What All Schools Can Do to Support Neurodiverse Learners

13th June 2023Website Admin

What All Schools Can Do to Support Neurodiverse Learners

With thanks to Pete Wharmby (Centre for Research in Autism and Education, CRAE Annual Lecture, 2023)

10 Things All Schools Can Do

  1. Make sure that all staff know the profile for all relevant learners.
  2. Have a mentor for each neurodiverse learner – one in which they have some agency.
  3. Educate all staff about autism – if they have knowledge, they can do a lot.
  4. Work with your community – employers need to understand neurodiversity, too.
  5. Open up the issue of difference – move it from insult to fascinating.
  6. Promote tolerance of and accommodation of difference.
  7. Accommodate idiosyncrasies (e.g. stimming, walking around, repetitive behaviours, sensitivity to noise, obsessive interests).
  8. Make the school sensitive to known or potential triggers “of stress or behaviours”. e.g.
    • Changes to routine or schedule
    • Group work
    • Work deadlines
    • Presentations
    • Reading aloud
    • Picking teams
  9. Prioritise positive relationships with learners and parents (e.g. regular dialogue with parents; support groups for parents) – working together is in everyone’s interests.
  10. Have available appropriate therapeutic strategies.

Guidance for Schools

The 10 suggestions above provide a useful checklist. They can also be used to create a workshop activity for staff that will sensitise everyone to the issue of supporting neurodiverse learners. They were stimulated by Pete Wharmby’s presentation at the 2023 CRAE Annual Lecture, and most of them were specifically referenced there. Pete is an autistic teacher, writer, speaker, advocate and author. Below are two suggestions about how “10 Things” might be used.

  1. The first is a simple “bright spots” activity, designed to identify the best of what is currently happening in all 10 areas. The logic of discussing bright spots is to build from the best of what currently happens. “What are the characteristics of this that could be applied more broadly?” and “What would be required to have more like this?”
  2. The second is an evaluative activity to identify strengths and areas for growth – what is going well (or not) and what more might be done.

Activity 1

  • Pre-arrange groups so that there is a good mix of experiences and roles in each group. Prepare a facilitator for each group – someone who will advocate for the activity.
  • In groups, discuss the “bright spots” in your school for each of the 10 items. What is the best of what you do? What are the key features of these bright spots?
  • Then, come together with new ideas being suggested for each of the 10 items, where relevant, based on the principles or features of your bright spots.

Activity 2

  • Before the activity, create sets of cards with one of the 10 suggestions on each card plus five blank cards (to add new things). One set is required for each group.
  • Pre-arrange groups (as above).
  • First, each group discusses whether they have additional ideas to add on the blank cards.
  • They then sort out their top 10 as a group.
  • Groups come together and are facilitated to create a composite or consensus top 10 across the groups (“Our school’s top 10 ideas”).

Subsidiary activity either in groups or as a whole staff:

  • Arrange this top 10 into three groups – things we do well; things we need to improve on quite a lot; things we value but are not currently ready to do.
  • Using post-it notes (green for positive affirmation, amber for creative improvement ideas, red for “we’re not close on this”), decorate ideas around the ten cards, starting with amber, then green, then, if time, red.

Anti-Idling Project

13th June 2023Website Admin

Farmington Public Schools

Grade 5

Our fifth graders took action in collaboration with the Farmington green Efforts Commission by participating in a local anti-idiling campaign. As civic-minded contributors, this was a wonderful opportunity to engage in stewardship in our town. Students have been studying how human activities impact the Earth’s sphere, and more specifically, how the burning of fossil fuels impacts the atmosphere.

As part of this project, fifth graders collected and analysed data about idiling in the west woods parking lot before and after school. They learned more about idiling from Ms. Caitlin Stern, an enivronment analyst in the Bureau of Air Management at the Department of Energy and Environmental protection.

Next, in a special appearance on the Wildcat News, Ms. Cate Grady-Benson of the Farmington Green Efforts Commission explained the charge of their committee and its campaign. She invited students to participate in a sign-making contest to promote anti-idling in our town.

In order to learn what makes an effective sign, students used several resources, including a presentation from the West Woods art teacher, Mrs. Lantange. She offered tips and suggestions on how to think like an artist while creating designs (colours that work well together, the right medium, and excellent craftsmanship).

Eight of the signs designed by students were selected by the Green Efforts Commission. Final image edits were done by a Farmington High School students under the guidance of the art teacher. The signs will be professionally printed by DEEP and posted at each of the Farmington schools and the Town Hall.

Learning Targets

As a civic-minded contributor, I can take action to protect the Earth’s atmosphere. I can promote community awareness about idling by collaborating with the Farmington Green Efforts Commission & DEEP.

Students’ Reflections

“I think it’s good to take action because there’s things in the world that we need to stand up for. Before this unit I didn’t know about idling. I’m pretty sure even my parents didn’t, but I told my parents and they haven’t been idling ever since.”

– Jahnvi

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The Podcast Challenge Project

13th June 2023Website Admin

Lisa Mishriky, Laura Munafo, Elizabeth Smith, 7th Grade Language Arts

Alysson Olsen, Library Media Specialist

Trisha Irving, Humanities Specialist

Irving A. Robbins Middle School, Farmington, CT

During the Podcast Challenge, seventh graders research, script, record, and edit “podcasts with purpose” on a topic of interest. Students decide whether their podcast will inform, serve as a call to action, or entertain their listeners. Some of our topics this year included: the insulin shortage in the U.S., cryptozoology, e-waste, the importance of music education, cybersecurity, worker’s rights, and more! Students have the opportunity to conduct interviews with professionals in their field of study, attend feedback workshops facilitated by eighth graders who previously completed the project, and create their own music and sound effects. The project culminates with a Celebration of Learning where students pose questions to a panel of experts, listen to each other’s podcasts, and engage in reflective interviews with one another. Students are then invited to enter their original creations into two national competitions with National Public Radio or the New York Times.

Teacher’s Reflections

“I am most proud of how much working with students on their podcasts really deepened my relationships with them. This project truly cultivated trust. I was able to focus more on guiding from the side as a coach while watching them run away with the passion for their topic and the project. It was truly a student-driven experience.”

– Lisa Mishriky

Students’ Reflections

“I really liked the Podcast Challenge project. It was fun to research with a partner and learn about something we both really wanted to learn about. Creating the podcast from start to finish – research to editing – was really interesting and made me really proud. It didn’t feel like school to be honest.”

– Luke

“The interview with the professionals was the highlight of my project. It was really awesome to interview someone about a topic that we were all so passionate about.”

– Jonah

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Medical Moment Project

13th June 2023Website Admin

Sharon Becker, Beth Block, Kerry Visone, 8th Grade Science Teachers

Alysson Olsen, LIbrary Media Specialist

Irving A. Robbins Middle School, Farmington, CT

When was the last time you took a moment to educate yourself on your own well-being or on factors that could affect your future health and those of people you care about? Our 8th graders educate our IAR community about the interdependent systems of the human body as related to a medical topic of their choice. Many students chose personally meaningful areas of study related to family, friends or even their own personal medical and/or mental health situations. Students had the chance to research using databases, books and reliable websites. They even had the opportunity to interview medical experts in our community where they could ask specific questions related to their research. Students presented on topics from Parkinson’s disease to diabetes, to broken bones and selective mutism. The choice of engaging newsletters, powerful MedTalks, and captivating screencasts allowed our students to shine in their own unique ways as civic-minded contributors. They educated our community about the causes, effects, treatments, and implications of their topic. Students also raised money via school-wide pajama days – money collected that project winners, voted on by their peers, could donate to charities related to their medical moment topic.

Teacher’s Reflections

“It is incredibly rewarding to watch students go through the process from choosing a disease, disorder, or neurodiversity to becoming an expert on that topic. I continue to be in awe of how much they learn throughout the process. Medical Moment is a highlight of the school year!”

– Kerry Visone

“I am most proud of how the students become more aware and more thoughtful and understanding of how people’s daily lives are affected by the different medical conditions that are presented.”

– Beth Block

Students’ Reflections

“It helped educate people on different diseases and disorders, which I think is going to be very helpful when we grow up into adults (some of us might even go into the medical field because of this project).”

– Leena

“I think Medical Moment really helped me understand many different aspects of the medical field and what people do everyday to save lives. The project helped me become more aware and appreciative for everyone in the medical field.”

– Claire

“This project helped me be a more positive global citizen because I am now more aware of medical conditions and am less likely to judge before I know the whole story.”

– Brooke

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Choose Your Own Adventure Through U.S. History Project

13th June 2023Website Admin

Tim Briggs, 11th Grade Humanities

High Tech High Chula Vista

For this project, students researched, wrote, and self-published a collection of choose your own adventure stories based on U.S. History. To create their story, each student researched a historical time period and created a story map of possible choices for their character based on the significant events in their era. In writing their stories, students incorporated dialogue, sensory details, and narrative techniques to create gripping second person narratives. Each narrative was then edited by a student editorial team while other students created original art and designed a layout to format our book for publication. At our final exhibition, students presented their work to teachers, students, and community members at the Grossmont Literary Arts Festival.

Teacher’s Reflections

“This project far exceeded my expectations for the depth and complexity of the students’ narratives. What I had envisioned as a 200- 300 page book sprawled to nearly 600 pages as the students dug deeper into their historical periods and created pathways for their character to explore different events. Students were invested in the creation and publication of our book. Every narrative was reviewed and edited by a team of students for content and historical accuracy and then formatted for publication by our design team. It inspired me to see students work hard to prepare our book and take pride in completing such a large task as a team.”

– Tim Briggs

Students’ Reflections

“Being a member of various groups helped me develop new skills. As a member of the editing group, I improved my understanding of grammar and writing by reviewing the work of other students. I also learned how to use Adobe Acrobat to publish our writing in a professional format. Being a part of the leadership and exhibition crew made me step out my comfort zone and practice my communication and leadership skills. Overall, the project helped me not only to become a more creative writer, but it also let me improve how I work with other students.”

—Rafely Palacios

Journeys Project

13th June 2023Website Admin

In the Spring term, Gefen and Rimon classes will be worked on an extended project all about journeys. We looked at journeys in the past made by famous explorers such as Ernest Shackleton, as well as journeys to Ancient Egypt and what they discovered when they arrived at their destinations. This helped the students think about their own journeys and how they need to plan for these. We also thought about the journey they took at Gesher school and what it meant to them. As part of our project we created a ‘sponsored journey’ from the old site to the new school using various modes of transport. At the end of the project, the students created their own personalised backpacks with the resources they will need for their own Pesach journeys. The project covered Geography skills such as looking at maps and planning for a journey, as well as looking at the climate and physical features of different countries. We also looked at the history of Ancient Egypt and Shackleton’s journey to the Antarctica. As part of our project we looked at the children’s emotional and social needs, and what they will need to support them and the important characteristics that are required on their own journeys.

Teacher’s Reflections

“I think the project went well and the children seemed to enjoy all the individual parts of the project ie Egypt, Antarctica and their own journeys. The children particularly enjoyed learning about Ancient Egypt and all the practical art and drama activities we did especially the mummification! They also learnt lots of information about Egypt and what it is like as a country today. Although I actually feel that the Egypt part would have been better as a separate section after the project as it was not officially a journey that they went on in Egypt. The project was also good as it covered many different curriculum area ie geography different countries, history looking at Ancient Egypt, music creating an Egyptian orchestra and art. I also feel that it was useful for the children to reflect on what they need when they go on different journeys (sensory resources). I think the exhibition was a success as well when the children were able to act as tour guides showing off all their work!”

– Stephanie Sungtong

Students’ Reflections

“My favourite part of the the project was the trip to the transport museum” – Liam

“I learnt how to wrap a mummy with linen” – Avi

“My highlight making my holiday packing list and how to plan my journey” – Ari

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Creating a Life Skills Space Within a School

13th June 2023Website Admin

Creating a Life Skills Space Within a School

Danielle Petar, Emily Bacon, Michal Geller

At Gesher we want our young people to enjoy school. We want them to enjoy learning with one another and supporting each other to succeed. We want them to have great experiences; to love physical and creative activities; to enjoy the unity of a shared faith; to find things in the curriculum that they can be passionate about; to be proud of their exhibitions of work and the real-world projects that make a difference in our community. And, of course, we want them to leave us with the best qualifications possible.

All that having been said, we are a school for young people, many of whom started their school career in a mainstream school which was not well equipped to support them. Parents (and young people as they mature) inevitably have concerns about how well they will cope with the mainstream life of employment and relationships and independent living. This is the world beyond Gesher.

And this is why we have developed a coherent, progressive and continuously evolving life skills curriculum. We are passionate about preparing learners to be assured and adept when they eventually progress from Gesher, as employees, friends, partners and citizens of the world. 

The Gesher Life Skills Space — from top left (clockwise): bed, wardrobe, lounge area, fully functioning kitchen with hot plates, toaster, kettle, microwave, blender, fridge, sink, dining table and chairs, cash register, desk and computer, ironing board and iron, and a ‘my body’ area with a mirror and personal grooming tools.

 

Creating a life skills space within a school

Ask ChatGPT what you need to set up a life skills classroom and you’ll be given a list of eight steps which include finding a space, making a budget and employing a member of staff. Do some of your own research via academic articles and practical textbooks and the same three themes emerge. Sadly, what the AI and the “old-fashioned” research tool don’t take into account is that schools are not generally known for having spare rooms, giant financial budgets, or bonus staff on hand to deliver extra lessons. It can therefore be difficult to know where to start with something like life skills, which generally falls largely outside the traditional curriculum subjects like Maths, English and Science.

In Issue Two of The Bridge, we featured an article about Gesher’s life skills curriculum, so we won’t pretend that we were starting from scratch when we created our life skills classroom space. We knew what our curriculum required by way of facilities. We also won’t pretend that we weren’t lucky enough to have a small space in our school, a modest budget and a skilled member of staff to deliver our sessions. Perhaps we made our own luck!

However, the journey we have travelled puts us in a position to share some of our insights in a practical and accessible way. We are also conscious that, as a result of our own journey, there isn’t a huge amount of practical advice out there for schools wanting to implement and integrate life skills-related learning. We hope this article helps.

Ideally you will find a space, but it can be a shared space.

How we’ve done it

We moved school sites in 2021 and, as such, were in the fortunate position of being able to include in our plans a dedicated space within our building for life skills – in other words, to give it equal claim in the allocation of space, rather than stealing space back from existing use. However, even the room we are currently using is a temporary solution which is shared with our library. (Although, of course, library use is a life skill, too!) To manage this space the room is carefully timetabled to allow for classes to use the library and for classes to use the life skills space. The room is also used for lunchtime clubs and school council meetings, and can be available as an extra learning space.

Things you could try in your setting

Despite the title of this article specifically referring to a space, there is no necessity for life skills to take place in just one place. We could have called it “Creating a life skills mindset”. Areas such as the lunch hall and the staff room (when not being used by staff) are ready-made life skills areas because of the practical and real-world activities that take place in them. The lunch hall, for example, can be used to practise setting the table and preparing food while the staff room is likely to contain a dishwasher, sink, and perhaps even an oven, making it an ideal environment for students to work on kitchen-based skills.

What’s coming next

One of the end goals for the life skills space at Gesher is to have a full-size, self-contained flat which includes a kitchen, bedroom and living area for students to be able to access during their life skills sessions. To do this we are keen to have students’ input to the design and to make it relevant to their interests.

Making good use of the space

How we’ve done it

Our classroom space is set up to emulate elements of a small flat with a kitchen area, a bed and a sofa. Within the room, each item is labelled to support the learning of organisation skills as well as encouraging independence. All of our students use the room once a week for their timetabled life skills lesson. In addition, we have a group of learners (known as our Life Skills Legends) who attend daily life skills sessions in the space. This gives them more time to practise skills and the way the room is laid out also means that skills can be practised in sequence. For example, when doing bedroom-related life skills, students can take the sheets off the bed, wash them in the washing machine, dry them on an airer and then put them back onto the bed.

Things you could try in your setting 

If you don’t have the luxury of having a classroom space where life skills teaching can take place, then an alternative could be to have smaller life skills-related materials stored in one place and accessible to staff. For example, items such as a kettle, a toaster and a blender could be stored relatively easily and used for food preparation skills, while items like hairdryers, straighteners and mirrors could be available for students to practise self-care skills. (We’ve included a full list of resources in the Resources for Schools section of this issue). These materials could then be used for in-school sessions. Activities which require large resources, such as a bed or washing machine, could be completed as part of homework tasks which are developed alongside parents. (It is a feature of our programme that parents are partners – deliverers and accreditors.)

What’s coming next

The next phase would be transferring some of the basic life skills activities into employment-related ones. For example, opening an on-site cafe run by the students would allow for greater independence around their food and drink preparation skills. Other examples are creating an allotment on the grounds, planning and running a school visit, or hosting an employers’ event.

Equipping the space

How we’ve done it

To furnish and equip the life skills rooms, we appealed for donations of furniture from our students’ families and friends, as well as a small amount of financial support from a community donor. Before adding anything to the room we involved parents as well as students to hear their thoughts about what should be included. The clearest piece of feedback that we received from both groups was that the room should be a place where students (as much as possible) could do things independently.

Things you could try in your setting

In the Resources for Schools section at the back of this issue, we have included a shopping list of items that might be useful for life skills sessions. Alongside each item on the list are ideas and suggestions for use. By no means do we have all the answers to these questions, so we would love to hear from you with further creative ideas. You can email us directly via [email protected].

Things that we would like to do…

Moving forward, we would like to incorporate more technology into our life skills sessions. In the first instance, this could involve using online banking and doing an online food shop. However, we would also like eventually to include working with artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT which, despite offering a rather generic answer to our opening question, will undoubtedly be a huge part of our students’ lives in the future.

 

Professional Prompt Questions

  • Is life skills education on the agenda for your students, especially the ones most likely to be challenged by the transition to life beyond school?

  • What ideas in this article have most resonance for you? What ideas does your school have that you could share on an email as suggested above?

  • If life skills is not currently a high priority in your school, who might you need to gather together to read this article (and the one in The Bridge 2) and to discuss possible ways forward?

Reimagining Assessment: Views From an Autistic Young Person

13th June 2023Website Admin

Reimagining Assessment: Views From an Autistic Young Person

Joshua Gross

Since the 1990s, the way we assess young people has been dominated by a culture of public accountability and competition, leading to the unhealthy belief that the grade is everything. The idea is now so important that many exams, like GCSEs and A-Levels are referred to as “high-stakes” tests because of the way they determine the next stage of someone’s life.

Those who create the high-stakes assessments claim that they are the fairest and most rigorous tool we have to demonstrate student achievement. However, the evidence used to back up these claims is often insubstantive (Richardson, 2022). One of the consequences of these high-stakes assessments is that young people’s outcomes are reduced to a number or letter which only reflects a very small proportion of their experiences and achievements at school and usually only in academic subjects.

Whilst this affects all young people, data has shown that, on average, autistic young people do not achieve the same levels of academic success as their non-autistic peers assessed in this way. The most up-to-date government data shows that 64% of non-autistic students achieved a Grade 4 or above in Maths and English, compared to 31% of autistic students – and this data is not a one-off. The same pattern exists in the previous three years’ data. While the statistics alone are striking, even more profound are the hidden stories behind the data. As such, in this piece, we share the reflections and experiences of Joshua, an autistic young person who has the lived experience of feeling let down and misrepresented by the current system and who has vital ideas on how it might be reimagined to prevent the same thing happening to others.

“The big problem with existing assessments is that they are the be all and end all when you leave school.” Joshua

The same idea is expressed in the opening sentence to this article and yet what this means for young people can often get lost in the statistics. For Joshua, who at the time of writing is applying for apprenticeships, the implications are clear.

“I can only put my grades, not the fact that I spent most of my A-Level time suffering through extreme mental health issues and that it was a miracle I even made it to sit the examinations, not the six times I almost dropped out and came back to them later… It becomes really difficult to come out the other side and still be a strong candidate when the only important thing is what grade you got.”

Joshua’s solution to this problem would be for schools to recognise the skills that young people have through a more flexible approach to curriculum and to assessment. In Joshua’s case, he has a talent and passion for computer programming and, while he was able to take this as an A-Level, he was still assessed within the constraints of that curriculum and the conventions of exams.

“In my A-level computer science class we had people who had never opened the Python Editor before and we had people like me who had made full video games in one day before… I would be running off doing these ultra-complex things at home that would never be recognised because they weren’t even remotely related to the curriculum. Like, I can make a video game using languages that the curriculum doesn’t even know exist. And I’m just sitting there doing these things, but none of them get recognition. I can do all this stuff and it doesn’t matter because it wasn’t what I was told I had to do. I didn’t fit that specific guideline and therefore it’s not good enough.”

By having a curriculum that is less constraining, less of a rule book, there would be more scope for teachers to work with young people in their area(s) of interest and strength, aligned with their passions. While this would have benefits for all learners, there would be particular benefits for some autistic young people who often have a special interest or aptitude. Recent research by King’s College London, for example, has shown that when adults are accepted as having a special interest, and where it is responded to positively, recognised and valued, this can lead to them excelling in the linked curriculum area (Wood, 2021).

As not all neurodiverse young people will have a special interest that can be assessed within school, it is also worth considering other ways in which a more flexible assessment process would be beneficial. Here, Joshua has further important ideas to share.

“Assessment as it is now is not actually really a test of knowledge, but more a test of memory. I found often that those kinds of assessments really did not work for me, but one that I really excelled in were the two B-techs that I took in Business and Digital Media. Instead of having this one assessment that you’re building up to and studying in unhealthy ways for, you’re working on it throughout the entire course. It’s not one giant thing, it’s a bunch of smaller things. Break one big problem down into a bunch of smaller ones, and suddenly it becomes less of a big problem.”

Joshua’s views about coursework are echoed in the academic literature, which has shown the pedagogical benefits of such forms of assessment, as well as the fact that students prefer it to exams (Richardson, 2015). Despite this, under the current assessment system in England, none of the Maths, English or Science GCSEs have a coursework component which counts towards a student’s final grade. As such, the work that a student does across two or three years of study is condensed and assessed through a few hours of exams. This in turn then shapes their future opportunities. Joshua considers this system to be a particular challenge for autistic young people as “Often the pressures of the school system can break a student so easily and so quickly. And it becomes really difficult to come out the other side and still be a strong candidate when the only important thing is what grade you got.”

There are two more things that we know about the lack of fit between the current assessment system and neurodiversity. One was well articulated by Joshua: “If you emphasise ‘standards’ and ‘standardisation’, then by definition this will not work for autistic young people who are, by definition, non-standard.” The other, which is linked, relates to the idea of “spiky profiles”. Autistic learners are less standardised, less conventional – they have great strengths alongside different challenges. An assessment model that emphasises the challenges (e.g. writing essays) and minimises the strengths and passions (e.g. technical capability, creativity) will serve both autistic youngsters and the system badly.    

Endnote

Joshua’s views are those of just one student, but the dearth of autistic voices in both the academic and non-academic literature in this field makes this a provocative contribution and one that we hope is built on by further activity in this area.

References

Richardson, J. T. (2015). Coursework versus examinations in end-of-module assessment: a literature review. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 40(3), 439-455.

Richardson, M. (2022). Rebuilding Public Confidence in Educational Assessment. UCL Press.

Wood, R. (2021). Autism, intense interests and support in school: From wasted efforts to shared understandings. Educational Review, 73(1), 34-54.

 

Professional Prompt Questions

  • What rings true for you in Joshua’s comments?

  • You will almost certainly have neurodiverse learners in your school. Might a small piece of research or a focus group with them help to unearth challenges they face to which you could respond?

Three Big Ideas for Assessment for Schools Hoping to Do Better

13th June 2023Website Admin

Three Big Ideas for Assessment for Schools Hoping to Do Better

Julie Temperley

1. Agree together the outcomes you value most for your learners (the knowledge, skills, values and characteristics). Which of these do you currently assess well?

Some things to try:

Run a whole school enquiry to surface what learning teachers, learners, families, and the wider community consider most important to be able to assess or demonstrate. Knowledge is sure to feature, but so too will skills like problem-solving, and characteristics like confidence and kindness.

Explore together how much time is spent in school on assessing learning that is not congruent with the things that you value.  Do you have the balance right?

Co-design with staff, students and stakeholders a learning dashboard that teachers and learners can complete together to track and communicate progress in knowledge, skills and characteristics important to everyone in the school and beyond.

2. Expand the range of assessment tools and methods used in school and grow teachers’ confidence and capability in their use.

Some things to try:

Group assessment – instead of awarding individual marks, teachers and learners agree assessment criteria for group work and, on completion, the whole group gets the same mark. This approach is especially useful in project-based learning, but can be applied to any group-work activity, and encourages the development of skills for collaboration, teamwork and shared responsibility.

Routinely include an element of self-assessment – learners use the same criteria as teachers to “mark” their work, then teachers and learners discuss the differences between their assessments and what might sit behind these.

Mastery learning – learners explore success criteria at the beginning of a unit of learning (perhaps using “exemplar work”) and make as many attempts at some or all of the assessments as they need to, in order to identify gaps in their knowledge and skills. They can then seek help from their peers, teacher or other resources to address the gaps. Learners do not move onto the next unit of learning until they are confident they have mastery and can pass the assessment.

A variation of mastery learning is repeating assessments but with reduced support, where success becomes a learner being able to complete similar tasks over time with an increasing degree of independence.

3. Engage a wider range of people and perspectives in assessment, including learners and their families – and ensure that teachers are all “assessment literate” to lead this.

Some things to try:

Co-design of assessment rubrics and criteria charts – teachers and learners work together to design a rubric that describes success criteria and sets out what good looks like. Rubrics like this are often co-designed on the basis of shared examination of an exemplary piece of work, identifying and agreeing what makes it so good. Rubrics promote learner agency and empowerment by giving learners a sense of control over their learning and how they are being assessed.

Learner portfolios – portfolios and learning passports record learning in a variety of ways, for instance using narrative and photographs and annotated copies of learners’ work to give a clear and detailed perspective on what the learner has achieved and why this is important to them. Recently, digital tools have expanded the range of evidence and examples that can be collected in a portfolio, to include video, audio and presentations, for instance.

Exhibitions of learning – there is a long history of exhibition or performance as a means of making achievement visible and assessing it. Art exhibitions, drama or music performances, sport, chess tournaments – there are multiple examples. More significantly, there are examples in the UK and around the world of schools where exhibition and learner portfolios are the principal forms of assessment.   

Final word

There is, of course, much more that we could add to this – and much more was contained in the Critical Friendship Group conversation from which this article was drawn. What all the suggestions have in common, though, is that they are driving towards assessment processes that facilitate growth, the exploration of oneself, deeper learning and self-worth. They are about creating – for all learners – hope for the future.

Acknowledgements

This article has been developed by drawing on contributions made in a Gesher School Critical Friendship Group by generous friends and colleagues who are expert in assessment and/or neurodiversity. They are:

Dr Amelia Peterson (London Interdisciplinary School)

Alison Woosey (Bolton Impact Trust)

David McVeigh (Head of Assessment Design at Pearson UK)

Kelly Sanders (Former USA school principal; consultant)

Joe Pardoe (School 21 and Big Education)

Joshua Gross (a neurodivergent school-experienced young person)

Anne-Marie Twumasi (Big Change)

We would like to take this opportunity to offer our sincere thanks for the time, energy and insight that each of our critical friends brought. Your advice and ideas are already making a difference.