about the early bird that we do at Parklands every single morning. And again, making it whole school issue. All our children do this early bird maths from year one the way through to year six, every single school day of the year, whether it's the first day of term in September, the last day before Christmas, the day when we all go to Bridlington for the day, whether it's last day of Christmas, every single day, every child does these early birds. And basically with SATs fast approaching now, it's still not too late to make a start on it by doing it. 15 minutes plus 5 minutes marking time every single day for tomorrow basically gives us 20 minutes extra maths a day, which is over 5 days is an extra 100 minutes of maths a week. Times that by, say 15 weeks gives you 1500 extra minutes of maths. Divide that by 60, gives you 25 hours of extra maths between now and when the SAT start, 25 hours in addition to the normal maths lesson. So again, know where your children are when it comes to the SATs. Everybody's going to be sitting in rows. So put your classroom in rows. Now you know where your gifted and talented children are, where your safe children are, where your vulnerable children are, and where your special needs children are. And have that plan. Know which children you're there to support. Every single day you score a high score in this arithmetic paper, then it'll offset the marks that you may drop on the more challenging reasoning papers. Having a written calculation group now, again, the key to this is 10 minute blasts, not an hour where the children switch off 10 minutes. Focus, concise learning. Looking at the past papers, looking at the sample papers that have been produced, looking at the third space, sample papers that are out there for us to use. We know what questions are going to be coming up. There isn't going to be a surprise to see that there's always going to be long multiplication questions, long division questions, rounding decimals, working with fractions. So these are ideal questions to be working with children on, getting them to develop their jottings, how to write things down. I remember on the old mental maths CD that was out and taped for those who have been doing it for A fair few years, you say you do not need to write anything down to help you do it, but because this mine, this might waste your time. But it didn't say you can't. And I always taught my children to do the jottings, jotting things down, to take the key information out. And again, it makes sure that the answer then can be checked. And by using the teacher's assistance to develop this, again develops the confidence and develops the subject knowledge of the child. Again, reading through the guidance, the maths paper is not the same as the reading paper or the grammar spelling, punctuation test that we do. Once the tests begin in reading and in the spelling papers and the grammar papers, there's very limited what the teaching assistant can do. They're basically policing the tests. Okay, because obviously the clue is in the title. And the reading test, you can't read it to the children. Maths is different, though. If a child puts their hand up, you can read them the question. So again, part of your normal classroom routine, you know the children that rush through the questions, rush through and miss that vital bit of information, encourage the children, put the hand up now. You can't change what you read. And again, the guidance is so important, you've got to read exactly what it actually says on the question. But it makes the child feel more ease if they hear it come from another voice. And again, if it stops, silly mistakes. Know the children. Well rehearsed, part of your normal classroom practice. So the essentials during test week, we've got to know which children require a reader, which children require the prompters. And this has got to be part of our normal everyday routines. We need to make sure we know where these children are sat. And I said, at Parklands, we group them. These children are the ones who are going for greater depth. These are the safes, these are the vulnerables. These are the special needs rest breaks. Again, try it out if they need to have a stopwatch. Okay, Start using the rest breaks, start getting the children, and you'll see straight away how the concentration levels are there. And if the concentration levels are there, then the accuracy of the answer is there and they're getting more marks. So, special consideration, and I've put this in this slide because very, very, very few schools take up the special consideration. Special consideration isn't one of the things you apply for before March. Okay? Special consideration, you can only apply for during the week of the SATs and the week after. And what it basically is, it gives children some bonus marks. So in the past, I've had a child who on the first day happened to be the reading test, broke their ankle or fractured their ankle on Sunday. And you know, they got up that morning and they had the crutches and they walked a mile to school. Now if we'd have known for the rest of the week we sent them a taxi to bring them in. But for that reading test, when they came in on the crutches, okay, they were shattered, their hands were aching, they were all over the place, they had pain in their ankle. And we applied for special consideration and that child got bonus marks and it was one of our vulnerable children and they ended up getting the age related again. If you read the guidance, it's very clear which children are eligible to this. If there's been a death in the family or there's been domestic violence or something that's affected that child, this child here, every single lesson, all year, all through the school life have achieved in maths. But then something happens on the week of the SATs that's out of their control. It's affected their well being, the mental state and they're not performing well. The SATs, it wants to measure how much you've learned through your time in school. So what we're basically doing there is we're saying, we're explaining on a simple form that takes two weeks to fill out. Little Johnny had this experience last night and it's going to affect the score. And then somebody gets back to you and says yes, actually that does, we'll give them the bonus marks because we don't want children to be failing these tests with something that's out of their control. So I'd really recommend having a look at that. Only a very small minority of schools actually go for those. And as teacher assistants and teachers smile, you know, these are tests, you know, it doesn't affect the rest of your life. It's something to be celebrated. And if you're walking around with a big smile on your face as opposed to oh, it starts today. Oh God. Sharpie puts panic mode in smile, relax, make sure everyone then is nice and just enjoying the experience. So therefore start planning. It's still not too late for this term for this year's SATs, but what we want to be doing is starting to look for next year. Getting the early bird embedded in every year group will make sure your arithmetic scores go through the roof, which helps with age related use interventions such as third space interventions with year four and year five from now to start closing that gap. Your year six teachers and your head teachers and senior leaders will love you for that because if year six are getting children where the gaps already been closed, then they can be aiming to get more children on the greater depth and implementing the early bird throughout the day in every school year. Whole school tactics, tactical sats. Hope you found some of those points really useful. This is what we use at Parklands and this is part of the success. Invest in the teaching assistants and let them bring those vulnerable children up and get you 77% as opposed to 60. Thanks for watching.