Blog posts by SSAT

Members of the SSAT team reflect on their highlights of 2022 and what they are looking forward to in the coming year…

From transforming teaching and learning discussions to encouraging every student to participate in lessons, the impact of the SSAT’s Embedding Formative Assessment programme at Lostock High School has been far-reaching.

After highlighting Empathy Week in the last SEND Update, I was reminded about some of the most impactful training I undertook during my 30 years within the classroom. Early on in my career I attended a course at Nottingham University which focussed on teaching science to SEN learners.

Pauline Holbrook, Head of SEND, SSAT reflects upon the key issues raised during the webinar on 14 September 2022. Funding or rather the lack of it was clearly the major concern for those on the webinar. All agreed that teaching
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The death of Queen Elizabeth II last week has caused many of us to stop and reflect, as we tend to do at the end of an era. She was not only the only monarch that we have known, but for many of us the only monarch our parents remember. As several commentators put it, she was not just a queen, she was the Queen.

In this blog Pauline Holbrook, our Head of SEND reflects on how we might support our learners with SEND understand death and their grief and that of others.

“Data-driven school improvement” was all the rage in the 2010s. School leaders, advisers and inspectors all used RAISEonline, Fischer Family Trust and the Ofsted data dashboard as the touchstone for their work. Fortunately, we gradually became savvier and more looked more at “data-informed school improvement”. And then came the pandemic.

As thoughts now turn to planning for the next school year, you may find SSAT’S Framework for Exceeptional Education helpful in identifying development priorities. The framework is a self-review and planning tool, which can be used in its entirety or a strand at a time, depending on whether you want to take a broader view or focus on a particular aspect of your practice. 

Our third Summer Series event focused on one question: What makes the difference for a child or young person who is disadvantaged, vulnerable or in crisis?

Key Stage Two Statutory Testing has taken place this month for Year Six pupils across England. SSAT Senior Education Lead and Head of the Primary Network, Laura Burton, reflects upon the assessments from the perspective as educator and parent, considering the impact our current accountability system has on the whole school community.