Glossary
A glossary of our frequently used terms and words
A
At-risk – An at-risk child or young person is an individial who is less likely to transition successfully into adulthood. Success can include academic success and job readiness, as well as the ability to be financially independent. It also can refer to the ability to become a positive member of society by avoiding a life of crime.
Accelerated Reader – Accelerated Reader was developed by Renaissance Learning, Inc. “Accelerated Reader is a powerful tool for monitoring and managing independent reading practice while promoting reading for pleasure”. The software is used across both primary and secondary schools for monitoring the practice of reading with the aim of increasing pupil comprehension and therefore literacy levels.
B
Brighter Base – Right to Succeed has collaborated with GL Assessments to create on online portal giving our educational delivery partners access to standardised assessment tests which can be used to assess the needs of the children and young people we are looking to target with interventions.
B-Corp – Businesses acting as a force for good. Certified B Corporations are a new kind of business that balances purpose and profit. They are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on their workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment.
BESD (Behavioural, Emotional and Social Difficulties) – Where the behaviour or emotional responses of an individual are so different from generally accepted norms, that they adversely affect that child’s performance.
Backbone – What we believe is needed to be in place to act as a ‘backbone’ to support the development and delivery of our projects. We believe these include: governance, executive function, commissioners and funders. RTS commonly provide a Programme Director and Programme Manager/Officer to form part of this backbone.
C
Collective Approach – An approach which uses the joint resources of several organisations and/or individuals to achieve a common goal/outcome or set of common goals/outcomes.
Collective Impact – The commitment of a group of actors from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social problem, using a structured form of collaboration.
Confidence Framework – The standardised set of assessments that RTS carry out as part of both partner and project/intervention due diligence. Using these standardised tests we are given confidence in the ability of our delivery partners to provide interventions that will make a positive impact on those we are working with.
Codifying – Arranging into a systematic plan (system). Once organised the codification of a process/activity set is often presented graphically.
Community of Practice – A group of people and/or organisations (e.g. schools and community partners) with a shared area of interest and who deliver joint activities and discussions, support each other, and share information and learnings.
Cadre – Framework/Grouping
Comprehension – Is the understanding and interpretation of what is read/written material.
Comprehension Mechanism – To be able to accurately understand written material, children need to be able to (1) decode what they read; (2) make connections between what they read and what they already know; and (3) think deeply about what they have read.
Cohere – Form a unified whole and/or (of an argument or theory) be logically consistent.
CAT-4 Test (Cognitive Abilities Test) – Cognitive ability tests assess abilities involved in thinking (e.g., reasoning, perception, memory, verbal and mathematical ability, and problem solving). The Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT4) is a diagnostic assessment that is designed to help students and their teachers understand how they learn and what their academic potential might be. It assesses how students think in areas that are known to make a difference to learning. The CAT-4 test forms part of many schools’ admissions process, allowing them to assess pupils’ developed abilities and likely academic potential. Performance in the CAT is also used to judge progress over the academic year and make decisions regarding setting children according to ability.
CPD (Continuing Professional Development) – In education, CPD is the term used to describe the learning and training activities which professionals engage in to develop and enhance their teaching abilities.
CUREE (Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education) – “CUREE is an internationally acknowledged centre of expertise in school and college improvement and evidence-informed leadership and practice in education. Led by our Chief Executive, Professor Philippa Cordingley, our staff use their knowledge and skills in teaching, research, communications and knowledge management to produce high quality research, CPD and tools and resources. We work with and for schools and colleges, academy chains, teaching schools and other clusters and alliances, with professional associations, universities, and government departments and agencies in the UK and worldwide. All our work is underpinned by our values of honesty of communication, fidelity to the evidence, excellence in performance and value for money”.
Catch Up Literacy – Is an intervention provided by the organisation Catch Up. Catch up is a not-for-profit charity working to address literacy and numeracy difficulties that contribute to underachievement. They offer two structured one-to-one interventions, Catch Up® Literacy and Catch Up® Numeracy, proven to significantly improve the achievement of learners who find literacy or numeracy difficult. The Catch Up Literacy intervention is proven to help struggling readers achieve double the normal rate of progress in their Reading Ages.
Child/Children in need – The legal definition of a child in need, Under Section 17 Children Act 1989, is that a child will be considered in need if: they are unlikely to achieve or maintain or to have the opportunity to achieve or maintain a reasonable standard of health or development without provision of services from the Local Authority; their health or development is likely to be significantly impaired, or further impaired, without the provision of services from the Local Authority; they have a disability. Disability includes blindness, deafness or dumbness, mental disorders and permanent illnesses, injuries or congenital deformities. Children in need may be: children with SEND; young carers; children who have committed a crime; children whose parents are in prison; or asylum seeking children.
“Community organiser” approach – The work of bringing people together to build on their collective ‘power’ to take action around a common concern – in our work this is around addressing educational inequity and/or its effects.
D
Decoding skills – Include the ability to recognise the basic sounds and sound blends (called phonemes) that make up a word, the ability to know what the word means, recognise it in context, and know whether or not it’s being used correctly in a sentence.
Department for Education Opportunity Area – The Opportunity Areas are a Department for Education programme of support for areas identified as having a high percentage of people facing disadvantage and therefore likely to have high numbers of people experiencing barriers to success over their lifetime. The programme is supporting schools to take an evidence-based approach to tackle these issues with the aim of increasing social mobility. There are currently twelve opportunity areas based in “the most disadvantaged areas of the country”. The programme encourages a wide range of ‘actors’ to work together (teachers, businesses, charities, nurseries, health professionals, community centres, and many others) – to identify and break down the barriers that can hold back children and young people. It is recognised that the needs in each of the opportunity areas are different and therefore the interventions/programmes delivered in each are different.
DfE (Department for Education) – The Department for Education is a department of Her Majesty’s Government responsible for child protection, education, apprenticeships and wider skills in England.
E
EHCP/EHC Plan (Education, Health and Care Plan) – Is a legal document that describes a child or young person’s special educational, health and social care needs. It explains the extra help that will be given to meet those needs and how that help will support the child or young person to achieve what they want to in their life. EHC plans are for children and young people whose special educational needs require more help than would normally be provided in a mainstream education setting (a college, school, nursery). Although, the plan can include health or social care needs, children/young people will not get a plan if they only have health or social care needs that do not affect their education. An EHC plan can be issued to a child or young person between the ages of 0 and 25 years.
EEF (Education Endowment Fund) – The EEF is an independent charity dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement.
Educational Diversity – We most commonly use Educational Diversity to refer to the Blackpool Pupil Referral Unit (PRU). Educational Diversity is the largest PRU in Europe.
Early intervention – Early intervention refers to work/projects/programmes etc that look to address the root causes of a problem or that are designed to encourage circumstances that positively influence the prevention of future negative outcomes for both individuals and groups. This is as opposed to work/projects/programmes that look to address the results of negative circumstances after they have already occurred. Early intervention is typically a longer term intervention and is therefore often harder to define the outcomes for but is considered to be one of the best way of addressing long standing/deeply engrained societal issues.
Engagement Journey – An engagement journey defines how the interaction between two parties develops over time. It ensures that each interaction between the two is defined and is designed to ensure an on-going mutually beneficial relationship.
Evidence-informed – Describing an approach to decision making, including the assessment of need and design and review of projects, where specific quantitative and qualitative evidence is being used to make decisions. This is as opposed to using anecdotal evidence, using generalised evidence or using evidence which has not been recently reviewed/updated.
EBD (Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties) – Emotional behavioural difficulties refers to where the behaviour or emotional responses of an individual are so different from generally accepted norms, that they adversely affect that child’s performance.
Elklan – Elklan Training Ltd are a Speech and Language training company. Elklan writes and delivers accredited courses for education and other staff working with those with speech, language and communication needs and for parents, and trains a network of licenced tutors to deliver Elklan courses locally. All of their courses are evidence informed and teach strategies listed on the What Works database.
F
Four phase delivery model – Identify, design, deliver and reflect. RTS’s local interventions follow a four phase that begins with the identification of the need, primarily through the collection and analysis of data and structured conversations with young people and families. We then move to the design phase, during which a solution to the need is developed by bringing together solutions with track record in meeting the identified needs. This solution is then delivered in partnership with local providers. Finally, the reflect phase focuses on an analysis of the impact of the intervention and deciding how the intervention and process could better be delivered the next time.
Formative Assessments – Formative assessment refers to a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course. Formative assessments help teachers identify concepts that students are struggling to understand, skills they are having difficulty acquiring, or learning standards they have not yet achieved so that adjustments can be made to lessons, instructional techniques, and academic support. The general goal of formative assessment is to collect detailed information that can be used to improve instruction and student learning while it’s happening. What makes an assessment “formative” is not the design of a test, technique, or self-evaluation, per se, but the way it is used—i.e., to inform in-process teaching and learning modifications.
FTE (Fixed Term Exclusion) – The exclusion of a pupil from an educational establishment for a defined period of time (up to a maximum of 45 school days in a single academic year).
FTE (Full Time Equivalent) – Often used when referring to staffing levels – where a total is given of the full time equivalent (FTE) staff delivering a particular role. For example two people both working as a fundraiser for 2.5 days per week (each) would be the equivalent of 1 full time equivalent (FTE) fundraiser.
FSM (Free School Meal) – In England, a Free School Meal (FSM) is a statutory benefit available to school- aged children from families who receive other qualifying benefits and who have been through the relevant registration process. Children’s entitlement to free school meals is widely used as a proxy indicator for family income in educational research, being used regularly by organisations across Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales to indicate levels of deprivation among a school’s population of pupils.
Free School – A school set up by an organisation or a group of individuals, funded by the government but not controlled by the local authority.
G
GLA (GL Assessment) – GL Assessment is “the leading provider of formative assessments to UK schools, as well as providing assessments for overseas ministries and British, bilingual and international schools in over 100 countries worldwide. For over 30 years, we have provided assessments for children’s education, mental health and wellbeing. Recognising that technology is a driver for educational change, we have pioneered a powerful digital assessment system, which has delivered over 7 million online tests across the globe. We continue to innovate with adaptive testing and tablet-based assessments. We believe in working with the largest possible pool of experts, to ensure that our assessments are rigorous, academically sound and in line with current best practice in education. As a result, we can list King’s College London, the University of York and the Australian Council for Educational Research among our partners.”
I
Inequity – The negative effect that having different starting points in life can have on groups that would otherwise have been considered to have similar characteristics. In our case, referring to young people’s educational opportunities and therefore achievement.
Implementation process stages – The five stages of Right to Succeed’s implementation process – 1. Identify, 2. Design, 3. Deliver, 4. Reflect and 5. Repeat.
Impact – We use the word impact to describe the difference our work has had on the schools, educators/teachers and both individual and groups of pupils.
Impact of inequity – The result of experiencing inequity on both individual and groups of people. We concentrate on the effects of educational inequity on children and young people. We currently look at the results on their behaviour, reading ages, levels of comprehension but it is known that educational inequity has the potential to impact on a number of long term factors, for example, social mobility, career prospects, health, offending behaviour.
Indices of Multiple Deprivation – These are statistics on relative deprivation in small areas in England. The English indices of deprivation measure relative deprivation in small areas in England called lower-layer super output areas. The index of multiple deprivation is the most widely used of these indices.
K
KS3 (Key Stage 3) – The three years in schools in England and Wales normally known as Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9, when pupils are aged between 11 and 14.
KS4 (Key Stage 4) – The two years in schools in England and Wales normally known as Year 10 and Year 11, when pupils are aged between 14 and 16.
K-12 School – K-12 is an American term describing the range of years of supported primary and secondary education. A K-12 school is therefore a primary and/or secondary school.
L
Literary Canon – Developed by educational professionals in Blackpool, a literary canon is a body of texts, narratives and writers considered to be the most important and influential in a particular time or place. The literary cannons are a group of books/texts that have been chosen and are being used by our schools/educational establishments. Each literary canon should be tailored to the individual schools’ pupil demographics/literacy levels etc. Each book selected is then read by all pupils in a cohort for half an hour a day.
Lexonik – Lexonik is a teaching programme that is designed to support and/or improve pupils’ literacy. Lexonik’s website explains: ‘Lexonik is a fast, focused and fun teaching programme that dramatically and rapidly improves literacy, vocabulary, and comprehension. Enjoyable for all ages and all students, it stretches everyone, allowing them to succeed at a higher level than they are currently achieving. The face to face sessions are prescriptive, intensive and highly effective and for this reason are delivered by experienced, trained teachers to groups of four students.’
Lexonik leap – Lexonik Leap is a tailored version of the full Lexonik programme designed to resolve phonics gaps for learners who find literacy particularly challenging and those for whom English is not their first language.
M
Metacognition – The ability to be aware of and reflect on your own thought processes. Metacognition is important as the ability encourages students to understand how they learn best. It also helps them to develop self-awareness skills. “Teaching approaches which make learners think about learning more explicitly. This is usually through teaching pupils strategies to plan, monitor and evaluate their own learning. Self-regulation refers to managing one’s own motivation towards learning as well as the more cognitive aspects of thinking and reasoning. Overall these strategies involve being aware of one’s strengths and weaknesses as a learner, being able to set and monitor goals and having strategies to choose from or switch to during learning activities.”
Mental Toughness – Is currently considered as a highly significant factor in the development of young people. In education Mental Toughness is considered to be a combination of Resilience and Confidence; Resilience – the ability to bounce back from setbacks and failures. Confidence – the ability to take advantages of situations and opportunities.
N
NGRT (National Group Reading Test) – A screening and progress monitoring test of pupils’ reading and comprehension benchmarked against the national average.
NGST (National Group Spelling Test) – A screening and progress monitoring test of pupils’ spelling ability benchmarked against the national average.
NEET (Not in Education, Training or Employment) – Currently used to describe the status of children and young people aged 16-24.
Nudge Theory – Nudge theory (or Nudge) is a concept in behavioural science, political theory and economics which argues that positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions to try to achieve non-forced compliance can influence the motives, incentives and decision making of groups and individuals, at least as effectively – if not more effectively – than direct instruction, legislation, or enforcement.
NFER (National Foundation for Educational Research) – Is “the leading independent provider of education research and insights”.
O
Oracy – The ability to express oneself fluently and grammatically (correctly) in speech.
Outcomes Framework – An outcomes framework is a way of presenting the links between what we do (activities) with what we want to achieve (outcomes). An outcomes framework can be a stand alone document or form part of a wider document that links between what we do (activities) and with what resources (inputs) with what we want to achieve (outcomes). and the results (impact).
Outcomes Matrix – The Outcomes Matrix is a tool to help organisations to plan and measure their social impact. It includes outcomes and measures for nine outcome areas and 15 beneficiary groups.
P
Place-based Change – An approach where organisations join together to address all of the needs of people across one place/locality through system change, rather than addressing needs separately or addressing one need across a broad area.
PASS (Pupil Attitude to Self and School) – Description from GL Assessments – PASS is a psychometric assessment specifically designed to spot attitudinal or emotional issues in children before they impact on school performance, PASS takes just 20 minutes to complete and acts as an effective early warning system for schools. The traffic light reporting is easy to read and act on, helping to pinpoint who’s at risk and identifying children whose issues are still invisible, so you can plan interventions early and sensitively.
Project Place – Project place uses the collective impact of a range of ‘actors’ to solve a specific social problem – in our case educational inequity.
Pathways for All – RTS project which is looking post-16 pathways into further education, learning and or employment. The project aims to reduce the number of vulnerable young learners who become NEET and gather information on what good practice in this area looks like to encourage others to follow it.
PRU (Pupil Referral Unit) – A PRU is an establishment maintained by a local authority which is specifically organised to provide education for children who are excluded, sick, or otherwise unable to attend a mainstream school. PRUs are a mixture of public units and privately managed companies. Very often such pupils are described as displaying EBD – Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, exasperated by unsettled domestic situations, a propensity towards criminal behaviour, bullying, or (conversely) having been the victim of bullying.
Post Primary – Northern Ireland schools who work with children aged 11+ (Comparable to the term “Secondary School” in England).
Programme Tracker – Our method of tracking progress of each of the projects making up our programmes.
PHSE (Personal Health, Social and Economic Education) – Department for Education guidance on PHSE says that “PSHE can encompass many areas of study, however they expect schools to use their PSHE education programme to equip pupils with a sound understanding of risk and with the knowledge and skills necessary to make safe and informed decisions. Schools should seek to use PSHE education to build, where appropriate, on the statutory content already outlined in the national curriculum, the basic school curriculum and in statutory guidance on: drug education, financial education, sex and relationship education (SRE) and the importance of physical activity and diet for a healthy lifestyle.
R
Retrieval – The ability to ‘retrieve’ (access) information previously learnt by a student.
Response to intervention approach – Is a multi-tier approach to the early identification and support of students with learning and behaviour needs. Response to Intervention (RTI) is a system of supports that schools put in place to provide high-quality education to students with disabilities.
REACH – Reducing the Risk of Exclusion – Reducing the number of young people who are excluded from mainstream educational providers
S
SAS (Standardised Assessment Score) – Standardised tests are tests which require all test takers to answer the same questions in the same way, and that are scored in a consistent manner, which makes it possible to compare the relative performance of pupils or groups of pupils. Many assessment experts consider standardised tests to be a fair and objective method of assessing pupils, mainly because the standardised format reduces the potential for favouritism, bias, or subjective evaluations.
SWEMWBS (Short Warwick and Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale) – Is a short version of the Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS). The WEMWBS was developed to enable the monitoring of mental wellbeing in the general population and the evaluation of projects, programmes and policies which aim to improve mental wellbeing. The SWEMWBS uses seven of the WEMWBS’s 14 statements about thoughts and feelings. The seven statements are positively worded with five response categories from ‘none of the time’ to ‘all of the time’. Children and young people are asked to describe their experiences over the past two weeks.
Scaffolding – Modelling or demonstrating how to solve a problem and then stepping back, offering support as needed.
Statutory Assessment – ‘a full investigation of a child’s educational needs carried out by the local authority where a child/young person lives. A statutory assessment is a legal process’.
STANINE (Standard nine) – A way to scale scores on a nine-point scale. It can be used to convert any test score to a single-digit score. Stanines are a way to assign a number to a member of a group, relative to all members in that group.
SLCN (Speech Language and Communication Needs) – Often used to describe children who have difficulties communicating generally and so is used to encompass a wide range of difficulties such as a speech delay, autism and/or Down’s syndrome.
Spirals of enquiry – Developed by Whole Education, Spirals of Enquiry is a robust professional enquiry framework used to assess teaching and learning. The framework is used to lead evidence-informed change in schools. It allows teachers and school leaders to engage with research and trial approaches that can benefit the needs of a group of learners who are vulnerable, disengaged or are going under the radar.
Structured conversations – The structured conversations approach requires schools to give teachers time away from the classroom for a series of focused, managed conversations between teacher, parent and child. The aim is to raise the child’s academic achievement and enhance their chances of success.
SEND (Special Educational Need and Disability) – A learning difficulty or disability which requires special educational provision to be made for the child/young person with them.
Silos – We often use Silos to describe the ways in which different organisations and/or projects are working separately, often to achieve the same common goal, but without reference/link to the others working in the same area.
Social Impact Bond – A form of outcomes-based contracts between the public and private sector. The public agrees to pay for substantial improvement in social outcomes for a specific population, which will reduce the public sector’s costs in the long run. The private sector initially pays for intervention, which is delivered by service providers with a proven track record. The private sector will only be repaid if a significant social impact is achieved.
Social Mobility – Social mobility is a description of the movement of individuals, families, households, or other categories of people within or between social strata (classes) in a society. It is used to describe a change in social status relative to both a current or former social ‘location’ within a given society. Social mobility is often used to describe movement ‘upwards’ but is not limited to this.
SEMH – Social and Emotional Mental Health
T
Triangulate – We use this to refer to using more than one method to collect/source of data on the same topic as a way of assuring the validity of our research methodology and findings
Three pillars – Child Capability, Implementation and Collective
Trauma-informed – A recognition of the impact of trauma on individuals and communities. Recognising that this will have significant effects on both collective and individuals ‘behaviour’. A concept used across disciplines but important for RtS work where the effects of trauma affect the behaviour/reaction of children and young people and therefore impacts on their ability to learn. Also important in terms of recognising the effects of trauma on educational staff and therefore the various behaviours/reactions they have may be affected by their own experience of trauma.
Trauma-informed Practice – An approach that recognises the impact of trauma on individuals and communities. Recognising that this will have significant impact on collective and individuals ‘behaviour’ and therefore our programming needs to take this into account.
The Social Mobility Index – It sets out the differences between where children grow up and the chances they have of doing well in adult life.
ToC (Theory of Change) – A theory of change is a description of how and why a desired change is expected to happen in a particular context. Organisations typically use them to explain to others what they are doing and the outcomes and impact they are expecting to have/happen as a result.
Tiered vocabulary – Refers to the idea that some words are more commonly used and/or understood than others.
V
Vision traction organiser – RtS use this as a way to describe the document which sets out our organisational vision and how we are working to achieve it.
Vulnerable – RTS defines children and young people as vulnerable if they are experiencing: education inequality, educational inequity, live in areas of deprivation
W
What Works database – The Communication Trust has worked with the Better Communication Research Programme to develop the What Works database of evidenced interventions to support children’s speech, language and communication. What Works is endorsed by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.
Y
YEF (Youth Endowment Fund) – The Youth Endowment Fund is an initiative to tackle youth offending. The YEF is an independent, charitable trust and is accountable to the Impetus Board. The Youth Endowment Fund funds, supports and evaluates promising interventions working with 10-14 year olds in England and Wales to prevent later offending. They do this by running grant rounds and evaluating each project funded. Through these evaluations and their evidence reviews, they will build up their knowledge of what works, for whom and under what circumstances. They will then work with decision makers and practitioners to ensure this knowledge is understood and applied so that the most effective interventions are being delivered to the young people who need them.