Making ability setting work

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Description

A junior school serving a large inner city estate demonstrates how it implements ability setting to maintain high standards in numeracy and literacy. Berrymede Junior, on the South Acton Estate in west London, is singled out by Ofsted as a top 20 school excelling against all the odds. Members of staff are in no doubt that placing children in sets for two hours every morning is responsible for their success. Key to making setting work is making the right assessment of every child and moving them promptly upwards or downwards. The school's assessment co-ordinator explains how pupils take formal tests every term or half term but are also monitored every day by their teachers. The head of SEN outlines the strategy for dealing with complaints when a pupil is put in the lowest set. Parents and the children themselves soon understand that moving down brings extra resouces and attention from specialists such as EAL teachers.