Search for Learning and Development Services and Pathways

This hugely successful project is aimed at supporting schools in analysing historic ELG reading data and using this to fine-tune the teaching of early reading and phonics in order to close gaps for as many pupils as possible, as early on as possible, success in reading in the early years of school is linked to later reading fluency and comprehension. We know that children may experience barriers to reading for a range of reasons. Unpicking these, and matching provision to individual need, is integral to closing these gaps. Previous project schools have seen an improvement of their ELG reading by on average 4.6 percentage points. The largest increase seen was +13.3 percentage points, in a school with a high proportion of disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils.

The project package includes high-quality training resources, observational assessment tools and the professional development outlined below. Schools benefit from the project in a range of ways, e.g. improving their ELG reading attainment in comparison to National, LA or their own previous data.

During the project participants will be using tracking tools to support pace and progress and to explore matching provision to need. With their linked adviser, they will plan, carry out and review key actions for individual pupils and groups of pupils. The project will then support the delegates to embed strategies through robust action planning, ensuring future success and building sustainable improvements in provision.

For more information please follow the link below:
Early Reading Project

Following the launch day event a half-day consultancy visit will be arranged with an allocated adviser by the end of October 2019. For all schools outside of Hertfordshire please contact us for a price and availability before booking.

This course is aimed at schools who would like to move their fund account onto RM Finance Online. In the morning, the team will demonstrate how to set up a fund account on RM Finance Online. In the afternoon, there will be a workshop session allowing schools to set up their fund accounts, ready for use back in school.

The writing programme of study for Year 1 states that pupils should be taught, in the first instance, to compose sentences in writing in order to secure the basic concept of a sentence. Many pupils enter Year 1 not having secured this and need more time and experiences which will help embed these core, basic, but essential skills. NC2014 asks that pupils 'master' certain basic skills to enable them to be on a strong trajectory for the next part of their learning journey.

This course focuses on those basic sentence structure and punctuation skills and dives into methods of teaching those aspects. Many pupils entering Year 2 will continue to need to learn how to secure the concept of a sentence within the sentence range with which they are familiar before expanding their understanding of the wider range of different sentence forms, use of conjunctions and punctuation. It is important therefore, that any weaknesses in conceptual understanding are identified and addressed early on so that teachers can embark upon supporting their pupils to move to the next step of learning.

This course will support delegates to address this issue through the combination of a subject knowledge development session, and a tailored in-school consultancy visit. At the half-day session, delegates will have an opportunity to explore the common barriers that their pupils experience, as well as consider a range of tried and tested techniques to improve sentence structure and punctuation. During the half day in-school consultancy visit (to be arranged at a time to suit the school), the class teacher and subject leader (if available) will have an opportunity to consider how the techniques have worked for their pupils and how they can be adapted to further develop pupils' skills in this area.

This half-day course provides an overview of the key factors affecting long- and short-term sickness absence and an overview of the relationship with disability discrimination. This includes advice on how such absence can be managed effectively and proactively; and addressing it within return to work meetings.

Delegates will be prepared to discuss and share best practice, knowing that any specific examples discussed will remain confidential to the group.

Herts for Learning in partnership with Hertfordshire County Council is planning a series of Sustainable Schools Workshops from November 2019 to support financial management and efficiency in maintained schools. It is evident that pressure on school budgets is likely to be sustained in the short to medium term and the workshops are being developed in this context.

Please note these events are for invited attendees only, please only register if you have recieved the letter from HfL.

These sessions will focus on exploring accuracy of assessment judgements against age-related expectations (focusing mainly on HfL assessment criteria, although also relevant where schools are using different assessment systems), as well as promoting good formative assessment practise that can be built into everyday learning. They also provide an excellent opportunity for Year 3 and Year 4 teachers to work together to achieve greater consistency in standards. The meetings will focus on assessment of maths and reading.

Delegates will be asked to bring some examples of work and there will be suggested activities to support the assessment discussions – please see information sent to schools, as well as teacher guidance on the grid: http://www.thegrid.org.uk/learning/assessment/ks2/moderationclusters.shtml

This course will focus on how to make best use of Access Budgeting for preparing the school’s budget. We will look at how to prepare different scenarios, model different staffing structures and set up specific teacher pay scales for use in the school. We will also look at some of the key processes that schools should have in place to make the best use of the budget planning software.

The Key Stage 2 Reading Fluency Project has had a measurable impact on reading standards in many schools in Hertfordshire and beyond. Having invested heavily in this project, it is important that schools continue to maintain focus on this work, and ensure that the powerful project strategies continue to be used effectively across KS2. Where schools have maintained focus, the impact continues to be seen in reading standards in KS2, even several years after participating in the project.

To support schools in up-skilling key teaching team members in the project strategies, the fluency project team have introduced this one-day ‘sustaining impact’ session. The session is open to teachers and leaders from schools who have participated in the project at some point since its launch in 2016. The session will incorporate the information shared during the project launch day, as well as the mid-project twilight session. The session is ideally suited to team members who did not attend the original project CPD sessions, but who have seen the strategies work well in other classes and are keen to develop their understanding of the project. This session is also ideal for leaders who are keen to support and monitor the delivery of the project, but who did not attend the project CPD sessions. Schools may also choose to send teaching assistants on this training session to ensure that they fully understand the principles and purpose of the project strategies.

This session will update primary assessment leaders on any recent developments in any aspect of assessment, including any changes to national data tools (ASP, IDSR, FFT) or local data tools (Hertfordshire assessment profile, AM7).

The changes in Ofsted’s approaches to evaluating assessment practice in the classroom or the use of data in the new Education Inspection Framework and the key implications of these changes will be discussed.

The latest trends in national and local data and any other significant national or local developments in assessment will also be explored.

This course is for maintained schools and will look at how to make the most of Access Budgeting to start preparing the 2020/21 budget. We will look at how to enter key data to reflect changing assumptions in the budget and how to start modelling Year 2.