WHAT IS SECURING THE FUNDAMENTALS?

As the name suggests, the Securing the Fundamentals package has been designed to support teaching teams to diagnose and address barriers to pupils’ learning in relation to priority areas of the curriculum. It also places heavy emphasis on pupils’ wellbeing and character development. The package – which builds on and supersedes the Summer Transition Package - has been crafted to support schools in achieving data wisdom by providing tools and strategies to drive the DTTR (Diagnosis – Therapy – Testing – Revisiting) process

While it is vital that children are exposed to the full breadth of the curriculum, this package focuses on the priority areas of Reading, Maths and GPS for Years 1 to 5 – as well as key aspects of wellbeing and character development – which we feel need to be secured to enable pupils to more easily access wider curriculum content and to help them to transition smoothly to the following year group. It is ideal for supporting the transition process during the summer and autumn terms, but also for supporting pupils, including inwardly mobile pupils, at other times of the year. The fundamental areas of learning covered by the package can be seen below.

How do we assess where pupils are?

Checklists: The package includes checklists for Reading, Mathematics and GPS which can be used in a targeted way to forensically track individual and groups of pupils as they progress towards securing the fundamental areas of learning. The checklist for Character and Wellbeing can also be used in a targeted way to diagnose areas of strength and development for key groups of pupils, however, it may also be used for a whole class or cohort so that all pupils’ specific pastoral needs can be identified and addressed during periods of transition.

When complete, the checklists can then be used to inform the precise support that students need in the summer term and into autumn, as well as providing a powerful tool to underpin transition discussions between teaching teams.

Low-stakes quizzes for Reading, Mathematics and GPS: These are intended to be used informally to help teaching teams drill down into the precise barriers that pupils are facing in relation to fundamental areas and will provide a wealth of information about how best to support pupils as they progress to the following year group.

Therapies: For each statement on the Securing the Fundamentals checklists for Mathematics, Reading, GPS and Character/Wellbeing, there is a corresponding therapy to support teachers to address gaps in understanding that have been diagnosed. These are intentionally editable to enable teaching teams to adapt the content to meet the precise needs of pupils.

WHAT IS THE DEVELOPMENT PATHWAY?

The Developmental pathway focuses on the ‘developmental strands’ from the Boxall profile. These link to social, emotional and cognitive development areas.

Activities are planned to cater to these strands, around 5 areas:

• Organisation of experience
• Internalisation of controls
• Selflimiting features
• Selfactualisation
• Participation.

Photos and work are annotated to reflect achievement of the strands and how securely these were met (i.e. all children, most or some).