A primary school in an urban area of the north west of England with 350 pupils identified the need to improve attendance, parental engagement and resilience for disadvantaged pupils. The majority of pupils at the school are from White British heritage. A small minority of pupils speak English as an additional language. The percentage of pupils known to be eligible for pupil premium is 24%. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is 15%. Four of the pupils have an EHC Plan. Pupil numbers have increased in recent years and the school admits a number of pupils during the school year.
Approach
As a school, it chose to focus on the use of adults in the classroom to support independent learning and resilience, the impact of middle leaders on curriculum and learning and use of structured conversations* to improve parental engagement and wider outcomes for pupils.
A target group of 24 children were identified in years 1–5 for one of the following reasons, although the majority were also eligible for pupil premium funding:
- Below age-related attainment
- Below expected progress from starting points (this includes some pupils with good attainment who had the potential to make accelerated progress)
- Limited parental engagement with school.
Through a needs analysis, the school identified the following broad areas of focus to bring about the changes they wanted:
- Leadership for inclusion
- Provision to close the gap
- Parental engagement
- Developing behaviours for attendance
- Learning and well-being
- Effective use of pupil premium
- Maximising the impact of teaching assistants
- Middle leadership development
- Using effective feedback
*Structured conversations (used in Achievement for All programmes) between teachers, parents and their child provide a platform for parents to engage in the learning process. They have an opportunity to discuss their child’s aspirations and interests and contribute to setting targets for their child. Parents feel valued, teachers say they get to know the children better (their learning needs and interests) and children say they like the interest their parents show in their school work.
Impact
Leadership for inclusion: