‘I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will have the light of life’  John 8:12

The Purpose of our school is to educate each child to develop and achieve their potential within a caring, Catholic community, governed by Gospel values.

Our ultimate objective is to ensure equality of opportunity for all of our children. To enable each child to know that they have a unique contribution to make to our school and the wider community and that despite barriers and challenges, they can achieve their goals and succeed in life. 

This plan identifies key priorities for action this year, it will provide vital support and intervention to combat particular barriers and ensure greater equality for all.

The key principles that underpin this plan are:

• respect for human dignity
• open and honest communication
• pursuit of excellence
• self-belief, self-confidence and self-esteem

Challenge number

Detail of challenge 

1

Readiness for school - on entry and daily

2

Limited communication, oral language skills and a limited range of vocabulary 

3

Limited first hand experiences

4

SEN needs: - High needs across all year groups particularly for speech and language

5

Access to good quality resources for families to support home learning effectively 

6

Limited resilience and self-regulation amongst groups of pupils

7

Parental engagement due to language barriers, knowledge of strategies and attendance

Intended outcome

Success criteria

Raised baseline profile on entry to school.

Children are socially, emotionally and academically more ready to start in school.

To diminish the gap for all children, on peers and against ARE

Accelerated progress, personalised learning plans, increased engagement, improved outcomes

Equal access to opportunities of enhancement, engagement and resources

Parental engagement in learning, resources to support and enable learning at home, improved attendance, improved range of first hand experiences, access to uniform

Improved language acquisition

Specific Speech and language needs addressed resulting in improved communication and engagement. Improved vocabulary and improved outcomes in reading and writing.

Improved self-regulation and increased ability to independently learn

Independent learning, resilience and determination

Improved attendance and a reduction in PA in FS

PA reduced for target groups of pupil

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Increased teaching provision in y6

Increased teacher pupil ratio enabling a greater opportunity and frequency for reading comprehension (EEF) and improved feedback (EEF)

1 &  2 

Increased teaching provision in FS

 1, 2 & 4 

Increased parental engagement opportunities and resources

To provide opportunities for parents to work alongside staff and their children to develop their confidence and skill in hearing their children read.

Involvement of parents on site in learning activities.

The offer of parent workshops.

1 /2 /5 & 7

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Intervention groups

Small groups, increased participation (EEF)

1 / 2 & 7

Speech and language provision

Oral language interventions emphasise the importance of spoken language and verbal interaction. It enables explicit discussion of content or processes of learning, or both. (EFF)

1 / 2 & 4

Booster groups

Collaborative learning involves pupils working together in small groups to ensure full participation of all. (EEF)

1 / 2 & 7

Class based workshops for parents, offering the opportunity to work first hand with staff and their children on specific learning activities and strategies, using resources that can then be used at home to further learning.

Increased parental engagement (EEF)

1 /2 /3 /5 & 7

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Enhancement opportunities – trips/visits/visitors 

Sports participation / Social and emotional learning / Outdoor adventure learning (EEF) – all of these have a positive impact on self-confidence, self-efficacy and motivation.

1 / 3

Supported childcare places before and after school

Social and emotional learning opportunities (EEF) this improves pupil interaction and self-management of emotions.

1 / 2 / 6

Attendance improvement - meetings, rewards

No specific EEF evidence, but absence means non engagement 

1 & 6

Purchase of uniform

Each FS child provided with a sweatshirt, plus spares in school

5

Action/Tasks undertaken and outcome

Cost

The increased teacher: pupil ratio for year 6 of an additional teacher each day for half a day has proven to be most successful. It has enabled personalised learning, greater differentiation, targeted teaching and learning, increased access to the curriculum and narrowed the gap in core areas for learning, reducing it for target children to within a term or closed completely to be back on track and leaving for high school in the best way possible both academically and with high self-esteem and confidence.

The additional teaching provision in FS2 has increased the teacher:pupil ratio, accelerating progress for the vast majority by ensuring tailored and personalised learning to be put in place.

£38521.17 (SJ&DH)

(AM)£34034.06

£72555.23

staffing

Increased parental engagement opportunities and resources have been provided by enabling staff to be released from class to meet and lead workshops. Uptake has been pleasing, but we need to continue to encourage parents to participate. The best attended sessions were those that had a demonstration and instruction for parents, followed by the children joining their parents to then work together with the support of the staff.

FS1 held stay and play sessions, the focus was mark making where activities were shared then resources were handed out for parents to take home and use.

FS2 led a number of workshops including early reading and writing, use of dojo and learning profiles. Parents found these to be really useful. The impact has been seen in the increased amount of home learning and an increased contribution by parents to their child’s learning profile.

Y1 ran topic based workshops to share with parents how children will be learning in y1 and the curriculum expectations that are in place for the year. Parents found this valuable and appreciated how it set the scene for the year ahead. In addition, phonics workshops enabled parents to see how the screening works and what they needed to reinforce at home. The outcomes at screening are very pleasing with xx% achieving the expected grade, with the remaining xx% achieving well and in grasp of this standard in the year ahead.

 Y4 led workshops predominantly around the times table check. Parents actively practised with their children and xx% achieved above 20 in the screening.

Y5 Advent and Lenten workshops were very well attended and enjoyed by parents and the children. This focus on our faith in a practical and sociable workshop is a very effective way of working together.

Y6 SATS information meetings provided parents with clarity about the process, the papers and how data would be used. 

£1000

Intervention groups were run across a number of year groups with a focus on increased fluency, phonics, editing of writing and number mastery. 

113,585.10

Speech and language provision is in place for 74 pupils across school. The children receive regular reviews of their programmes and are in receipt of weekly (some daily) sessions with dedicated staff. The result of this is increased confidence, raised self-esteem, increased willingness to actively participate in class discussions, improved reading fluency and comprehension,  improved writing composition and improved phonics/spelling scores.

£10,142.98

Booster groups were run after school reading and maths in  6.

The impact was seen in statutory returns for y 6. Y6 achieved above national in all areas. 

£5000

Class based workshops for parents, offering the opportunity to work first hand with staff and their children on specific learning activities and strategies, using resources that can then be used at home to further learning.

£1200

Enhancement opportunities – buses/ trips/visits/visitors  - all pupils benefitted from enhanced opportunities across the year. The children were more engaged in their learning, had increased opportunities to talk and write for a purpose and therefore achieved more highly within these areas. This pot was doubled from the original plan due to the increased cost of living and the need to support our families in paying for opportunities for their children.

£15000

Supported childcare places before and after school were provided to 5 families, enabling those children to have a settled start to the day, improved attendance and a greater sense of well-being.

£1520

Attendance improvement including meetings and rewards. 5 targeted children this academic year have worked with the AIO. All have made some progress but continue to need support and intervention. Each class teacher has focused on improving overall attendance for their class. 3 year groups achieved above 95% and 3 year groups achieved above 94%. FS were at or below 92% slightly down on the year before, this is a result of a range of complex needs. 

PA has not changed overall, but individual children have come out of this category and others dropped in as circumstances have changed. However, PA was lower than National last year demonstrating a positive improvement.  

£6174

The provision of school sweatshirts for all children in FS has helped families, ensured children are appropriately dressed and are recognisably part of our school.

£1200

Total income

£236,884

Total expenditure

£227,377.31

Balance

£9,506.69