CUREE and Achievement for All

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CUREE is pleased to be working with Achievement for All (AfA) in it's new guise to help promote the programme and encourage schools to get involved. If you would like to know more, please contact Rebecca Reybould by email or phone on 024 7652 4036

AfA is a successful school improvement programme focussed on raising the aspirations, access and achievements of the 20% of vulnerable, special educational needs and disabled learners. Piloted nationally in over 450 schools, the project has now been set up as an independent charity, chaired by Brian Lamb, to continue the work.The programme is supported by the Department for Education as you can see in this recent press release.

Here at CUREE, we are always pleased to be involved with programmes founded on a robust evidence base of what works - as this one is. You can see some of that evidence yourself in the evaluation of the pilot programme conducted by Manchester University by following this link. Some of the key findings from the evaluation were:

  • The pilot was successful in narrowing the attainment gap between SEND and non-SEND children.
  • 37 per cent of children achieved or exceeded expected levels of progress for all pupils nationally in English.
  • 42 per cent of children achieved or exceeded expected levels of progress for all pupils nationally in maths.
  • Improvements in attendance with a decrease of just over 10 per cent in persistent absenteeism.
  • Behaviour of pupils improved, with reductions in teacher-reported bullying and behaviour problems.
  • Awareness and focus on SEND improved – with more personalised teaching and learning.
  • There was better engagement with parents and teachers – with schools reporting excellent relationships with parents rising from 12 per cent to 48 per cent.

In addition to being effective, the programme is also cost effective when compared with other interventions - and indeed no interventions at all - as the following chart illustrates:

VFM chart

The programme itself is designed to take place over two years and provides support tailored to the schools needs including:

  • an individual achievement coach;
  • coaching and mentoring;
  • target setting and assessment;
  • structured conversations;
  • monitoring and evaluation

Several hundred schools have registered on the programme since it was launched in its current form this summer. You can find out why by looking at some of the cased studies on the AfA website.

Why not join them? To find out more

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