The School Curriculum Ten Years Hence - UCET: Universities ...

continued professional development for trainees, lecturers and the
seconded teacher.
In cases like these, teachers have shown skill in establishing an
ethos of mutual respect with young people. They have developed
teaching approaches and relationships that have contributed to the
growth of young people’s personal confidence and self-esteem. In
this context, young people have learned and made mistakes,
without fear of being punished or ridiculed, irrespective of past
history, limited communication skills or appearance.
There are clear messages in all of this work about how to be more
effective in teaching pupils who are not attending or attaining well.
Estyn has been drawing out from these projects exactly what is
being done to win back young people who have stopped engaging
with learning in school. By the way, in 15 years in the Inspectorate,
I cannot think of inspection work that has had such a profound
effect on so many of our inspectors. It has made them think hard
about what schools do, or don’t do, to ensure that fewer young
people are excluded from school or become disengaged from
learning.
I might just draw your attention to a few of the positive highlights
in this encouraging work.
First and foremost, improvements in attendance, in some cases
pupils who had previously achieved around 20% attendance in
school are now attending 100% of the time in their project. Others
have improved less spectacularly but still significantly.
In another case, there were marked improvements in attitudes
towards learning.
In one example, every young person could give a clear account of
his or her intended career path and plans for the coming year.
Almost all intended to enrol for a course at a local college. The
group had visited the college at their own request and a special day
had been set up for them. They had visited the departments of their
choice, had been interviewed and had completed application forms.
Many young people have shown improved levels of confidence, selfesteem
and skills.
The informal but purposeful relationships between young people
and staff are a particular strength in all the projects seen.