Case Study All Saints Chorley

School Background
All Saints’ is a Church of England Primary and Nursery School initially founded in 1900. It
is close to the centre of Chorley and provides an education for children from ages 3 – 11.

Starting point

The project started with an initial consultation visit with the Headteacher and Deputy. It
was decided that mathematics would be a good starting point for an initial focus on
Assessment for Learning as this was an identified area for development within the school.
An Inset session introducing Assessment for Learning was arranged for the start of the
Autumn Term. Prior to this session it was decided that a whole school approach would be
used to launch Assessment for Learning. To give it immediate visual impact two
characters were introduced and named by the school, TILA (Today I’m learning about)
and WILF (What I’m looking for). The Headteacher made a large collage of TILA and
WILD and digital pictures were taken – enlarged and used in all classrooms, hall,
corridors, the library and resource areas.

The focus of the first meeting was to introduce Assessment for Learning with particular
emphasis on learning intentions, success criteria and some self evaluation using the
plenary session. The staff response was positive and all were keen to give it a try.
During the first month the whole school was ‘buzzing’ with the impact of Tila and Wilf.
Staff began to record comments and thoughts on a large sheet of paper which the head
had pinned up in the staffroom. Positive thoughts included – greater pupil awareness and
less marking. Although initially the focus was mathematics the use of Tila and Wilf very
quickly became a feature in many lessons. Staff said that this has become increasingly
the case because of the expectation of the children.

During the next two terms two more Inset sessions followed – one on Feedback and
Marking and one on Questioning and paired response work.

Practical strategies developed by the school

The visual impact of TILA and WILF and the fact that the mascots were already part of
the school have proven a point of identification for the children and have become specific
to their learning Eg. they have been taken on school visits and with the children as
mascots for their Quiz competition.

Whole school impact has covered many issues in school in citizenship, values and
discipline. The ‘WILF’s’ are left in the hall to remind children of whole school issues each
half term.

In the classrooms Tila and Wilf stay up for the whole unit period. Digital photographs of
the characters are wall mounted and colour coded in keeping with the NC. Eg. a yellow
bubble for Tila and literacy, blue for Mathematics.

Classroom displays generally reflect the learning objectives for each subject/topic and
children are used to referring to them.

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Assessment for Learning is used as a supplementary tool for learning styles and fits in
extremely well with the school’s approach to VAK learning (visual styles, auditory and
kinaesthetic).

Open-ended questioning is well used. Interactive prompts in plenary sessions are a

normal part of the lesson.

Children have the learning intention displayed in their books.

Targets are decided at mini conferences and written up in books.

Successes

Staff and children now use Tila and Wilf across all subjects after finding it difficult to
restrict it to one subject area.

Marking is related to the learning intention and Wilf. Children gain confidence because
Wilf breaks learning down into achievement steps.

Self evaluation and questioning skills are improving – teachers are becoming more
focussed.

Children are becoming more motivated with the emphasis on learning intentions. They
were developing an awareness of different curriculum areas because of establishing the
big picture before verbalising.

Children have an expectation enforced by Tila and Wilf and this has led to an increase in
anticipation at the start of a lesson.

The Plenary – children are able to evaluate the learning activity – identifying difficulties
they had found, suggesting why and commenting effectively on the resources. Teacher’s
are now finding this one of the strongest parts of the lesson – Quote from the Year3
teacher:
“100 times better than before……..used to find it the hardest – now really valuable –
problem is keeping it short”

Marking is related to Tila and Wilf resulting in more focussed quality marking.

Time spent on planning is reduced.

Co-ordinators are able to assess progress and understanding of their subjects because of
LI and marking.

The school has now added another member to its family – a puppet called ‘M’. M has a
whole school pastoral focus - at present the emphasis is on manners and behaviour.

Next steps
 To develop the use of response partners and to identify the success against the
learning intentions.
 To encourage children to make written comments about their learning.
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  To continue the development of peer and self assessment to promote greater
independence.

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