The Rochford Review - What Happens Now?
In October 2016 the DfE published the final report of the Rochford Review, before launching a consultation on its content April of this year. The terms of reference for the Rochford Review included a requirement to recommend whether P scale levels remain fit for purpose, and to consider how any proposed solutions to P level […]
- by Richard Aird
In October 2016 the DfE published the final report of the Rochford Review, before launching a consultation on its content April of this year.
The terms of reference for the Rochford Review included a requirement to recommend whether P scale levels remain fit for purpose, and to consider how any proposed solutions to P level issues might:
- Recognise achievement and progress made by all pupils
- Support the ambitions of the most recent SEND reforms
- Assist with school inspection and improve accountability for SEND provision
- Suggest wider implications for professional development
In response, the Rochford Review has recommended that the requirement to statutorily assess the lowest attaining pupils by reference to P levels be removed, and that assessment by levels be replaced with a new statutory requirement to assess and report on standards of pupil engagement in cognition and learning. Cognition and learning is one of the four domains of SEND prescribed in the SEND Code of Practice. The Rochford Review goes on to recommend that when schools report on the standard of their pupils’ engagement, they should also report on progress within the other SEND domains of:
- Communication and interaction
- Physical and sensory
- Social, emotional and mental health
By linking statutory assessment of the lowest attaining pupils to those SEND Code of Practice domains, the Rochford Review is offering teachers a once in a generation opportunity to improve the effectiveness of their specialist provision for pupils with SEND and bring about better outcomes on a whole child basis.
Beyond the ‘best fit’ approach
Should the Rochford Review reforms be enacted, the qualitative assessment of outcomes in the SEND domains will take priority over the production of quantitative data in narrow bands of national curriculum attainment.
Although it’s often stated that P levels provide a ‘common language’ with which to judge standards of pupil attainment, attainment within the P levels is only awarded on a ‘best fit’ basis, with no requirement that pupils are secure in all aspects of learning at a particular P level.
This best fit approach has meant that the DfE has never ‘data crunched’ P level data, because it’s not been possible to moderate such data on a national scale – there’s often ambiguity about what pupils actually know and can do.
Although P level assessment is only a tiny part of what schools should be assessing in terms of the progress their lowest attaining pupils are making, schools have invested a relatively overwhelming amount of time and expense in tracking and reporting P level progress in comparison to assessing and reporting holistic impact. On occasion, the perceived need to satisfy myths about Ofsted’s insatiable hunger for P level performance data has compromised the requirement for schools to assess and report the impact their special provision has had upon the SEND issues of their pupils, and how pupils are being prepared for a participatory adulthood.
Profoundly personalised
Back in 2006, the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust advised schools to “Transform their responses to the learner from the largely standardised to the profoundly personalised”. The Rochford Review’s recommendation that statutory assessment of pupils with SEND focus on pupil engagement, rather best fit P level assessment, is an ideal starting point for securing such personalised provision.
However, pupil engagement will only contribute to the success of personalisation when that engagement focuses on the whole child, and is embedded within curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.
Teachers of pupils with SEND have a duty to know and be able to demonstrate whether they’re making a real improvement to the circumstances of their most fragile learners. Provision shouldn’t be about teaching generic, standardised measures of knowledge. Instead, it should be about understanding what needs to happen in order to facilitate improvements in the issues and barriers that confront pupils on a daily basis.
Personalised learning respects a pupil’s existing attributes, whilst also responding constructively to impaired functional issues. Careful note is taken regarding the barriers posed by a pupil’s specific issues, as well as the pupil’s complex and unique nuances, in order that distinctive teaching approaches can be employed empathetically.
Nothing to fear
The Rochford Review identified seven aspects of pupil engagement in cognition and learning believed to be essential for facilitating personalised learning. This focus on pupil engagement builds on the innovative ‘Engagement for Learning Resource Framework’ (ELF) published in 2011 by the Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities project (see tinyurl.com/CLDD-ELF), which has since been thoroughly tested and endorsed by international research.
Using the ELF can readily provide the kind of quantitative data which Ofsted inspectors require to inform their judgements and ensure that statutory assessment of pupils with SEND is sufficiently robust. The ELF has a numerical scoring system, which can assist schools in exemplifying the learning trajectory of pupils – even when the standard of such learning is only of a lateral nature and planned improvement targets are still being worked on.
Teachers should not be afraid of the changes proposed by the Rochford Review, but rather feel assured that the needs of their lowest attaining pupils will be far more effectively addressed as a consequence. To help bring about this much needed change in the culture of SEND provision, teachers are encouraged to respond positively to the DfE
Add your voice
The DfE’s open consultation, ‘Primary school pupil assessment: Rochford Review recommendations’ closes at 5pm on 22nd June 2017 – for more details, visit tinyurl.com/rochford-consult.
Further information regarding the Rochford Review’s recommendations, plus a range of freely downloadable accompanying resources, can be found at engagement4learning.com
About the author
Richard Aird OBE is the former leader of four maintained and non-maintained special schools, a regular advisor to the DfE and a SEND consultant. For more information, visit sensibleconsultancy.co.uk
