‘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

Catchup learning following lost learning due to the pandemic

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

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

PA reduced for target groups of pupil

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Increased teaching provision in y4 & 6

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

1 &  2 

Further embed Character education and specific activities that engage our children in this type of learning and development 

A focus on metacognition and self-regulation which helps pupils think about their own learning more explicitly, teaching them specific strategies to plan, monitor and evaluate their own learning. (EEF) 

2 /3 & 6

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

Tutoring 

This offers intensive individual support (EEF)

1 / 2 & 7

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

Total cost £80,802

The increased teacher: pupil ratio for years 3/5 & 6 to enable catchup after lock down (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.

Total cost - £5000

The CJ programme has been hugely successful. The children have thoroughly enjoyed working with a Commando and developing a wide range of skills. The children have developed their abilities to work as part of a team and to cooperate. They have learnt how to compromise, share ideas and problem solve. The children have also developed greater resilience and determination. 

The staff have had the programme modelled and are now developing their skill in delivering this themselves for our children and are ready to embed this further in the year ahead.

Total cost - £40000

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.

FS2 led a number of workshops and 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 Tapestry profile.

Y1 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 88% achieving the expected grade, with the remaining 12% achieving well and in grasp of this standard in the year ahead.

Y2 workshops focussed on end of year expectations and how parents can support home learning. This too saw an increase in parental support of learning and a positive impact on overall achievements.

Y4 led workshops predominantly around the times table check. Parents actively practised with their children and 42% achieved above 20 in the screening.

Total cost - £68,764

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

Y1 phonics intervention has ensured that 88% achieved at the expected level, an increase on last year of 13%

Y2 phonics intervention has ensured that 83% achieved he expected level, an increase of 43% on last year

Y2 interventions for reading, writing and maths have run all year for target pupils. 

For target pupils 67% achieved ARE in reading, 23% for writing and 100% for maths.

 Overall as a year group 75% achieved the expected standard in reading, above the national figure of 69%, in writing 57% compared to the national figure of 61% and in maths 74% compared to the national figure of 72%. 

98 % made expected or better progress in reading, 91% made expected or better progress in writing and 93% made expected or better progress in maths.

Y3 interventions ensured that 93% made expected or better progress in reading, 73% made expected or better progress in writing and 90% made expected or better progress in maths. However a focus on phonics continues to be needed with 2/11 meeting the expected standard of the screening resit.

Total cost - £12,000

Speech and language provision is in place for 76 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.

Total cost - £5000

Tutoring

41 pupils in y3 & 4 have participated in 1:1 or small group tutoring after school. The focus of these sessions was reading fluency and comprehension, writing composition and spelling and maths. This has resulted in accelerated progress for all children therefore closing the gap on age related expectations, with 17 children making excellent progress to achieve ARE.

Total cost - £5000

Booster groups were run after school reading and maths in y2 and 6.

The impact was seen in statutory returns for 2 & 6. Y6 achieved inline or above in all areas and y2 were above for reading and maths and just below for writing.

Total cost - £1000

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.

Total cost - £15000

Enhancement opportunities – 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.

Total cost - £1520

Supported childcare places before and after school were provided to 4 families, enabling those children to have a settled start to the day, improved attendance and a greater sense of well-being.

Total cost - £500

Attendance improvement including meetings and rewards. 11 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. 5 classes achieved above 95% and 4 classes achieved above 94%. The rest were all above 92%.

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.  This will be a continued focus for the year ahead. 

Total income - £241,450

Total expenditure - £234,566

Balance - £6,884