| Angus Council |
|
| Strategy |
| A team of 3 seconded
teachers with sound early education experience work alongside P1/2 teachers in focus
schools, details of which are provided in the Scope paragraph, as well as delivering staff
development activities for P1/2 staff, Early Education Managers and Headteachers. A
part-time Educational Psychologist is involved in the design of materials for
assessing/monitoring/reading recovery, providing statistical analysis of data and joint
reporting of results. A part-time Community Education Worker is involved with the
promotion and development of home school links ie working with parents in partnership.
Five part-time classroom assistants work in the P1 classes in the focus schools. |
| The effectiveness of the project
is monitored by a Project Steering Group comprising a member of the Directorate, an
Adviser 0-14, a pre-school Development Officer, a Support for Learning Officer, the EI
Project Team including an Educational Psychologist, a community Education Worker and 2
Depute Headteachers, one from a focus school and the other from a non-focus school.
|
| Between August and September
1997 the Leeds Entry Assessment was used to assess all P1 pupils in Phase one. In addition
to this, 4 standardised tests were used with all P1 children in focus schools. The quick
results from the Entry Assessment enabled E1 Team along with the class teacher to identify
those children requiring immediate additional support from the team. Strategies used with
these children were negotiated with focus school class teachers and management teams.
These included - Nursery Rhymes and Traditional Tales, bookskills, concepts of print, text
awareness, word recognition, building a sight vocabulary, building a repertoire of text
the children can read, work with the alphabet, phonological awareness, the development of
sounds in words, building phonic skills, number games 1-10 and numeracy. When working with
the strategies, the team used and endorsed a games and context learning approach. |
| |
| Scope |
| The EI Project will cover all 62
Angus primary schools with 3 clusters being involved on a phased basis in each year of the
project. Within each phase there is a major focus on schools in areas of social
disadvantage and in schools where there is evidence of under achievement. In phase one, 19
schools of which 8 were deemed focus have been involved. Of the 436 children in these
schools, 90 were identified as requiring extra support. |
| |
| Achievements and emerging lessons
|
| In creating a positive learning
environment EI strategies have improved children’s attitudes and disposition for
reading and numeracy achievement. Skills in these areas have allowed children to
experience success at their individual level of competence. Acknowledging this success,
staff have become more reflective practitioners and have begun to identify targets for
improvement. Team-led staff development, which is supported by papers devised by the team,
has enabled schools to take ownership of the recommended strategies for classroom practice
and provision. Thirty one staff from Phase one have opted in to personal/professional
development opportunities provided by the team and Northern College staff. Fourteen of the
P1-3 are taking this forward to creditation within the Early Education Post Graduate
Pathway. The Angus Project team instigated the setting up of a national network of EI
teams to share experiences and expertise. |
| Reviewing Phase one with
management teams from the schools has highlighted the need for schools to reconsider their
deployment of Support for Learning staff ie placement within P1/2 to take forward the EI
initiative. The role of the classroom assistants has been very effective in maintaining
and endorsing recommended practice. Timely and effective briefing for all staff is
essential to ensure positive disposition for the E1 project and its objectives. The issue
of parents in partnership with schools is an ongoing and challenging one. |
| |
| Local Views |
| "I can’t believe
how confident and enthusiastic the children are. They won’t need LS next year".
(Class Teachers). |
|
| "Early Intervention has
been a positive and worthwhile initiative which we hope will continue". (HT)
|
|
| "I’m so pleased
with Ben. He’s getting on and he’s even reading". (Ben’s mum)
|
