How a London primary school is ensuring pupils reach their potential
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Tough measures have seen attainment and attendance improve at All Souls Church of England Primary School
Setting All Souls Church of England Primary School
Funding The school’s current budget allocation is around £830,000 a year
Purpose To ensure children reach their potential and improve teaching and attendance
Background All Souls Primary School in the London Borough of Westminster has 180 pupils. Of these, 83 per cent are from ethnic minority groups and 70 per cent have English as a second language. The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities is above average with 25 per cent registered as having special educational needs. A quarter are eligible for free school meals.
In 2007 the school was given an official notice to improve by Ofsted. The inspectorate identified three areas in urgent need of attention: attendance was at 89 per cent; SAT results were average with pupils not making progress year-on-year; and there were issues with the quality of teaching.
"Some children were just working at a level they could achieve quite easily without being pushed," explains head teacher Alix Ascough, who took over shortly before the critical report.
Action The school has worked closely with Westminster City Council’s education welfare team to support families, but has not shied away from tough measures including embarking on the Fast Track to Prosecution scheme for non-attendance. "It was about targeting those families whose attendance was very low and getting the message across that there were serious consequences," explains Ascough. The school has also clamped down on families taking children away during term time.
Alongside this, the school rewarded good attendance with an annual celebration event featuring awards for pupils and families. Pupils with 100 per cent attendance earn a platinum award with gold, silver and bronze for those with near-perfect records. The scheme has incentivised pupils, says Ascough: "Children don’t want to take time off because they want to get to platinum."
To ensure all children reach their full potential, the school introduced a more rigorous assessment system, which meant pupils’ progress was assessed three times each year with teachers and teaching assistants working together to identify those falling behind and in need of extra support. There was a range of help for children struggling with certain subjects including one-to-one support and group work.
The school also looked for creative ways to spark children’s interests in maths such as running a mini enterprise week, with pupils challenged to generate a return from a £25 investment.
When it came to addressing the quality of teaching, "difficult decisions" had to be made, says Ascough, and some poor-performing teachers had to go. School managers had to maintain the morale of remaining staff and ensure parents and governors were "on board". There was increased supervision of teaching to help boost standards, coupled with more mentoring and training.
Ascough says an emphasis on supporting staff and "working together" to solve problems has been the key to success. Staff have been encouraged to observe and learn from good practice in other schools, benefiting from schemes such as the lead teacher programme in Westminster. "Throughout all of this it has been about everyone working as a team," says Ascough.
Outcome In its most recent inspection in June 2011, Ofsted said the school was "rapidly narrowing the gap between performance in English" but particularly praised progress in maths.
In 2007, 72.4 per cent of pupils achieved Level 4 or above in their maths SATs tests, but by 2011 this was up to 92.2 per cent.
Attendance has continued to improve from 89 per cent when Ascough took over in 2007 to 91.3 by the end of the 2007/08 school year, rising again to 94.5 per cent in 2008/09 and maintained at 94.3 per cent in 2009/10. The most recent attendance figures for 2010/11 are yet to be published but latest figures are at 96 per cent.
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