Calling all special needs teachers.

[ConfusedSNTeacher]

This is regarding the New Ofsted framework starting from January.
I teach in an enhanced provision for HI attached to a mainstream school and all my pupils have a statement.

I have recently been through performance management and my head has said that the new frame work states that all children regardless of special need are now expected to make at least a third of a level progress every year. Unless this progress is made (over an average of our pupils) we cannot be deemed as good or outstanding teachers and will not pass our performance management targets. This expectation apparently also includes all children in special schools.

Now I have huge expectations for my pupils (our KS 2 results are higher than any other unit in the county where I work) and around half of our present pupils make this (and often more) progress.

However, some of our pupils have significant additional needs on top of their HI, and despite our high expectations, some of them will never make this progress in one year. Often such pupils make what we consider to be amazing progress but this is not quantifiable by a bloody NC level descriptor.

I cannot believe that any ofsted inspector worth their salt would think that all special needs children are capable of this. One of my pupils has a profoundly disabled (physically and cognitively) sister- under these giuidelines she would also be expected to make this progress.

I am so gobsmacked by this I am actually wondering if my head has got this all wrong.

Any other teachers (especially SN teachers) been told this?

I am a main stream teacher but a mother to a child who has a 25 hours statement and attends a special school - I would laugh in the face of an inspector who demanded this of my child! There is no way on this planet he could ever make that much progress in such a small time.

If this is true, then there would not be a school in the land that educates SEN children either mainstream or special schools that would not be marked as a 4!

Having looked more closely at the framework itself it states that only cognitive impairments will not require this expectation!

So this obviously means they think that this is the only Special Need that impacts on children's learning? Such ignorance from government education department beggars belief!

They should try looking at the Progression Guidance documentation and the data in there which shows what good progress looks like. It is based on the child's prior attainment, therefore if they are starting off Year 1 in P levels they won't be expected to make the same rate of progress as a child starting Year 1 working within Level 1. The data comes from real children and their real rates of progress. So what I'm trying to say is that if you have children working within P levels they are not expected to make that rate of progress. In fact in Key Stage One if they're working within P levels it is one P level of progress over the whole of the Key Stage which would be considered good progress.

And this isn't new, it's been around at least 2 years now.

Are you in a union?

It is unreasonable of your head to make your PM targets dependent on this.

Pandanot- I totally agree but he is saying that children are expected to make at least one third level progress from where they started when they started at the junior school in year 3. So a child who achieved 1c at KS1 should be achieving 3c by the end of KS2 or at the very least 2b (he said more than one third of a level per year but not necessarily 2/3.)

Research shows that even for children who have been cochlear implanted at a young age, there is often still language delay ten years later. So much of the primary curriculum relies on language (more and more so at the upper end of KS2) that HI kids sometimes don't make that "expected" progress.

There are so many other factors that impact on their learning. One of my pupils is from a deaf family so although she has had a CI for 5 years and has no additional needs, she hasn't had the exposure to good models of language from home so there is less scope for her to make expected progress as she is only in school for 6 hours a day.

It's so frustrating sometimes working in a school where specialist teachers are judged by the same targets as the mainstream. Our head is probably one of the most ignorant I have ever worked with regarding special needs.

tethersend I have actually contacted the association for teachers of the deaf to see what their perspective is on this. I might consider contacting my union also.

And what about children who are ill/bereaved/traumatised/in accidents- do they still have to make exactly the same rate of progress? This HT sounds very much like one I remember... If I tell the parents/teachers a problem is unacceptable they will have to make it go away.

Too right Cory- the main school raise online data is not good. Aside from the Unit the main school has 35% SN ( many on school action + and quite a few statements.) so current data is poor and progress looks slow. The fact that our infant school elevates their KS1 results doesn't help...

We think he is flexing his muscles so he is seen by Ofsted to be doing something. Many of our (excellent) teachers are on the verge of a nervous breakdown at the moment- the same teachers who got us the last good to outstanding report only a few years ago...

A 1c Key Stage 1 'should' be achieving a 2a by the end of Key Stage 2, so his data is slightly out but I completely agree that it doesn't work in the real world. The students I work with have ASD and so some make lovely progress but for some they will never make that rate of progress given that the most important thing for them is learning to cope with everyday life. There is also something in the documentation (can't find the exact reference but I will have a look later) about children not making completely linear progress and that plateaus in their learning should be expected.

The HT should not be basing your performance management solely on results though and your union would have a thing or two to say about that. Could you involve them if it's affecting all of you so badly?