To Headteachers, Executive Headteachers
and Heads/Acting Heads of School
All Lambeth Schools/AEPs
26th April 2017
Dear Colleagues
Welcome back to the Summer Term 2017. I hope you managed a restful break and that you
are ready for the term ahead. It will be a busy term not only focusing on national tests,
recruitment, a range of inspection activity but also on consolidating planning for the budgetary
challenges that are facing us all.
Please find in this termly letter an update on a number of local matters that I hope will be
helpful to you. More detailed information on local and national issues, some of which is
statutory, will be reflected later in this letter or the accompanying appendix where appropriate.
Welcome and farewells. Richard Thornhill, Executive Headteacher of Loughborough
Federation left at the end of Spring Term after seventeen years with Lambeth. We wish him
the very best in his new endeavours. Jim Henderson has left City Heights Academy after
setting up the school and settling it onto its new site in Tulse Hill. Elroy Cahill is currently Acting
Headteacher. We wish him a very warm welcome to Lambeth.
The Lambeth Schools Partnership- Launch
As you will know we have launched the Lambeth Schools Partnership jointly with schools.
The website is live and you can log in and subscribe at any time.
The aim of the Partnership is to keep the whole Lambeth family of schools working together
against a background of school and Council savings requirements. The partnership has been
developed over many months by schools and the Council working together. It is founded on
ensuring that all schools are well supported to improve, have access to high quality and
good value school improvement as well as a wide range of information, conferences
and seminars on matters of national and local importance.
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Lambeth Schools Partnership membership is open to all publicly funded schools in the
borough, whether maintained or academy, nursery, special, primary, secondary and
sixth forms and will provide a full range of support for school improvement, access to all
‘Working Together’ events and communications for schools and governors and sign
posting to Council traded services, Teaching Schools and other services on offer in the
Borough.
In order to subscribe please visit www.lambethschoolspartnership.uk
It is important that all schools are well known by the local authority so that they are able to
contribute fully to each school's Ofsted inspections as well as offering local challenge and
support on a regular basis.
Representation on the Lambeth Schools Partnership Board
It is hoped that all publicly funded Lambeth schools will become members of the Lambeth
Schools Partnership. Once a member of the Lambeth Schools Partnership you will have the
opportunity to vote for a representative member of the Partnership Board which will oversee
school improvement in the borough and the development and activities of the
Partnership. It is intended that the Board reflects the current cluster structure across Lambeth
as well as being representative of the school population as a whole.
The work of the Partnership will be focused on school improvement and bring together
and complement the work of Teaching Schools, Clusters and other mutual support
offered in Lambeth.
Each Lambeth school Cluster will nominate one headteacher to represent them on the
board. For information about the terms of reference of the Partnership Board please see the
draft documentation on the LSP link above.
On receipt of your subscription we will send you a nomination form so that you and colleagues
can nominate someone from your Cluster to sit on the Board.
The Lambeth Schools Partnership Board members will be formally introduced at the
next Headteachers’ Working Together event on 5th May 2017.
Primary Assessment and Moderation. The DfE has launched a public consultation exercise
about the future of the primary assessment system in England. Details are included in a
statement made to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Education, Justine Greening.
The consultation sets out wide-ranging proposals for improving the primary assessment
system. These include consideration of the best starting point from which to measure pupils’
progress, how to ensure the assessment system is proportionate, and how to improve statutory
end of key stage teacher assessments.
A parallel consultation is asking for views on the recommendations of the independent
Rochford Review. The recommendations focus on the future of statutory assessment
arrangements for pupils working below the standard of national curriculum tests at the end of
key stages 1 and 2.
The consultations are open until 22 June 2017.
Please see www.lambethschoolservices.co.uk for more details
Important test and assessment dates for 2017 KS1
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March
KS1 test administration guidance7, including the ‘Test
administrators’ guide’, published for 2017.
Monday 27 March to
Friday 31 March
Schools receive KS1 test materials for English
reading and mathematics, including any modified test
orders.
April
Phonics screening check administration guidance
published for 2017.
May
KS1 test administration window.
Tuesday 2 May
All KS1 test materials (excluding braille) and mark
schemes, including the optional English grammar,
punctuation and spelling test, available to download
from NCA tools.
Friday 5 May
Deadline for ordering braille versions of the phonics
screening check from the modified test agency on
0300 303 3019.
Friday 19 May
Schools informed by the LA on, or after, this date if
they are going to receive an external moderation visit
for TA.
Monday 5 June to
Thursday 29 June
LAs undertake external moderation of KS1 TA.
Monday 5 June
Raw score to scaled score conversion tables for KS1
tests and test materials available on GOV.UK.
KS1 headteacher’s declaration form (HDF) available
to schools on NCA tools.
Monday 5 June to
Friday 9 June
Schools receive phonics screening check materials.
Monday 12 June to
Friday 16 June
Schools administer the phonics screening check.
Important test and assessment dates for 2017 KS2
March
KS2 test administration guidance, including the ‘Test
administrators’ guide’, published for 2017.
Friday 17 March
Deadline for schools to complete pupil registration.
Monday 10 April
All schools that have applied for early opening or
compensatory marks will have been notified of the
outcome of their application on NCA tools.
Monday 24 April
Deadline for schools to submit applications for
additional time.
Monday 24 April to
Friday 28 April
Schools receive all KS2 test materials (standard and
modified versions) and stationery items.
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Monday 8 May to
Thursday 11 May
Schools administer the KS2 tests (see section 3.3).
Thursday 11 May
‘Access arrangements’ section of NCA tools opens for
special consideration applications.
The KS2 headteacher’s declaration form (HDF) is
available to schools on NCA tools at 5pm.
Thursday 18 May
Deadline for schools to apply for timetable variations
on NCA tools.
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Friday 19 May
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Monday 22 May
Deadline for schools to submit any
notifications that pupils have used a scribe,
transcript, word processor or electronic or
technical aid in a test.
Deadline for schools to submit any
notifications that they have administered the
tests at another location or to notify STA of a
pupil cheating.
Deadline for schools to submit special
consideration applications.
Deadline for schools to submit the KS2 HDF
on NCA tools.
Schools informed by the LA on, or after, this
date if they are going to receive an external
moderation visit for TA.
Test materials and mark schemes available to
download from GOV.UK.
‘Teacher assessment’ section of NCA tools opens.
Monday 5 June to
Thursday 29 June
LAs undertake external moderation of KS2 English
writing TA.
Thursday 29 June
Deadline to submit TA data on NCA tools. Data
submitted late will not be used in the DfE’s
performance tables data checking exercise.
Tuesday 4 July
Pupil results (raw scores and scaled scores) and
marked script images available on NCA tools.
Raw score to scaled score conversion tables available
on GOV.UK.
Friday 14 July
Monday
September
Deadline for schools to submit review of marking
applications.
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Review outcomes returned to schools.
This year we are trying to ensure greater transparency and consistency in our moderation
processes so a moderation breakfast briefing for Headteachers was held in February.
As a result of this meeting schools will be informed by the LA on or after Friday 19th May if they
are going to receive an external moderation visit for Teacher Assessment. Schools should
receive a moderation visit at least every four years.
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In addition, it is likely that the LA will moderate the following schools:
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Those with year 2 or year 6 classes taught by an NQT
Classes taught by teachers new to year 2 or year 6
Schools selected by the LA for reasons relating to Ofsted categories, strengths of
internal assessment procedures, information arising from the previous moderation
cycle or data analysis.
Links to key documents relating to moderation:
2017 key stage 2: assessment and reporting arrangements (ARA)
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2017-key-stage-1-assessment-and-reportingarrangements-ara
2017 key stage 2: assessment and reporting arrangements (ARA)
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2017-key-stage-2-assessment-and-reportingarrangements-ara
2017 teacher assessment external moderation: key stage 2 writing
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-assessment-moderation-requirementsfor-key-stage-1
2017 teacher assessment external moderation: key stage 2 writing
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-assessment-moderation-requirementsfor-key-stage-2
Safeguarding. The schools’ safeguarding team would like to thank schools for returning
their safeguarding checklists. These have been analysed to report to Lambeth Children’s
Safeguarding Board about how well children are being safeguarded in Lambeth’s schools. We
have recently started offering an on-site safeguarding audit on a rolling programme to support
schools with their self- evaluation and hope in due course to visit all schools in Lambeth.
The substantive Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) is Andrew Zachariades
Andrew’s contact details are: Tel: 020 7926 4679; Mobile: 07 720 828 700
Email: [email protected]
Secure Email: [email protected]
Office is on 5th Floor, International House SW9 7QDE
Inclusion. Schools are reminded of the requirement to follow the new Children Missing
Education (CME) guidance. All schools and settings are required to advise Inclusion of any
addition or deletion from their rolls with the exception of Primary entry and Secondary transfer.
All notifications need to be relayed to Inclusion via [email protected]
The Inclusion inbox should also be used for the following notifications which schools are
required to advise the LA of:
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Permanent exclusions
Teenage pregnancies
Home Education withdrawal notifications (signed by parents)
Fixed exclusions (on at least a termly basis)
Managed Moves
Referral forms for all processes and further guidance are available via the Services to Schools
page:
http://www.lambethschoolservices.co.uk/Communication?Id=2531
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-missing-education#history
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Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) project delivered by Lambeth Educational
Psychology Service. ELSAs develop and deliver interventions in schools to support social,
emotional and mental health needs. Training and ongoing clinical supervision is delivered by
educational psychologists. ELSAs learn about the psychological underpinnings of behaviours
and develop skills in a variety of techniques to support emotional well-being such as Lego
Therapy, therapeutic storytelling, therapeutic play and active listening skills.
While the ELSA project has been successful across the country for several years, this was the
first year the project was introduced to Lambeth.
The first cohort of ELSAs have been trained and early outcome indicators suggest the project
has been successful. All of the ELSAs who completed training reported increases in their
understanding of and confidence to deliver interventions in the following areas:
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Emotional awareness.
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Self-esteem and resiliency.
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Social and friendship skills.
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Loss, bereavement and family break up.
Themes
course:
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from qualitative feedback suggested that the ELSAs valued the following about the
Increased understanding and ability to put strategies in place.
Quality of the teaching.
Sharing experiences with other schools.
Increased confidence.
The second cohort will be trained in autumn 2017 and schools can book places via the
Lambeth School Services Website: http://www.lambethschoolservices.co.uk/Event/47028
Schools do not need to buy into the Lambeth Educational Psychology Service to access
the training. A maximum of 32 ELSAs will be trained this year and places will be allocated on
a first come first served basis. Please contact Sharon Synmoie, for more information:
[email protected]
Admissions - Secondary transfer 2017/18, National Offer Day (1 March 2017)
For the fifth year running, every child in Lambeth whose application was on time has
received an offer of a secondary school place. Almost 80 per cent of Lambeth children
who applied to a secondary school in the borough have been offered a place at their
first or second choice school.
Offers were made to 2,639 applicants this year. The proportion of applicants made
online has risen from 50.8 per cent in 2013 to 95% this year. Overall, the number of
children being offered places at their first or second choice school this year was 1,635
children, 62.0%, offered a place at their first-preference school, and 428 children,
16.2% offered their second preference.
Primary reception classes 2017/18, National Offer Day (18 April 2017)
Every child who applied for a reception place in a Lambeth primary school for September 2017
has been offered one. This is the sixth consecutive year that over 90% of families have been
offered a place at the school of their choice. For September 2017 entry to reception, 86% of
applicants (2439) received their first choice school and 7.3% (208) their second choice. In total
98% of applicants received a preference school.
Virtual School for Children Looked After. As Children Looked After have often
experienced significant trauma in their lives, schools play a vital role in offering a safe
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and stable environment to help them to thrive both academically and socially. The
Virtual School works in partnership with schools to avoid exclusions of Children
Looked After by:
 responding quickly to requests from schools for advice and support.
 providing training to Designated Members of staff in schools on issues affecting the
lives of children looked after
 ensuring that Personal Education Plans identify support strategies to reduce the
risk of exclusion
 promoting understanding of why pupils present as oppositional or inappropriate
 using the Pupil Premium grant creatively to support those at risk of exclusion
 supporting schools to consider what alternatives there are to permanent exclusion
In turn Lambeth Council requests that schools will work in partnership with the Virtual
School to avoid excluding looked after children by: recognising that exclusion will have a negative impact on educational outcomes,
reinforce feelings of rejection and low self -esteem and in some cases lead to
placement breakdown. And that such serious long term consequences are not
proportionate to breaches of a school behaviour code.
 identifying when pupils are at risk of exclusion, developing strategies to prevent
behaviour escalating and ensure this is reflected in the Personal Education Plan
 assessing and screening pupils for special Educational Needs to ensure an
appropriate match of curriculum and provision
 calling urgent annual reviews for students with SEN Statements or EHC Plans who are
at risk of exclusion in the expectation that no student with identified SEN is excluded
 ensuring that the Designated Teacher for Looked After Children has access to
appropriate training and resources to support them in their role, is empowered to
champion looked after children and is able to share their expertise with school staff and
governors.
 contacting the Virtual School for advice and guidance to discuss support and
alternatives, before considering a fixed-term exclusion for a looked after child
 arranging an emergency Personal Education Plan (PEP) meeting and if applicable,
an emergency Education Health and Care Plan review where a looked after child is at
risk of exclusion
 contacting the Virtual School Head Teacher, Sheila Mulvenney,
[email protected] to discuss alternatives to permanent exclusion for
a pupil whose continued presence would seriously harm the education or welfare of the
pupil or others in the school.
The next SENCO network meeting is on Wednesday 26th April 9am until midday at Park
Campus Gipsy Road, SE27.
The final SENCO network meeting will be held on Wednesday 5th July at Park Campus
please note that this last meeting of the academic year will be from 9 am until 3.30pm
If your school has not done so already, please ensure that you book places for the SENCO
network meetings via www.lambethschoolservices.co.uk. It is really important to book before
the meeting so that we know how many colleagues to welcome and to cater for.
School inspection update: please be aware of the following factors
Safeguarding. Inspectors will check the SCR to verify that the school is carrying out the
correct suitability checks. Inspectors may also ask to see additional information which might
include staff personnel files. See also the schools’ safeguarding team information above.
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Performance Tables 2016. The 2016 performance tables published in December (KS2) and
January (KS4 and 16 -18) contain the revised data that will appear in the validated release of
inspection dashboards and RAISEonline.
Coasting. Regulations came into force on 11 January 2017, which allowed for coasting
schools to be identified based on the definitions published in December 2016. Validated
inspection dashboards show on the front page whether a school was above the coasting
definition, they also show whether a school was above the 2014, 2015 and 2016 parts of the
coasting definition.
Key stage 1 prior attainment will be based on the new teacher assessment framework for the
current Year 3, yet levels for older cohorts. Key stage 2 attainment is expected to rise as
schools’ familiarity with the new, more demanding curriculum increases.
Assessment. Inspectors should only ask to see assessment information, including any
pupil-tracking information, in the format that the school would ordinarily use to monitor the
progress of pupils in that school. Its purpose is to provide insight about the impact of support
to aid pupils with deepening their knowledge, understanding and skills.
Judging Progress. Ofsted does not expect any prediction by schools of a progress score, as
they are aware that this information will not be possible to produce due to the way progress
measures are calculated :- they are calculated on the national distribution of each cohort’s test
performance. There is no national expectation of any particular amount of progress from any
starting point. ‘Expected progress’ was a DfE accountability measure until 2015. Inspectors
must not use this term when referring to progress for 2016 or current pupils.
Key Stages 1 and 2. When considering the key stage 1 to 2 progress scores for schools
and pupil groups, inspectors will consider the impact of pupils included who were
working below the level of the tests at key stage 2.
KS1 charts are designed to help schools and inspectors raise questions about the curriculum
provision for pupils with different starting points. There is no expectation of any particular key
stage 1 attainment from any starting point and no measure of progress for the key stage.
Pupils on ‘P scales’ or assessed at foundation for the ‘expected standard’ or ‘early
development’ of the expected standard, always have negative progress scores. Those
assessed at ‘growing development’ of the expected standard can have a positive progress
score only if their prior attainment was P6 or below. Inspectors will consult the validated
inspection dashboard prior attainment chart in RAISEonline, which contains a new row
showing the number of Year 6 pupils on P scales at key stage 1.
Judging curriculum. If inspectors have any concerns about a school’s curriculum,
qualification entries, or potential ‘off-rolling’ they will discuss them with the school’s leaders
during the inspection and consider the impact in judging the effectiveness of leadership and
management and outcomes for pupils.
Key Stage 4
As the new qualifications bed in there is inherent volatility in grade boundaries. This is very
clearly explained for GCSEs and A levels in Cath Jadhav’s Ofqual post here:
https://ofqual.blog.gov.uk/2017/02/03/grade-boundaries-the-problems-with-predictions/
Inspectors will be following up any unusual examination entry patterns in order to ensure
that schools have made the right decisions for their pupils. They will continue to report on
leadership of the curriculum and, on rare occasions, what is frequently termed ‘gaming the
system’. They are concerned about the inappropriate use of some qualifications and are
particularly monitoring:
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high entries for qualifications that are not core subjects or do not reflect specialisms of
the school, often of a technical or vocational nature not suited to the majority of pupils
double entry in qualifications that overlap in content, for example: statistics and free
standing mathematics qualifications; GCSE English and IGCSE English as a second
language qualifications for pupils who have English as a first language
entry for GCSEs in English Language and English Literature when the latter is not
taught with sufficient time to support effective achievement, but pupils sit the
examination to ensure that the Language result is counted as double for the Attainment
and Progress 8 scores.
These entry patterns may indicate that the qualifications are being used to improve overall
performance data, for example Progress 8 scores, and may have not been in the best interests
of the pupils.
There is evidence nationally that large numbers of pupils leave mainstream secondary
education before year 11 through schools moving them out into alternative provision or on to
other schools whose rolls are not full i.e. ‘off-rolling’. Inspectors will consider the number on
roll by year group and whether this has decreased significantly by year 11, which is shown in
the basic characteristics by year group table in RAISEonline.
Key Stage 4 grading
 while Attainment 8 settles down, schools will be altering their entry pattern for each
element, which will have an impact on the national Attainment 8 score
 the gradual re-scaling over four years to grades 9 to 1 will cause changes in the national
average Attainment 8 score
 key stage 2 prior attainment will be based on scaled scores for the current Year 7,
Interpreting RAISEonline and inspection dashboards
When considering the progress and attainment in schools, it is important to bear in mind that
 Progress scores at key stage 4 and key stage 2 could have been affected by outliers
i.e. pupils with extremely high or low progress scores. The scatter plots in RAISEonline
allow inspectors and schools to identify these
 Small numbers of pupils may render analysis of the data meaningless. Shading of
progress data in RAISEonline and inspection dashboards indicates where data was
statistically significant, taking into account cohort size
Reformed GCSEs and technical awards for examinations from 2017
The reformed GCSEs have new and more challenging content than 2016 qualifications.
Inspectors should be familiar with the changes to GCSE and technical qualifications when
evaluating the curriculum, teaching, and leadership and management. They will consider how
effectively schools deliver the new and more challenging content and ensure access to
appropriate oral, practical and field work. Inspectors should consider the timelines of provision
for reformed qualifications and for English and mathematics resits for post-16 learners.
Inspectors should bear in mind that, for 2017 results, Progress 8 will use:
 reformed GCSEs for English and mathematics, and legacy GCSEs for other subjects
 the new technical awards for technical and vocational qualifications only. See below
for more information about Technical qualifications (T Levels – see below).
T-Levels’ is the name that has been given by the media to government’s planned
overhaul of technical education. Between now and 2022, 15 new pathways will be
developed in 15 sector areas where substantial technical training is required to
progress into employment.
Employer-led panels will develop new “standards” that will underpin the technical routes; these
standards will underpin both the T-Levels and apprenticeships. Occupational maps will be
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developed that will show relationships between occupations in each route. Technical
qualifications (T-Levels) will then be developed based on these standards.
Plans have been in place for some months. The reason that this has caught the attention of
the press recently is because there has been a new announcement that more money will
be made available to deliver these routes. These new routes are currently being developed;
the first ‘pathfinder’ routes are planned for teaching in September 2019 and the rest should be
in place by September 2022.
Technical routes will be developed in 15 sector areas although there will be more than 15
qualifications because some of the sectors are broad and cover a range of occupational areas:
Agriculture, Environmental and Animal Care; Business and Administrative; Catering and
Hospitality; Childcare and Education; Construction; Creative and Design; Digital; Engineering
and Manufacturing; Hair and Beauty; Health and Science; Legal, Finance and Accounting;
Protective Services; Sales, Marketing and Procurement; Social Care; Transport and Logistics
Eleven of the 15 routes will be available as two-year college courses or as
apprenticeships, the remaining four routes are likely to be available via apprenticeships only.
The apprenticeship-only routes are: protective services; sales, marketing and procurement;
social care; and transport and logistics. It’s possible that some of the technical routes can be
offered in schools, but it’s more likely these courses take place in colleges because of the
technical nature of the training required.
The number of qualifications has not been decided yet and the final decision will be informed
by industry panels made up to reflect the breath of the 15 sectors. For example, the ‘Digital’
route can be broken down into three broad occupational areas (IT support and services;
software and applications design and development; data and digital business services),
however, the ‘creative and design’ route, which covers occupations from furniture maker to
journalist may be split into more sub-sections.
Below are a number of dates for meetings during this term. I hope as many school
representatives as possible will attend these and I look forward to seeing you there:
Spring Term Working Together for headteachers will be held on Friday 5th May 2017 9am
for 9.30am at The Elmgreen School Elmcourt Rd, West Norwood, London SE27 9BZ.
The termly Working Together for Governors will be held on Tuesday 9th May at International
House SW9 7QE Lecture Theatre 6.30 pm until 8pm with light refreshments available from
6.00pm.
The Secondary Headteachers’ termly briefing date for this term is on Wednesday 14th
June – venue to be agreed.
For more information on these events and for booking, please use Lambeth school services
website www.lambethschoolservices.co.uk
I look forward to working with you all this term,
With very best wishes,
Yours sincerely
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Cathy Twist
Director, Education, Learning and Skills
Direct Line: 020 7926 9541
E-Mail: [email protected]
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