Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by the GL Education Group

(i) Executive Summary

(ii) The GL Education Group is a leading provider of independent educational tests and assessments, including stakeholder surveys. Assessments include the Pupil Attitudes to Self and School (PASS) attitudinal survey, the Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT) and Kirkland Rowell Surveys. In-depth interpretation services help to identify appropriate intervention strategies.

(iii) The company’s Professional Development Services arm provides a range of training courses and modules for Governors. It is the provider, in partnership with Durham Education Development Services (EDS), of a new training programme that has been developed by the National College for Chairs of Governors to schools in the North East, and it also runs a series of dedicated training modules on School Governance that can be accessed by any member of a school’s Governing Body.

(iv) As one of five commercial partners of the National Governors’ Association (NGA), the company has produced briefing papers on stakeholder engagement as part of the NGA’s Knowing Your School series. The first paper, Getting to Know Your Parents,1 was published in September 2012 and Getting to Know Your Pupils and Getting to Know Your Staff will be published in 2013. The company has also presented on stakeholder engagement at a number of NGA conferences over the last 18 months and has contributed to some of their work with the APPG for Education Governance and Leadership.

(v) The GL Education Group believes that in order for Governing Bodies to be fully effective they must have a full and consistent understanding of the views of school stakeholders; use this information to support schools to make improvements through targeted interventions; monitor progress and encourage school leaders and staff to undertake regular self-evaluation.

(vi) It is also vital that Governors are given provision themselves to develop the skills necessary to provide schools with the support they need to develop and maintain high standards.

(vii) Response

(viii) There are over 300,000 Governors in the UK providing an invaluable service to schools across the country. Governors play a key supportive role to senior management teams, helping to define schools’ strategic development, while also holding Headteachers and senior leadership teams to account. It is important that the valuable role Governors play in UK schools is recognised but also that this role is developed as necessary.

(ix) Governors are well placed to help schools improve and to develop overall delivery strategies with senior management. As part of this wider leadership and school governance role it is essential that Governors, along with senior management teams, have a comprehensive understanding of the views of key school stakeholders: pupils, parents and staff. Stakeholders can often have a perception of a school that Governing Bodies do not have access to and understanding these views can help Governors to identify areas of strength as well as areas for development and work with the school to introduce targeted interventions to bring about improvements where necessary.

(x) Understanding, Supporting and Stretching Students

(xi) In order to have a full and in-depth understanding of stakeholder views Governing Bodies should ensure that their schools use attitudinal and stakeholder surveys. For example, Governors should encourage schools to use resources such as the Pupil Attitudes to Self and School (PASS) attitudinal survey. PASS is used by over 2500 schools and over 100 local authorities across the UK to address behavioural problems such as persistent absences. The survey is comprised of short psychometric statements that feed into nine attitudinal factors linked to key educational goals. These include how well children are responding to the curriculum, how prepared they are to learn and their attitude towards attendance.

(xii) Disengagement, poor attitudes to attendance and low self-confidence can manifest as poor behaviour and truancy and ultimately have serious detrimental impacts on pupil attainment. PASS can help to identify previously unknown areas where pupils may be disengaged or having difficulties and help schools to introduce targeted interventions before these problems become entrenched. PASS is especially helpful in terms of addressing absences as it demonstrates a high correlation between students who have a low score in attitude to attendance and their future actual attendance. Results indicated a very high (p. <0.0001) correlation for the whole of the rating scale and the relationship between attitude to attendance and actual attendance was 0.91. This means schools can identify those pupils who are at risk of future poor attendance and address this before absences actually occur.

(xiii) Understanding pupil attitudes is essential to helping bring about improvements in schools and is becoming increasingly important given Ofsted’s focus on evaluating behaviour and pupil attitudes towards learning. Governing Bodies should therefore take the time to introduce these types of surveys into their schools and ensure that the results are used appropriately to tackle the problem areas highlighted through consistent targeted intervention programmes. However, it is not just pupil attitudes that schools and Governors need to understand but also pupil perceptions.

(xiv) A pupil perception survey can provide an objective view of the school through the eyes of its pupils; a view that Governors may not have previously understood. By using surveys such as those provided by Kirkland Rowell Surveys, schools can assess how important particular areas, such as “how well the school controls bullying”, are to pupils and how satisfied they are with the school’s management of these criteria. School leaders should then use these results to identify any discrepancies between those issues that pupils perceive as important and how well they feel the school manages them and subsequently introduce improvement programmes to ensure these discrepancies are addressed.

(xv) Using attitudinal and perception surveys can help Governors work with their school and its pupils to make the changes needed to bring about improvements in attainment but also in the areas like behaviour and wellbeing that Ofsted is increasingly focused on. Subject teachers can use the information to adjust lesson planning to suit the needs of individual classes and by repeating surveys leaders can measure the impact of intervention programmes in the longer term. In addition, the data obtained can form a significant part of the school’s self-evaluation process and feedback for Ofsted.

(xvi) Parental Engagement

(xvii) In addition to understanding pupil views it is also important that Governing Bodies incorporate an understanding of parent views as a key component of their leadership role. The Government has repeatedly emphasised the importance of stakeholder views on schools and especially those of parents. Research has shown that parental involvement in schooling has a greater influence on attainment than family background or parental education and it is therefore essential that school leaders develop a good and consistent engagement with parents.

(xviii) In order to fully utilise their position Governing Bodies need reliable and detailed information with which to hold senior management teams to account where necessary and an independent assessment of parent views is important for this. Using stakeholder surveys like those provided by Kirkland Rowell Surveys provides Governors with the necessary information to understand parent priorities for schools and how satisfied they are with the school’s provision in these areas. This is particularly important given Ofsted’s introduction of Parent View. Schools have already expressed concerns that a small number of disaffected parents will skew the overall feedback on a school and Ofsted has confirmed that only three parental contributions will be needed for views to be seen.

(xix) If concerns continue to be raised via Parent View they can trigger an Ofsted inspection. Therefore it is essential that Governing Bodies engage with parents on a regular basis so that they can identify areas of concern and address them promptly. Given the reduced notice period for inspections, using perception surveys will also mean that Governors and their schools are prepared for any concerns that may be raised by parents as part of an inspection process and will be able to readily demonstrate to inspectors what is already being actively done to address them.

(xx) Additionally, as Ofsted begins to focus on factors such as attendance, pupil wellbeing and other areas that stakeholders are concerned by, evidence that an effective Governing Body is working with school leadership teams to monitor and address these issues will make schools much more attractive to prospective parents.

(xxi) Staff Engagement

(xxii) Staff views are also important indicators for Governing Bodies of areas where targeted work may be needed to make school improvements. If staff are dissatisfied with any aspects of the school leadership Governors need to know in order to hold senior management to account. By using perception surveys, staff are provided with a confidential means of raising concerns and Governors will be able to have a realistic understanding of their views. In addition, these surveys can also be given to Governing Bodies with the dedicated Governor feedback providing a direct comparison of Governors’ views with those of staff. This provides further insight into how attuned Governors are with the perceptions of other stakeholders and helps to identify areas where more specific engagement may be necessary.

(xxiii) Combining Governor and staff perceptions with the information obtained from pupils and parents will allow Governing Bodies to have the best understanding of their school and areas where extra resources may be needed. Understanding stakeholder views should therefore be seen as a key part of a Governing Body’s leadership role.

(xxiv) Understanding Data and Monitoring Progress

(xxv) As well as understanding stakeholder views Governors should also ensure that they have a good understanding of the impact of teaching and learning on school development and progress. This will allow them to monitor the results of any intervention and improvement programmes but also allow Governors to identify other areas where improvement is needed that may not have been highlighted in the information obtained from stakeholders.

(xxvi) Governors and schools can use online systems that will allow both Governors and other school leaders to monitor progress across the school. Accessing this type of information can be difficult, particularly in larger schools, but this can be mitigated through the use of online tracking systems such as GO4 Schools. GO4 Schools provides schools with an efficient database that tracks progress by subject, group and student. This allows schools to always have an accurate and up to date picture of pupil and staff progress (which can be useful when Governing Bodies are considering setting performance-related pay) as well as highlighting where further work needs to be undertaken.

(xxvii) Using such programmes will enable Governors to identify where weaknesses lie and what actions senior management should take to address them. This can be especially useful when combined with tools such as Schoolcentre which allow school leaders to manage effective self-evaluation programmes and the School Development Plan to engage the school and its stakeholders to achieve school improvement goals. This can also allow for the sharing of best practice with other schools locally and nationally and, by using GO4 Schools, across academy chains. Using systems like GO4 Schools and Schoolcentre in conjunction with each other ensures that Governors, and senior management teams, are able to access key information efficiently and therefore introduce improvement programmes quickly. In addition, several of the GL Education Group’s assessments such as the Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT), Progress in English (PiE) and Progress in Maths (PiM)will soon provide Governing Bodies with a separate, dedicated report, as well as cross-reporting between assessments, so that an even more detailed understanding of progress and areas where further improvements are needed can be obtained.

(xxviii) Ultimately, using these resources will help improve the effectiveness of Governing Bodies as they enable school leaders to act quickly to address problem areas and to track the progress of both pupils and staff. Additionally, the evidence provided by using these types of resources alongside stakeholder surveys will also demonstrate the positive impact of effective interaction between a school’s Governing Body and its senior management and will help steer the school’s drive for school improvement.

(xxix) Professional Development and Training

(xxx) As well as ensuring they have a full understanding of the school, its stakeholders and its progress, it is also crucial that Governors undertake consistent continuous professional development.

(xxxi) Sir Michael Wilshaw has stated that 40% of Governing Bodies are only satisfactory or are inadequate and in order to tackle this, so that schools receive the best support possible, Governors should undergo training and development. For example, the GL Education Group offers a portfolio of professional development modules and courses for schools and Governors, including the National College Chairs of Governors’ Leadership Development Programme. This programme gives Chairs the opportunity to develop their leadership skills through three units which focus on the role of the chair, effective governance and school improvement. Schools need strong and effective leadership otherwise efforts to make improvements, such as those outlined above, will not have the impact necessary to make real change. Training should be a priority for Governing Bodies so that they can develop the skills needed to provide their schools with effective leadership.

(xxxii) Conclusion

(xxxiii) Governing Bodies have a vital role to play in the success of any school and it is therefore essential that they are given the support they need to develop but also that they use the resources available to them to fully understand a school and their strategic role. This could be in areas such as RAISEonline, effective self-review of the Governing body, Governor and Headteacher performance management and ensuring the effectiveness of individual Governors and the Governing body as a whole. This will allow Governors to identify the areas where improvements are needed, to monitor progress to ensure that interventions are successful and to ensure that ultimately their school is able to develop and maintain high standards.

January 2013