The County High School, Leftwich
Recognising the
relentless focus on ensuring that every student fulfils his/her potential at
the Academy
Case Study by Matt
Snelson
Tell us about your school
The County
High School, Leftwich was awarded Secondary Regional Champions at the Pupil
Premium Awards 2017,
The County
High School, Leftwich has been a Converter (ie no-sponsor) Academy since
September 2012 and was judged Outstanding in every area at the its most recent
Ofsted inspection in March 2016. There are currently 989 students on roll, aged
11-16. The Academy is over-subscribed and has a reputation for strong academic
performance and high standards of student behaviour. The intake is fully
inclusive. Currently, there are 195 students, 19% of the Academy population,
for whom the Pupil Premium provides support.
What did you do to create such notable
success with the Pupil Premium?
The Core
Purpose of the Academy is to:
-
facilitate the educational, personal and social
development of its students and thereby maximise their achievement and thus life
chances.
This theory
is translated into practical reality via our unwavering focus on delivering consistently
high-quality teaching across the curriculum offer. Teachers provide students
with individualised, motivational targets, which are challenging but achievable
in each subject. Subject Leaders and their teams track student achievement
against these targets to identify students who are at risk of not achieving
them. Personalised subject specific interventions are actioned promptly and designed
to take account of each student’s individual circumstances. For instance, if
extended study is an issue in the home environment then our ‘Study Zone’,
supported by specialist Learning Support Assistants, funded via Pupil Premium
monies, provide a supportive environment, which is why we refer to extended
learning not homework. Pupil Premium money is also used to assist in the
purchase of basic equipment, such as calculators, stationary and PE kit to
remove real or perceived barriers to learning, appropriate, impactful
interventions, primarily in-lesson, are also deployed to ensure that students
at least meet their targets. For example, all subjects have access to a Subject
Specialist Learning Support Assistant and additional timetabled teacher
intervention is provided for core subjects.
Pupil Premium
students are further supported via the Progress Support Group, consisting of a
Senior Leadership Team member, Year Leader, SENDCo and Education Support
Worker. The Progress Support Group use the tracking data to highlight students
at risk of underperforming and then plan and implement the aforementioned
impactful actions to reduce the risk of underperformance. For example, a
student and their family may be enrolled in the Parent Engagement programme,
where a Learning Support Assistant will mentor the student and work closely
with the family to enable them to provide additional support for their son /
daughter outside of school. Another example of the work of the Progress Support
Group is where students exhibit more extreme complexities, for example persistently
low attendance. The Education Support Worker is deployed to visit this small
number of students and take the learning to their homes. The goal of this work
is to eventually reintegrate the student into the mainstream school setting.
As well as
the incessant focus on the quality of teaching and learning for students for
whom the Pupil Premium provides support, via the planning and delivery of
engaging lessons, the Academy offers subsidised enrichment activities,
including outward bound residentials and trips abroad to France and Spain, for
example. The Academy believes that these experiences enrich the lives of
students and that all students should have the opportunity to experience them,
thereby ensuring in a proudly inclusive environment that all students ‘enjoy’,
attend and achieve. Through varied enrichment activities and a focus on
personalised academic achievement, students are prepared for appropriate
post-16 pathways and ultimately fulfil our mission of ‘learning for
employability.’
The Cashless
Catering system in the canteen removes any perceived stigma in taking up the
offer of a free breakfast, provided for every Pupil Premium student, which
ensures that students start the day in a friendly environment and arrive in
lessons ready to learn.
Through every
aspect of Academy life, the Senior Leadership Team, Subject Areas and Support
Staff ask themselves:
-
Will this initiative, activity, event, for
example, enrich the lives of our students?
-
Will it improve their life chances?
These
questions are asked in conjunction with:
-
Will this work for Pupil Premium students and,
if not, can Pupil Premium funding be used to make it work for them?
Decisions are
run through the Pupil Premium filter. By inculcating this culture across all
year groups, Pupil Premium students are not at all stigmatised and thus ‘buy
in’ more readily.
Impact
The impact of
the strategy is evidenced by the Academy’s continued academic success, which
would not be possible without the strong underpinning principle that students:
enjoy their time at the Academy; attend and achieve outstanding results; move
on to appropriate post-16 pathways and ultimately lead fulfilling lives. In
terms of end of Key Stage 4 results, students for whom the Pupil Premium
provides support progressed at an above average rate when compared to all students nationally using the Progress 8 calculation in 2016 and in line
with all students nationally for
2017, using the Progress 8 calculation. Students for whom the Pupil Premium
provides support consistently perform considerably higher than Pupil Premium
students nationally, using the Progress 8 calculation.
What next for your Pupil Premium
Strategy?
The 2017 Year
11 results have been forensically analysed by Subject Leaders and their teams.
Findings from this analysis form part of their Subject Improvement Plans, which
feed Performance Management. Every teacher has a Pupil Premium progress target
written into their Performance Management. With the majority of subjects
delivering the reformed 9-1 GCSEs to Year 11 for the first time this year,
cognisance has been paid to learning the lessons from the new English and Maths
9-1 GCSEs, which were assessed for the first time in 2017. Ensuring all
students are successful with the reformed 9-1 GCSEs, therefore including Pupil
Premium students, is a priority for all subject areas. The ‘tougher’ GCSEs
provide new challenges for all students and particularly those Pupil Premium
students where motivation can occasionally prove problematic. Maintaining
motivation and resolving the real or perceived barriers to learning is now even
more important. As ever, Pupil Premium students will continue to be seen as
individuals and the Academy will continue to deploy a number of strategies
tailored to meet their individual needs in order to continue to increase their
engagement.
How are you sharing your good practice?
The Academy
engages in the Cheshire West and Chester Pupil Premium Leaders group and regularly
shares good practice through it. The
Academy is also delivering a presentation to the Cheshire West and Chester
Association of Headteachers, followed be a question and answer session, in
November.
Winning the Award
The
achievement of our Pupil Premium students is a real team effort. It is achieved
by the day-in-day-out high quality teaching and learning in the classroom,
backed-up by high quality and dedicated support staff. Winning the award has
reinvigorated this team, reflecting that truism ‘success breeds success’, by
providing further validation that our approach to supporting Pupil Premium
students is making an impact.
Get in touch
Please
contact Mr Matthew Snelson, Vice Principal: msnelson@leftwichhigh.com