One of the legacies of the pandemic is the widening of the gap for many disadvantaged groups of children. This challenge exists alongside many other challenges that schools already faced including curriculum, finance, SEND and behaviour.
In 2022/23, VNET will focus on supporting schools in developing strategies to address these gaps and challenges and to continually improve the ‘Quality of Education’ in our schools.
VNET will focus upon the following top 10 strategies for schools to ensure maximum impact:,
1. Supporting pupils’ emotional and mental well-being
2. Addressing the attainment gap
3. Attendance
4. Effective provision for SEND and high needs pupils
5. Behaviour and attitudes
6. Establishing an oracy framework
7. Curriculum design and subject leadership support
8. The teaching of reading is prioritised
9. High impact teaching for all
10. Instructional coaching
Each priority can / will be addressed through the following mechanisms:
Enrolment on a VNET project
Attendance at the half-termly curriculum updates
Participation in the Professional Communities: run by practising subject leaders, for subject leaders.
Curriculum master classes with national experts
Bespoke CPD which meets the expectations of the EEF guidance on effective professional development
Each of our ten priorities addresses each element of the Ofsted framework:
- The quality of education (priority 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9)
- Behaviour and attitudes (priority 5)
- Personal development (priority 1)
- Quality of learning in the EYFS (priority 8)
To ensure maximum impact in the classroom, the focus will be on the following projects:
Oracy
Alumnis Trust and Plymouth Marjons University
Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language. Through oracy, children develop and deepen their subject knowledge and understanding. Children learn to talk and learn through talk.
This Oracy Framework is focused on the deliberate, explicit and systematic teaching of Oracy across the curriculum. Similar to the practice of ‘talk for writing’, the Framework seeks to make firm links between speaking, listening, reading and writing.
The programme has an emphasis on subject specialist language and cultural capital to set them up for both academic and social success.
Developing Teaching Excellence
Mark Burns
Using tried and tested strategies to ensure responsive classroom teaching to deliver great outcomes for children.
Behaviour
Sarah Johnson
Using a clear five step formula, this project explores the perspectives of children, to guide teachers as they support them within the school environment.
The project will explore the nature of emotional health and well-being and the real implications of this on the way children are seen to act within the school. Rather than punishing unwanted behaviour, we begin with the assumption that behaviour is our innate form of communication, that should be supported rather than controlled. It recognises the network of relationships within a school’s community and provides helpful resources to support a child’s inclusion in school life.
Evaluating the Impact of your Curriculum
Emma Adcock & Maria Curry
When inspectors evaluate the impact of the education provided by the school, their focus will primarily be on what pupils have learned. Having a well-structured, well-taught curriculum will lead to good results because those results will reflect what pupils have learned.
The impact of the curriculum lies in whether students have learnt the things you’ve taught them. How do you know whether pupils know what you think they know?
This project is intended for primary and secondary headteachers, senior and subject leaders who want to ensure that all pupils benefit from a good quality of education and optimise their learning and outcomes.
Conferences:
