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Strategic Overview and Impact Report 2014/15
Pupil Premium Strategic Overview and Impact Report – October 2015
The Strategic Developments:
Our Pupil Premium Team (also known as the ‘Ever 6’ team) has been augmented this year with the appointments of a Pupil Premium Lead Teacher; a bespoke Pupil Premium Academic tutor and a Pupil Premium Learning Mentor (LSA). This core team works closely with the Study Unit Manager; the Data Manager, the Inclusion team and an Assistant Head/SENCO. The team’s remit is to provide and co-ordinate appropriate intervention for any student who is currently eligible for free school meals or who has been eligible during the last six years, hence the term ‘Ever 6’. The Department for Education refers to this group of students as “Free School Meal (FSM)” children. In this report both terms (“Ever 6” and “FSM”) are used and mean the same thing. “Pupil Premium” describes the additional funding that comes into the school for this group.
A tiered approach to student intervention has been adopted based on academic potential, progress, behaviour, and attendance information. Those students with most critical difficulties receive the highest level of intervention but all ‘Ever 6’ students have contact with the mentor team and may also receive material help with equipment and texts as necessary.
Annually, the Assistant Head & one of the Headteachers produce a detailed plan for the deployment of the Pupil Premium budget which is reviewed and ratified by the school’s Governing Body. Decisions about how best to use the money are based, in part, on the findings of the most recent research bodies such as the Sutton Trust and, in part, through the evaluation of the effectiveness of various strategies implemented to date at Calthorpe Park.
The largest part of the funds this year, 2015/16 will be used to maintain several strands of intervention implemented for the first time during last academic year. The new appointments to the team were made during the summer term of 2015 and the targeted provision across year groups continues to develop this year. Money will also be identified within the Pupil Premium Budget to drive the roll out of bespoke Individual Study and Improvement Plans (ISIPs) and 1:1 tuition for all year 11 ‘Ever 6’ students. There will be further allocation of funds to provide smaller teaching groups in core subjects in years 10 & 11 and to provide time to devise a Year 7 joiner intensive literacy programme. An important remit of the team has been to be proactive in calling the parents of our “Ever 6” students to ensure that they are aware of their entitlements and to be an additional point of school contact and support.
Beyond the team
There are in excess of 20 different forms of intervention that ‘Ever 6’ students may access across the school. These ‘interventions’ range from direct financial support enabling them to participate in trips and enrichment activities, to receiving individual/small group tutoring or accessing additional support from the Inclusion Department. Students may attend ‘Lesson 7’ three times a week and have modified lesson timetables, as the need arises. In addition to bespoke provision, subject staff are required to focus on and address the possible additional needs of all vulnerable groups in the school, including our “Ever 6” students.
Impact of Provision
Enrichment and Equipment
Three years ago in the academic year 2012/13, 93 ‘Ever 6’ students were on role. Individual students were noted to have accessed financial assistance on 28 occasions ie. of a total of 93, a maximum of 28 students requested financial support at some point. The school recognised the need (despite initial communication with ‘Ever 6’ families) to publicise entitlement for support every time a trip or opportunity is on offer. Letters that go home to parents were amended accordingly and the impact of this improved communication has been very positive, as evidenced by the individual financial access data for the last two full academic years.
In the academic year 2013/14, 103 ‘Ever 6’ students were on role. Individual students accessed financial assistance on 258 separate occasions. The deployment of funds to support individuals to access enrichment opportunities and /or essential equipment was 5 times greater than that deployed in the previous year.
We were pleased to note that during last academic year (2014/15) a similar pattern was reflected. There were 118 ‘Ever 6’ students and financial support was provided on 269 occasions, thereby impacting significantly on equality of opportunity and experience across year groups.
In addition to enabling students to participate in trips and on site enrichment activities such as peripatetic music lessons, money has been provided for the purchase of revision guides, key texts, calculators and certain specialist uniform requirements such as trainers for PE. Money is also used to support transport into school where there are specific difficulties. A number of ‘Ever 6’ students receive financial assistance to enable them to participate in practical curricular activities such as Food Technology where, for example, ingredients for cooking are usually brought from home.
Attendance
The Pastoral team and Inclusion Department work hard to encourage students to strive for high attendance at school. The Attendance Officer is proactive in phoning parents on a daily basis to check why students may not be in and she alerts Pastoral Leaders and members of the’ Ever 6’ team when concerns arise. Students who may be battling with anxiety or turbulent home circumstances are taken under the wing of the Study Unit and through the use of imaginative, flexible approaches, are supported to regard school as a safe and positive experience and so, to be here.
The attendance of our Free School Meal cohort is improving over time. The DFE formally scrutinises the attendance of FSM students based on the Autumn and Spring Term figures for Year 11 students. While the following figures demonstrate an improving trend at Calthorpe Park, in the 2015/16 plan we intend to allocate funding to the appointment of an Excellence in Attendance Lead teacher whose remit will be to work with Pupil Premium students where attendance is a key cause of concern.
Percentage of Free School Meal Children regarded as Persistent Non-Attenders:
|
Year |
Percentage of FSM students |
|
2011/12 |
20% |
|
2012/13 |
14.7% (National FSM average: 12.8%) |
|
2013/14 |
12.5% |
|
2014/15 |
11% |
We are always striving to bring the picture for the attendance of our FSM children into line with the more positive attendance ‘picture’ of non- FSM students. The percentage of students described as Persistent Non – attenders, when their families have not experienced significant financial hardship, is consistently lower than that of the FSM cohort both within school and nationally. However, the gap within the school between the two is becoming narrower year on year as a result of systematic intervention strategies.
2013 the gap was 10.1%
2014 the gap was 7.4%
2015 the gap was 6.4%
Numbers don’t tell the whole story! For example, an FSM student in last year’s year 11 (2014/15), suddenly began to experience significant anxiety issues during years 10 & 11 and was in danger of becoming a non-attender. There were also issues beyond school. Through the provision of a bespoke modified & flexible timetable; support with transport into school and individual intervention from the Ever 6 team, she ultimately left school with 8 GCSEs including English and Maths, all of which were graded between A* and B.
Support for Attendance at exams
Students with challenging personal circumstances can find organising themselves to come into school for public exams difficult. The Study Unit Manager, deploys her team to call and text vulnerable students, and their parents, individually before and on the days of their exams and the school, in extreme circumstances, arranges to collect students who otherwise would miss their exams.
In 2014/15, 9 FSM students (out of a total group of 24 other vulnerable students) were individually supported to physically attend their GCSE exams at the right time. Of approximately 189 GCSE examination sessions, only 1 paper was missed by 1 student.
|
Year Group 2014/15 |
%Pupil Premium parents who attended Parents’ evening |
Students move up into the next year group |
Year Group 2015/16 |
% Pupil Premium parents who attended Parents’ evening |
|
Year 7 |
79.1 |
|
Year 8 |
81.1 |
|
Year 8 |
74.1 |
Year 9 |
74.1 |
|
|
Year 9 |
82.1 |
Year 10 |
83.3 |
|
|
Year 10 |
91.3 |
Year 11 |
77.3 |
Parental Engagement
The importance of Parental engagement with the school is regarded as critical to the progress of all our students. Additional strategies have been introduced to encourage attendance at Parent Consultation events, particularly with our Pupil Premium students. The table below reflects the attendance of the same Pupil Premium parent groups over the last two years. If parents don’t attend, they are contacted by the Head of House, Tutor or Academic Tutor to discuss progress. The table below reflects parent attendance, not parent communication per se.
Progress & Attainment
We have a relatively low proportion of Pupil Premium students at Calthorpe Park (11.4% compared with 26% nationally). As a group ,over time, our Pupil Premium students have not achieved as highly as non – Pupil Premium students. This situation reflects the national situation and the reduction of the gap remains a primary concern.
The DFE judges schools in a number of ways to see how well teaching and learning are impacting on outcomes for young people. One way of measuring this is the “Value Added” score. The Value Added score (VA) shows the progress that students have made since they entered the school. A VA score of 1,000 means that students have made expected progress between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4.
In 2015 our Pupil Premium students performed slightly better than Pupil Premium (FSM) students nationally in terms of the VA score:
School FSM students Value Added score: 977.7
National FSM students Value Added score: 976.7
Over time we have had some success in reducing the progress and attainment gap within school. This was not the case in summer 2015 and so addressing the difference remains a key teaching, learning & intervention focus.
In absolute terms, however, a number of Pupil Premium students at Calthorpe Park attain well compared with PP students nationally:
|
|
Performance of FSM Cohort |
|||
|
School |
National |
|||
|
2014 |
2015 |
2014 |
2015 |
|
|
Capped GCSE points score (average score for students’ best 8 GCSEs including English & Maths) |
281.4 |
291.1 |
258.7 |
261.3 |
|
Total number of points scored at GCSE (average per student) |
296.6 |
340.2 |
290.8 |
296.8 |
|
% of students attaining A* -G |
96% |
100% |
86% |
87% |
|
% Achieving English |
58% |
47% |
51% |
51% |
|
%Achieving Maths |
54% |
41% |
49% |
49% |
|
%A* -C (including English and Maths) |
42% |
29% |
36% |
36% |
The green indicates measures where our Pupil Premium students performed relatively well when judged against national data.
Where can I get more information?
For more information about how we plan provision and track progress, please contact Mr Burrell (Pupil Premium Lead Teacher) or Mrs Barton (Academic Tutor – Pupil Premium).
If you are not sure whether your child is eligible for Free School Meals or would like more information about how you should go about claiming an entitlement, please contact Mrs Williams (Receptionist), in confidence. Click here to download the application form or here to apply online. This information can also be found on Hampshire County Council's website here.
We are always keen to talk to parents of children who receive Pupil Premium, to ask for their ideas on what they feel is the most effective provision. Your son or daughter may be doing extremely well at school but there may be things that we can do to stretch them more, to build their confidence, to develop particular skills or to help them raise their aspirations further. If you have particular ideas that you would like to discuss or share with us, please contact Ms Lonsdale or Mr Burrell.