Assertive Mentoring: New Curriculum

Today’s Aims?

• To explain what Assertive

Mentoring is

• To see how it will work in

our school

• To see how it will benefit

you and your child

Aims of Assertive Mentoring

• To raise standards for all

• To motivate and involve

children

• To inform and involve

parents

Why Assertive Mentoring?

It’s a proven

system nationally.

It works and it

works for ALL

pupils.

Assertive Mentoring places the child at the centre of learning

and raises achievement for ALL

Today’s hypothesis

What is Assertive Mentoring?

Assertive Mentoring brings

together many outstanding

school systems together in one

place.

It is a focussed, child centred,

collaborative approach based

on a dialogue about the child’s

present and future learning

needs. Peter Boddy (AM Creator)

Assertive Mentoring Model

The Child

T

I

M

C

• Targets and tracking

• Interventions

• Mentor (Teacher and

Teaching Assistant) and

motivate

• Checking

It incorporates and facilitates:

Assessment:

Where are the children?

Tracking:

How are they progressing?

Target Setting:

What do they need next?

Support:

What help is needed?

Impact in other schools

Assertive Mentoring impact:

We would not have believed this amount of progress was even possible.

The best example of using assessment we have ever witnessed.

The school is unrecognisable.

(A Darlington Primary School: HMI /Ofsted 2010)

What caused the improvement?

Assertive Mentoring lies at the heart of the vast majority of the improved outcomes for pupils and has proved a powerful tool in the classroom;

Driving up standards

Accelerating progress rapidly

Transforming pupils’ attitudes

Dramatically impacting on climate

Empowering pupils and staff.

(A Darlington Primary School: HMI /Ofsted 2010)

Impact elsewhereI can talk with true passion about the impact of Assertive Mentoring

(AM) in my school. As a result of AM outcomes, Maths rose from

68% to 84% (L4+) and from 16% to 37% (L5) in just five months! A

fantastic achievement and one we all proud of. (B. Aylett, HT:

Montgomery School, Colchester)

Never has an initiative made such a massive impact so quickly. WOW!

Our highest ever result in writing was 67%, it has immediately jumped

to 84% and reading went to an incredible 92%!. (Cathy Greenaway)

We needed Assertive Mentoring to raise attainment and lift us to the next

level. This ensured we received ‘outstanding’ in our latest Ofsted. (J.

Gleeson, HT: St George’s Primary, Middleton)

It starts with your children being

set targets:•By the staff

•Teachers support and

guide your children in

reaching their targets

•Ambitious & achievable

targets

•Pupils are motivated to

succeed

Stage Progression Stages go from 1 to 7

Each stage corresponds to the year group eg in Year 4 the expected stage

would be stage 4.

Each stage is then broken down into 4 sub-stages

1. Emerging (E)

2. Developing (D)

3. Secure (S)

4. Ready for next stage (R)

For example, the expected stage for a child in Year 4 should be Stage 4

Secure (S4S), by the end of that year.

Obviously some children will achieve higher than this and some will still be

working towards this.

Expected Progress It is expected that all children will make four sub-stages

progress in a school year, irrespective of their starting

sub-stage at the beginning of that year

For example, a child beginning on Stage 2 secure (S2S),

should achieve Stage 3 secure (S3S) by the end of the

year.

A child can not be moved up to the next stage until they

are secure with all the learning objectives from their

current stage.

track pupil progress against the targetsTeachers regularly track your child’s progress towards the targets & make sure they stay on track

Targets are set for:

• End of Key Stage

•End of year

•End of term

•End of half term

•End of week

•End of lesson

Benefits for children

• Focussed teaching

• Know where they are

• Relevant intervention

• Personalised learning

• Motivation

• Targets met

• Success

Parental Communication

Throughout the

year, we will inform

parents about their

child’s progress

against their targets

and age related

expectations.

Parent’s role:Know your child’s targets

Support them in achieving them

Support the school

Support with homework including spelling,

reading and times tables

Reading Each child works their way through the assertive

mentoring stages.

Each assertive mentoring stage is linked to a reading

book level.

There are 20 reading book levels. For example:

Stage 2 secure (S2S) correlates to reading book level 5

Stage 4 ready (S4R) correlates to reading book level 13

The children read the correct book level every week in

school with their teacher during guided reading.

The children also choose a free choice book at the same

level.

Reading

The children are assessed against the reading level using

assertive mentoring assessment sheets.

It is important to note that progression in reading is not

simply based upon whether a child can read the words –

they must be able to understand what they have read and

provide evidence for their answers.

A child can not move on to the next stage simply because

they can read all of the words in a book.

Writing

The writing level of a child is determined by combining

objectives from:

Written work

Spellings

Grammar and Punctuation

Written work

The child has to reach objectives in their written work

which link to:

Organisation

Structure

Range of sentence types

Editing and improving work.

Spelling The spellings are split into lists which cover expectations

in the national curriculum for each year group.

Each week the children work with a teacher in group

which matches their stage.

The children must not simply learn the spelling list, they

must learn the rules to enable them to spell all words

which follow the same rule.

After each block of spellings is complete, the children will

be tested to ensure they have remembered all the rules

for that stage.

Following this, they may move on or have to repeat the

block of spellings.

Grammar and Punctuation

Each work the children work through a Grammar

Hammer test.

This covers the Grammar and Punctuation expectations

for year group.

Every week the children mark this with a teacher and

learn how to correct any errors.

The children will move on the next stage when they have

achieved all of the objectives on their current stage.

The punctuation and grammar must also be evident in

their written work.

Mathematics-Weekly Skills Checks Assertive mentoring Maths is carried out in addition to normal

Maths Lessons

Weekly skills checks cover all objectives for the year. Teachers

and Teaching Assistants support the children, where

necessary, as they carry out these weekly checks.

Children complete these checks daily, aiming to complete one

whole skills check in a week. They are then marked with the

children and the children receive a mark for that week,

between 0-25. These scores are also colour coded into red

then yellow and then green. Weekly targets are to move the

score up or to get into the next colour band. This does

motivate the children!

Mathematics – Half Termly Tests The children also complete six half termly tests,

across the year.

For each child, each test generates a stage and a

sub stage as well as a list of objectives achieved,

objectives partially achieved and objectives not

achieved, which become the targets for future

learning.

These targets are then shared with the child and

the parents.

Science

In Science, children are taught the curriculum through topics. The

children answer a question each week during their Science lesson.

The National Curriculum for Science is broken down into different

criteria for each topic for the year group.

At the end of each topic, children complete a written assessment

based upon the topic that they have been learning about.

In the written assessment, children are asked a few questions on

each criteria to check for secure understanding.

Once the children have completed the written assessment, they are

then given a Stage for that topic e.g. Stage 3 Secure (S3S)

At the end of the year, the children will be given an overall Stage for

the year based upon their scores in the topic tests.

Depth of Learning

Paddling

Snorkelling

Diving

๏Your questions answered

There is now an opportunity for

you to have a look at samples of

the work your child will be doing

within each stage.