The Inclusion Showcase

Pinfold Primary School, Tameside

Pinfold Community Primary School is located in Hattersley, in the Hyde/Godley Ward of Tameside, Greater Manchester. It is a large two-form entry school and has a 39-place, part-time Nursery. It is not affiliated to any particular religious denomination.

Currently (June 07) Pinfold has 412 full time children on roll, 197 girls and 215 boys. Government indices of multiple deprivations show Hattersley to be within the worst 5% of deprived areas in England. Long term unemployment, few owner-occupiers, many fractured families with higher than average social services involvement and significantly higher free school meals than average exacerbate low expectations, poor health and educational underachievement. Whilst many of the families are very supportive, one of the greatest barriers to learning that Pinfold faces is the social context of the school.

The majority of children enter nursery class with well below average levels of attainment in all areas of learning; poor communication, language and literacy skills are a major cause for concern. The nursery-staff give intensive support to the children in the nursery setting, providing a rich curriculum that fosters all four interdependent strands of language; speaking, listening, reading and writing (Rose 2006), and the majority of pupils make good progress and move confidently along the pathway to the Early Learning Goals. However Foundation Stage Profile Analysis (2006) noted that 'children at Pinfold were assessed to achieve lower in all six areas of learning than the average for Tameside; 80.3% compared to 88.3% respectively.

Despite good teaching (Ofsted 03), standards in reading and writing at Pinfold are below national average in KS1, however, when compared to schools of a similar socio-economic status results are above average in reading, and average in writing (Panda 02-05). Furthermore, KS2 results are in line with and slightly above national average, which gives a significant CVA (contextual value added; RAISE online 2006). Thus, following on from the last Ofsted report (2003) and HMI Evaluation of the Primary National Strategy (Oct 2004), reading and writing became a focus for school improvement with particular emphasis on the quality of phonics provision and progression within KS1.

The independent review of the teaching of early reading (Rose 2006) discusses effective approaches to support children at risk of underachievement and endorses the Primary National Strategy's model of three 'Waves' of teaching, with in the case of early reading, high quality phonic work forming a key feature of provision at each of these waves:

Wave 1 - the effective inclusion of all children in daily, Quality First Teaching'

Wave 2 - additional interventions to enable children to work at age related expectations or above; Early Literacy Support, Additional Literacy Support, Better Reading Partnership

Wave 3 - additional, highly personalised interventions, for example specifically targeted approaches for children identified as requiring SEN support on School Action, School Action plus or with a statement of special educational needs; Reading Recovery, Fischer Family Trust.

The Primary National Strategy suggests that the most effective and efficient way to tackling the difficulties that some children face with early reading and writing is a 'layered' approach. This approach identifies an appropriate intervention to address the individual needs of each child.

Pinfold Primary has developed a 'layered' approach to address the individual needs of children in KS1 and KS2. The provision of co-ordinated, high quality interventions at Waves 1, 2 and 3 aims to ensure that every child achieves age related expectations at the end of KS1 and KS2. Not being funded by Every Child a Reader, Pinfold is part of an Excellence Cluster and taps into a range of initiatives geared towards adding enrichment to pupils learning. Thus in 2004, Hattersley Neighbourhood Management formed a Neighbourhood Partnership which became one of 10 pathfinders across England which was allocated Government funding to regenerate the area and establish good practice. It was this Partnership that funded the initial appointment and training of a non-class based Reading Recovery teacher at Pinfold in 2005-06.

In the last two-years the Reading Recovery teacher has been at the heart of a range of the targeted interventions that have been put in place at Pinfold. Working closely with the Head-teacher, SENCO/Inclusion Co-ordinator, and school staff, she has been responsible for initiating intensive detailed assessment of identified children in KS1 who need additional literacy support. As a Reading Recovery teacher she works with the four lowest attaining children (Y1/Y2) at any one time, for 30 minutes per day. She has taught 8 children, who all began the programme as non-readers and SATs results show that 80% of these children have achieved L2c or above (see data below). This is her second year as Reading Recovery teacher and as her expertise and knowledge has developed she has been instrumental in initiating a range of support and interventions at Wave1, Wave 2 and Wave 3.

This year in addition to Reading Recovery the school have increased their Wave 3 provision at KS1 by attending a three-day Fischer Family Trust (FFT) Wave 3 training course provided by the LA. (FFT Wave 3 is a 20-week, individualised programme, delivered by a trained TA). This initiated the need to make a detailed provision map for children at KS1. It was decided that Reading Recovery (skilled teacher) would take the very lowest attaining children and FFT Wave 3 (skilled TA) would target the next most needy group of children, in KS1.

This year 2006-07 all the Reading Recovery schools in Tameside have been given the opportunity to introduce Better Reading Partnership into their schools (Pilot in Tameside). Better Reading is a Wave 2 intervention targeting children who are reading just below the average in their class (KS1 and KS2). It is a one to one intervention, which is TA-led over a 10-week period. Pinfold decided to train five TAs and the Reading Recovery teacher also received training with the expectation that she would then act as the co-ordinator in her school. Pinfold already had Early Literacy Support (ELS), Additional Literacy Support (ALS) and Further Literacy Support (FLS) in place and Better Reading has added to this existing Wave 2 provision. Results at Pinfold from Better Reading have been exceptional; 15 children at KS1 and KS2 have accessed the programme and have made an average increase of 16.5 months reading-age in only 10 weeks.

The expertise of the Reading Recovery Teacher has complimented and enhanced the 'Quality First' Teaching at Pinfold in a range of ways. Embracing the philosophy of banding books which is pivotal to the effectiveness of Reading Recovery, Pinfold has now book banded all of the reading scheme, in line with Reading Recovery / Book Band levels (the school originally used ORT for KS1 and Ginn for KS2 but has now greatly increased the range of text) and the Reading Recovery teacher has been available to ensure the smooth transition from reading scheme to correct Book Band Level. Alongside this all staff have had training in taking running records (INSET - Reading Recovery Teacher Leader), which has helped ensure that children are at the correct level of text. At KS1 all children are assessed using the Benchmark Kit to enable school to track / monitor progress. Further to this the literacy 'team' at Pinfold have assisted colleagues in developing skills and confidence in guided reading, helping them locate suitable texts and using the book banding system.

The Reading Recovery teacher has also been instrumental in co-ordinating and organising a peer-mentoring scheme Reading Buddies, for those children within KS2 who need additional support for their reading. Every Child A Reader programme is based on the principle that, as the Rose Review concludes. 'Whilst interventions for children with reading difficulties will always be necessary, the need for them is likely to be much reduced by 'quality first teaching'. (Every Child a Reader Conference; Jan 07). In terms of early reading, the improvements to quality first teaching that can be achieved through effective synthetic phonics teaching can be expected to impact significantly over time on the numbers of children likely to require additional targeted support. As such, all children in Year 1 have been benchmarked using the PM Benchmarking and detailed assessment has been undertaken at the start of KS1 to enable the school to track not only phonic knowledge but also to identify if this knowledge is applied in reading and writing.

During 2005-06 Tameside (Pinfold and nine other schools) were invited, along with 20 local authorities, to become involved in an Early Reading Development Pilot (ERDP) to enable them to work in partnership with the Primary Strategy and to explore the content and pace of phonics teaching within a rich, engaging and stimulating early reading and writing curriculum. The ERDP findings complement Rose's report of best practice in the teaching of early reading, with early findings informing the review and feeding into the renewal of the Literacy Framework and highlighting the importance of the direct teaching of phonics as a discrete activity and also applying and embedding the learning in a systematic, revisit, review, teach, practise apply sequence (DfES 1869 - 2005 page 7). Tracking this pilot group (currently year 1) has shown a marked improvement in the phoneme/grapheme correspondence, use of reading strategies and there is a significant improvement in the children's writing (compared to what Y1 normally achieve).

With the publication of the new phonics documentation, Letters and Sounds, focus is now being attributed to the delivery of phonic teaching from nursery to the end of KS1. This again is a key role for the Reading Recovery teacher and she is working closing with nursery, reception staff and KS1 staff to ensure the effective teaching of phonics and smooth transition from nursery to KS1.

Having a Reading Recovery Teacher at Pinfold has made a significant impact on the effectiveness of literacy provision at Wave 1, Wave 2 and Wave 3, this was initially at KS1 but is now beginning to impact at KS2 (Better Reading Partnership). She has supported colleagues in developing their skills and confidence in delivering intervention programmes and ensured CPD has been undertaken and school and staff have begun to notice improvement in pupils' behaviour and motivation not only in their reading but also in their general attitude towards learning.

The impact of having a Reading Recovery teacher in school in addition to the literacy expertise in school and within the LA (ERDP, New Framework, etc) has worked together to enhance the effectiveness of literacy provision within the school. As a consequence of this the Headteacher has decided to train a second Reading Recovery teacher in September 2007 (ECAR funded).

Results of Intervention Programmes

Wave 3

Reading Recovery results show that all children (6) taken on the programme were initially unable to read, commencing at dictated text. After 20 weeks of intensive support results for 5 out of the 6 children showed:

Average book level increase	Average reading age increase
17	21 months

1 out of the 6 children did not make expected levels for the class has been referred back to school for further support.

SATs results for Reading Recovery children (lowest achieving pupils):

• 70% of Reading Recovery pupils achieved 2c or above
• 10% of pupils were referred for statutory assessment
• 20% of pupils programme is ongoing

Fischer Family Trust 20-week intervention programme. Currently ongoing, the 3 children have already showed significant improvement. The children entered the programme unable to read with little phoneme/grapheme correspondence. Data highlights that the children are currently reading at Reading Recovery level 5 (highest red band).

Wave 2

Better Reading Partnership (BRP) involves an integrated approach to raising levels of literacy achievement both within school and the local community. The aim of BRP is to help pupils become better readers. It is a 10-week intervention, three times per week undertaken by a trained teaching assistant and delivered on a one to one basis. 10 children were identified and a further 8 children are currently undertaking the scheme.

BRP results showed the gain in reading age ranging from 4 months to two years with the average gain of 16.5 months in a 10-week period.

Early Literacy Support (ELS) has been run for several years commencing 2002 and results are impressive, in reading. 70 children have undertaken this so far:

• 21% of children achieved level 2c
• 32% of children achieved level 2b
• 27% of children achieved level 2a
• 4% of children achieved level 3

A further 18 children just finished ELS within Year 1 and they shall be monitored throughout Year 2.

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