5B:What is 'success' in leadership and management?

The following example is a specialist college’s policy for literacy, numeracy and language.

Sample communication, literacy and numeracy policy

Within good provision, providers take care to ensure that the needs of learners with difficulties in literacy, numeracy and language are considered when developing other policies, particularly those that relate to the safety and well-being of learners. For example, policies and procedures for reporting abuse or making complaints are written in simple language and produced in different media such as Braille audio tapes large print or Makaton symbols to help learners understand their rights and the action they should take if they are unhappy or have any concerns.

Good managers have high expectations of this area of work. They take a firm stand on establishing the most appropriate approach to the teaching of literacy, numeracy and language to each learner and ensure that this complements rather than dominates the learners’ other learning priorities. They make good use of the funding available for this area of work and ensure that it supports rather than skews the learners’ literacy, numeracy and language programme. They also make sure that learners have the resources and equipment they need to develop their literacy, numeracy and language skills.

Within successful provision, the appraisal process is used to identify each member of staff’s training needs in relation to the teaching of literacy, numeracy and language, and an action plan is then developed for the provision of this training. Staff have regular access to training that is specifically designed to help them become effective teachers of literacy, numeracy and language to learners who have learning difficulties and/or disabilities. Staff have the opportunity to attend training events that are part of the Skills for Life strategy. These opportunities are supplemented by training that enables them to understand the impact that learning difficulties and/or disabilities have on a learner’s ability to learn literacy, numeracy and language skills, and to develop teaching methods to overcome these difficulties.

Teachers and staff take care to ensure that learners focus on developing the literacy, numeracy and language skills they will need for their next placements and for their future lives. For example, staff are given responsibility for working with staff involved in the next level of programme to identify the literacy, numeracy and language requirements of that programme.

Other staff have the opportunity to undertake placements with organisations where learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities might find employment in order to research and identify the literacy, numeracy and language skills the learners will need if they are to be successful in gaining employment within the organisation. Programmes are then designed to incorporate opportunities for teaching these skills or, where appropriate, strategies for coping without them. Providers maintain links with the organisations to which the learners progress so that staff can check how well they have prepared the learners for their placements and adjust their programmes in response to information they gather from them.

The following extract from the Ofsted publication, Inspecting provision for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and for those with special educational needs post-16 with guidance on self-evaluation, outlines this approach.

Within their individual programmes of activities, learners should experience:

• development of literacy and numeracy skills and knowledge which for some learners will be at pre-language level
• development of communication skills including the use of information and communications technology
• development of independent life skills in real, adult situations including health, leisure and fitness
• development of individual interests, skills and talents through courses at appropriate levels from pre-vocational taster courses to GCSE and GCE advanced-level courses
• development of personal and social skills including citizenship
• situations to help them understand and manage their disability or learning difficulty.

Learners will require different amounts of these activities depending on their abilities and likely destinations after school or college.

Effective managers monitor the quality of their literacy, numeracy and language provision with the same level of rigour as they do all other aspects of their work. Quality assurance arrangements take into account the size of the organisation and the nature of its work. Providers take care to ensure that quality assurance procedures are not overly complex and burdensome for staff and learners. Staff across the organisation including, where appropriate, those who work in the residential accommodation, have the opportunity to comment on the quality of the organisation’s literacy, numeracy and communication provision for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.

A schedule of the activities to be undertaken as part of the quality assurance cycle is carefully planned and distributed to all staff.

Quality assurance procedures such as course reviews and self-assessment are underpinned by a common understanding of the characteristics of effective practice in literacy, numeracy and communication provision and a shared view of what constitutes appropriate evidence for strengths and weaknesses within it. Training and discussions with staff across the organisation are used to foster this approach. Where appropriate, management information systems provide staff with information that helps them to make judgements about the quality of the provision, particularly in relation to learner achievement and retention rates.

Providers take care to ensure that staff who undertake observations of literacy, numeracy and communication sessions have the necessary skills and experience for the task. Prompt sheets are used to help staff understand what they should be looking for when they are observing sessions.

The following is an extract from a prompt sheet devised to help observers make accurate judgements.

View sample prompt sheet for observations

Within successful provision, all staff adopt a rigorous approach to self-assessment that is based on an honest evaluation of the quality of their work. The process is used to identify strengths and aspects of the organisation’s literacy, numeracy and communication provision that can be improved. Where possible, good providers develop links with similar organisations and make reciprocal arrangements to moderate each other’s judgements. The self-assessment report is written in plain English, clearly identifies strengths and weaknesses and lists the evidence to support the judgements that have been made.

The following example is an extract from a self-assessment report that illustrates the evidence that has been gathered in relation to a weakness in the teaching of literacy.

Self-assessment report extract

The following example of an extract from an action plan illustrates the action the provider intends to take to remedy the weakness in the teaching of literacy highlighted in the extract of the self-assessment report shown above.

View action plan extract

One successful provider at a specialist residential college feels that the following actions have helped to improve the quality of the organisation’s literacy, numeracy and communication provision.

• Allocation of responsibility for the overview of literacy, numeracy and communication provision to one person who coordinates this aspect of the provision across the whole college, including the residential accommodation.
• The coordinator sets and reviews literacy, numeracy and communication goals for all learners to be addressed across the whole college.
• All staff have responsibility for contributing to learning, and all job descriptions state that this is a major aspect of their work, whatever their job title is.
• An agreed policy for literacy, numeracy and communication has been developed within the college which provides guidance for staff, for example, all staff must use metric measures except when working with learners who are at Entry Level 3 or beyond, or in catering where pints and half pints can be used.
• Literacy, numeracy and communication are the focus of lesson observations to identify effective practice and highlight missed opportunities for teaching and reinforcing these skills as an integral part of other activities.