What the resource is This Teachers TV programme looks at the ways one school (Hexthorpe Primary School in Doncaster) is using pupil data as a key part of their work at a whole school, class and individual level. Various techniques to collect the data are also considered.
The aims of the resource
The resource aims to raise awareness of primary school staff to the data they could be using to improve standards within the school. It aims to show how staff collect and use the data that it is available to them.
Key findings or focus
The focus of the programme is to provide a short introduction to using data in the primary school through a user friendly medium. A number of clear and accessible methods are shown to demonstrate how data may be used practically to raise standards. The senior management team are shown looking at the paper tracking of individual pupils and groups of pupils and discussing how they will use this. This includes looking at those pupils not achieving and those high achieving pupils who may be coasting.
The programme moves on to show specific examples of Year 2 children self assessing their work and an intervention group of older Key Stage 2 children looking at where they lost marks in their work and discussing strategies to make sure they get the marks another time.
There is also a short example of a child and her mother discussing her targets, meeting with teachers, and exploring how she might be supported working on her targets at home.
Whilst none of these activities are ‘new thinking', they are a helpful insight to teachers beginning to get to grips with this area.
The quality, authority and credibility of the resource
The programme is a short 15 minute programme. It is of the usual high quality for Teachers TV. The resource carries credibility as it exemplifies practices that clearly are working for one school and therefore could be transferred to another school.
The implications for ITE tutors/mentors
This programme gives an insight into how primary schools might use data available to them. As such it has a direct link to the new standard (Q13) in the 2007 QTS standards related to this. In this respect the programme may be useful in sessions or lectures to stimulate discussion around the practices shown. The programme could also be accessed by students as a task outside a taught session, to stimulate some early thoughts and prepare for later discussions within a seminar.
The relevance to ITE students
The programme is useful to ITE students in drawing their attention to the role of data in raising standards and personalising learning. This may not be an area they encounter on teaching practice and therefore may provide them with some useful practical background.
Reviewed by:
Louise O'Sullivan
