Case studies

This section provides examples of existing effective personalised learning practice in the form of case studies.  These examples exhibit more than one of the personalised learning components. However, as personalised learning work depends very much on the local context, there will be other examples of effective practice in these areas. 

Some of the approaches that schools have used successfully include:

• providing interventions earlier to prevent children falling behind
• providing small group or individual tution for pupils who need to catch up
• creating new opportunities to stretch gifted and talented children
• making greater use of teaching practices that support personalisation, such as more imaginative ways of setting and grouping
• providing extra support for looked after children, such as tuition, mentoring and regular liaison between carers or schools, to ensure that their home circumstances do not adversely affect their educational progress
• supporting pupils' progress by working in partnership with other schools, and to ensure a smooth transition from primary to secondary schools
• providing more study support opportunties to help pupils' learning, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds
• providing targeted support for specific groups of children who are at risk of underperforming, including ethnic minorities or white working class children, children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and looked after children
• providing parents with better information and reporting systems about their child's progress and helping them to engage in supporting their learning
• creating specific posts, such as a 'personalisation manager', to co-ordinate or disseminate a whole school approach to personalisation
• using forms of peer mentoring or setting up 'buddy' systems that enable older pupils to buddy younger ones and support them i their learning and general well-being
• deploying 'vertical tutoring' structures based on a mix of pupil ages that enable pupils to forge an identity and secure supportive relationships beyond their own class and year group

Case Study Schools

Grange Primary School, Derbyshire LA

The present Headteacher, Richard Gerver, came to the school in 2001, when the school was at the top of the LA’s list of schools causing concern. Results were low, particularly in mathematics, where only 46% of pupils achieved the expected level at the end of Key Stage 2, pupils were unmotivated and the staff demoralised. The new head felt that in order to move the school forward, he needed to involve pupils and staff in thinking about how to design a school that would excite and challenge everybody to achieve. 
 
Approach

The process started from the question: ‘what do we want our children to be and to be able to do when they leave Grange?’ From this, a working group of teachers proposed a set of learning profiles, which describe the skills children at Grange will develop. The school’s curriculum was then designed to support these skills, with an emphasis on making it feel relevant and important for the children.

The group came up with an idea to create its own town in the school – calling it ‘Grangeton’ – to provide a focus for teaching and learning. The town offers a scaled-down but fully functioning model of a real society, complete with political structure and working economy. The town is headed by a mayor and elected council, which meets in the library to debate and decide on school policy. There is a newspaper which is printed once a term, a cinema, a healthy eating tuck shop with two ‘franchises’ on the school site, a television studio, radio station, museum and café. Each of these enterprises is run by and for the pupils. Older children can apply for management positions, and they are responsible for passing on their skills to those in lower years. A core group of key members of staff – including non-teaching staff – takes the lead on each area, backed by full training in the relevant industry.

The project relies on pupils being self-confident and enterprising enough to harness the skills and knowledge they develop in the classroom – resulting in increasingly independent learners. Since September 2006 Grange University has been in operation, allowing each child to select workshop options leading to certification at different levels.

Richard Gerver feels: 'It's about placing learner skills and behaviour in context in order to create willing learners. Grangeton is where they get to try out the skills they are learning in context, to see how they will be useful when they go into the real world,' says Richard, explaining the principles behind Grangeton. In other words, as he puts it, 'why should vocational study start at 14? Why not from the age of three?'

The project resonates with what was to become the vision set out in Excellence and Enjoyment, which in turn helped to 'validate and audit' what Grange Primary was doing. Richard says, 'The messages within Excellence and Enjoyment are about the personalisation of learning and finding powerful forms of assessment – and asking, are we as teachers delivering a curriculum that matters to our kids? Well, I believe we are achieving that here at Grange Primary.' The school assesses children's needs largely through skills-based assessment and then refers to the Primary National Strategy frameworks to draw out key learning objectives that support those needs.

In 2005 Grange Primary School conducted a thorough review of its curriculum. As a result, in September 2006 the school adopted a new curriculum model, which is ‘packaged’ in four strands: communication; well-being; enterprise; and culture. Each year, the whole school will choose three to six themes that will be the focus for all the children’s work and cover all the knowledge, skills and attributes required by the national curriculum. Richard Gerver expects the new model to deepen the learning experience still further and create more opportunities for pupils to learn from each other.
 
Outcome

Since the introduction of Grangeton the school’s performance has improved significantly. In 2006, 87% of pupils achieved level 4 at the end of Key Stage 2 in English, 98% in mathematics and 92% in science (for referencing in future perfomance tables, please note that the school comes under Derbyshire LA).

The school was inspected by Ofsted in 2004, with the report making particular reference to the way pupils were engaged with their learning. The report also stated that attitudes, behaviour and attendance were good and that children were keen to come to school.

The skills gained by pupils during their time at Grange are recognised by the local secondary school, which uses Grange pupils as mentors in year 7 to work with their peers who attended different primary schools and help them to develop independent learning skills.
 

Date school visited: July 2006. Date case study uploaded: 7 August 2007

Jo Richardson Community School, Barking and Dagenham

Jo Richardson Community School is a new school in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, a predominantly white working class area, although with increasing numbers of new arrivals to the country. The school opened in September 2002 and moved in to new buildings in September 2005. The school was designed around a teaching and learning framework that puts an emphasis on high quality whole class teaching that promotes dialogue, encourages students to take an active role in their learning and is built around formative assessment. 
 
Approach

The school’s headteacher, Andy Buck, was involved in the design and planning for the new school from the beginning. The school was designed on the basis of clear educational principles, drawing on the Secondary National Strategy and on a philosophy that focuses on whole-class teaching and the importance of oral work.

Classrooms at Jo Richardson are arranged in a ‘horseshoe’ layout, which allows all students to see and interact with each other. ICT is used extensively in support of the pedagogy, with ‘visualisers’ projecting onto large screens and connected to PCs, allowing teachers to switch quickly and easily between materials and acting as a focus for the whole class. Teachers focus on using strategies for engaging all pupils.

The school aims to embed assessment for learning in all classrooms, through strategies that include a ‘no hands up’ policy at certain points in lessons, which allows the teacher to invite pupils to answer, targeting questions accordingly, and pupils to invite others to help them with their answer. There is a consistent approach to checking, marking and assessing, with all pupils receiving levelled feedback against assessment criteria in each subject. The school’s quality assurance processes are set up to challenge curriculum provision systematically to ensure it is meeting the needs of all student groups. This way, assessment feeds back into curriculum planning. Twice a year ‘student performance review days’ are held, when all students attend a meeting with their parents/carers and tutor. The tutor is responsible for reviewing – with the student and their parent/carer – the student’s progress in all subjects and setting individual targets.

The school places an emphasis on engaging students in their learning and in the life of the school. Teachers engage in learning conversations with students through marking and through whole class feedback (‘voting’). There is a strong student council, and students’ views are sought through self-evaluation and feedback questionnaires at department and whole-school level. Support for students is strong, with a dedicated Student Development Department and students encouraged to offer support to their peers.

The school acts as a hub for community activity, with the ‘Castle Green’ centre an integral part of the building, providing community access to a library, conference venue, sports, ICT and performing arts facilities. Students have access to a wide range of after-school and lunchtime activities, which are extremely popular.
 
Outcome

The school’s first GCSE cohort will sit their exams in the summer of 2007. In 2005, the same cohort achieved 73% level 5 in English, 80% level 5 in mathematics and 77% level 5 in science, with an average points score of 34.4 (well above the local authority average, and above the national average for mathematics and science).

The school has built strong relationships with parents. 98% of parents attend ‘student performance review days’ (SPRD) twice a year (the majority on the day itself, with a small number contacted through follow-up activity). Surveys of parents show that all believe the school has high expectations of their children.
 
 
Date school visited: September 2006. Date case study uploaded: 7 August 2007.

Preston Manor High School, Wembley

Preston Manor High School in Wembley, north London (Brent LA), is a large mixed 11-18 comprehensive school with about 1360 students that has experienced and successfully tackled a highly challenging set of circumstances. It has a broad ethnic mix: about two thirds of pupils are from an Asian background and a fifth from Black Caribbean and African backgrounds. A high percentage of students do not have English as a first language. Just over 20% are entitled to free school meals; this is above the national average as is the number of students who have a statement of special educational need.

The former headteacher, Andrea Berkeley, who retired in July 2006 after some 13 years at the school, described the first 5 years of her headship as particularly challenging. The school was found to have “serious weaknesses” in core areas in the first Ofsted inspection. In creating an ethos that was inclusive and supportive of all students, Andrea had to change the existing culture away from the concept that ‘the teacher knows all’.
 
Approach

The school has invested considerable time and effort in developing a range of initiatives aimed at personalising learning to meet the needs of students, improve the quality of teaching and raise standards. The following are some specific features the school has adopted; whilst most are more recent, certain initiatives have evolved over the past 10 years or so:

• Small group tuition is a normal part of children’s education so that they receive extra attention in areas where they need further support or stretch. By operating this ‘intervention’ as routine practice, there is no stigmatisation attached to it.
• A personalisation manager takes on the role of prime “champion” for personalised learning, who ensures that this policy and practice is driven from the top and approached in an holistic way throughout the school.
• In Years 7-10 pupils are targeted for specialist literacy sessions, with a different set of pupils being withdrawn for special booster classes each half term.
• Mentoring is provided through a combination of post age-16 students (who receive training in peer mentoring) and experienced external mentors.
• Provision is made to identify and stretch gifted and talented children, including opportunities for them to sit GCSEs early and take supplementary lessons in Latin and philosophy.
• Regular, on-going assessment of students’ work is rigorously applied, supported by a refined use of data to track progress and setting of smart targets for those who underachieve.
• In recognition of the ethnic composition of pupils, black boys are withdrawn regularly to participate in discussion/interaction group sessions in which ‘black’ issues are addressed from local and national perspectives.
• A ‘circle of friends’ enables those with social and/or emotional difficulties to act as a supportive group, particularly at times of transition.
 
Outcome

The most recent Ofsted report (November 2005) described Preston Manor as “an outstanding school which enables its students to learn well. It has been at the forefront of curriculum innovation, particularly in its approaches to literacy and strategies for behaviour management…..and has achieved a national reputation for its work with raising the self-esteem and achievement of Afro-Caribbean boys.”

The majority of students enter with average standards. However, attainment is high with 85% of pupils achieving Level 5+ in English at Key Stage 3 (age 14) in 2006, 88% in Maths, and 86% in Science. 74% of Year 11 pupils gained 5 or more GCSEs at A*-C grades in 2006. Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 3, and Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 4 Contextual Value Added scores are above average.

In more general terms, the school leads by example. It promotes high expectations of all pupils; welcomes diversity and practices equal opportunities; respects all pupils, their parents and communities; and fully addresses issues of inclusion. 
 
 
Date school visited: May 2006. Date case study uploaded: 7 August 2007.