Chapter 5: Effective Reporting

Chapter 5: Effective Reporting

As you will have gathered moving through this handbook, one of the most important roles for any governor is to hold leaders to account across the school year so they are securing positive outcomes for all learners including those with SEND. Through regular communication, personal professional development, key monitoring meetings across the year and collaboration with all stakeholders including families and young people, you should feel confident in being able to provide regular updates to the governing body. There is also the annual report to governors to consider and through your monitoring across the year and holding to account the SENCO, they should feel able to present a clear and purposeful report detailing the impact of the school’s SEND policy on the outcomes of children, holistically, across all areas. This annual report can be presented in different ways but there are many excellent templates available to support the SENCO:

https://nasen.org.uk/resources/send-report-governors-template https://schoolgovernors.thekeysupport.com/curriculum-and-pupils/pastoral-care/sendprovision/reporting-to-governors-on-sen-provision/

What Should You Expect to See in a SEND Annual Report?

An annual report is a great way to celebrate the strengths & achievement of the school whilst presenting the evidence and impact. It should also provide a platform to formalise the areas for development and the opportunities that are available to combat these concerns. An ideal time for the annual report is in the summer term. At this point the SENCO and school leaders will be in a great position to pull together outcomes from monitoring meetings, teaching & learning and progress across the year whilst discussing key priorities ready for the next academic year. These key priorities can then form the basis for the new monitoring process cycle.

SEND Annual Report Reflection Sheet (Download PDF)

Suggested Contents

An overview of the quality of provision across the year

Include a succinct overview of the year and include key details to highlight & share: • The quality of the curriculum for SEND learners and impact of Quality First Teaching for all • The implementation and monitoring of the mainstream core standards • Pastoral outcome for SEND pupils • Holistic development: personal, social, and moral for SEND pupils • Evaluation of the leadership of SEND & every leader a leader of SEND / every teacher a teacher of SEND. • Implementation of mainstream core standards Further detail can then be added in other sections

SEND register status

Include a brief overview of the SEND landscape within the school e.g., % of EHCP/K/SEND register with year-on-year trends. It is

Progress & Attainment

also a great idea to show the % of overlap with SEND from EAL/LAC/PP etc Think about local and national comparisons to demonstrate the levels of need in school and then break down the four areas of need to indicate key areas for consideration: • communication and interaction • cognition and learning • social emotional and mental health • sensory and physical.

When developing this area think about data holistically for all learners with SEND and demonstrate improvement / areas for development across all areas. There could also be a couple of anonymised case studies to demonstrate the impact of your provision on the individual progress and attainment of key individuals

The data can be both quantitative and qualitative and could include:

Identification & Assessment

Accessibility update

Funding update

• Subject progress data • Attendance data • Behaviour monitoring • Participation data • Family engagement data • Feedback from parents, teachers, learners • Local authority feedback

Include the schools’ processes for identification and assessment with brief reference to number of assessments, resources used and impact. The SENCO could also briefly include the improvement in teacher engagement with identifying need and how this is followed up and pursued by the SEND team.

A section to detail any amendments to the school’s accessibility arrangements with any updates necessary. Reference could be made to the date annual update of policy was completed. An update on funding details how the school has used the notional budget to its best endeavours and where needed, how high needs funding applications has provided additional support for those young people needing more than what is normally provided. It could include: • Details of SEND funding and high needs applications – value for money • The variation in funding year on year • How funding had impacted upon the development of inclusion for the school • What the impact of any additional funding had been • Funding plans for the next academic year and any funding concerns

Staff development

Team around the children

SWOT

Describe the CPD plans for all staff (leaders, teachers, TAS, support staff), who has received what training and how and what the impact has been for the school. Think about: • Mentoring and coaching • Internal CPD • External webinars, training and visits • KCC countywide projects • Academy / across school peer reviews • Mainstream core standards development • External professional support

This section would reflect the opportunities taken to ensure key collaboration and communication with all stakeholders, including families, external agencies, and local authority support. It clearly allows a SENCO to express: • How the school’s partnership and collaboration with parents has impacted upon the outcomes for SEND learners • How the level of support from external professionals has had an impact upon provision

From the SEND development plan and through regular monitoring meetings a SENCO should be able to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Articulating these clearly within the report including: • Key celebrations and outcomes • Specific areas for development over the next academic year • Strategic planning on how to implement these developments and actions to be taken

What Should I Expect to See in the Headteachers Report to Governors?

This is a strategic report and will include all the key information that everyone on the governing body requires. It will focus on the priorities of your school and contain information you, as a board, have requested. The governance handbooks states https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/governancehandbook:

“a board will need to see information relating to the priorities it has identified for improvement.”

This might include data on:

• pupil learning and progress • pupil literacy and numeracy • pupil applications, admissions, attendance, and exclusions

• staff deployment, absence, recruitment, retention, morale and performance • quality of teaching.

Whilst there is no set list of topics or statutory layout for the head teacher report, the best practice when focusing on a fully inclusive school is to be sure that SEND is woven into all sections of the report.

You want to see the learning progress of ALL pupils and the attendance of ALL for example. This really demonstrates that all learners in the care of the school are fully included across all platforms.

Preparing for OFSTED

Responsibilities of the SEND Governor and Ofsted (Siobhan Price, - Education Officer- Mainstream Inclusion, Kent County Council )

It is important to note that OFSTED do not give separate grades for SEND provision in schools however, the evidence they gather on SEND will inform judgements in other areas. Therefore, it is vital that you challenge your school on being fully inclusive across all areas whether that be the quality of education, leadership, or behaviours & attitudes.

Inspectors will focus on gathering the information you have been monitoring and challenging across the year and could ask any of the following questions.

• Are ambitious and aspirational curriculums set for all learners? • How are SEND needs identified, assessed, and monitored? • How is the curriculum adapted to support SEND learners whilst continuing to be fully ambitious? • How are families involved in supporting their child through coproduction and collaboration? • Are SEND children included in the whole school community? • Is the appropriateness of provision assessed on the learning and development of SEND pupils? • Are young people prepared for life after school, adulthood, and successful post 16 transitions?

Evidence will be gathered via a range of methods; looking at provision maps, visiting classes, looking at books and identifying points in key SEND documents. Inspectors focus on triangulating evidence with all members of staff, leaders, teachers, and support staff. It is always good practice to have key case studies to share with inspectors, as with the governor annual report and below you will see some questions that ANY governor could be asked about SEND pupils. The key is to be prepared: ensure all governors on the board understand the current processes and as a SEND link governor that you take the responsibility of putting SEND onto all agendas. Create a fully inclusive and prepared school by remembering ‘all governors are governors of SEND’

Example Questions OFSTED Inspectors May Ask:

• “How effective is the quality first teaching for ALL learners? How do you know?” • “How has the curriculum been designed so that it is ambitious for all?” • “What is the progress like for SEND learners? What is being done to make sure they achieve their potential?” • “How good is attendance for all learners? How do you know?” • “What is the behaviour policy like and how does it ensure fully inclusion?” • “Are SEND learners prepared for adulthood successfully?”