1. Bishop Challoner Federation of Schools

2. At a time of growing school autonomy, the success of the London Challenge shows the huge benefits of collaboration and federation. Making collaboration work for you. Networking and humility: openness to change. What is your setting? “BCG analysis shows that Pupil Premium target pupils are predominantly urban.”

3. “The ideas of how to use the additional pupil premium funding is no secretive treasure trove of goodies: it is, at its core, the central work we see in any school improvement programme.” “Thus, getting the best value for money and most impact on the target pupils will involve honest, persistent & rigorous line management alongside reviewing how your management structure works.”

4. Local authorities with highest child poverty levels Tower Hamlets, 52% Islington, 43% Manchester, 40% Hackney, 39% Westminster, 38%

5. Happily Caught between The City & Canary Wharf: Lesson One – use who you have around you ruthlessly

6. We have used the Pupil Premium funding to generate more incoming matched funding from businesses in both The City and Canary Wharf Use what you have around you to impact on pupil aspirations – but not pipe-dreams. Employ someone to help set up long-term partnerships for pupils.

8.  Social class has a strong influence on the achievement of children at age 5. The gap between the most disadvantaged children and the rest begins from as early as 22 months. By the end of the Foundation Stage, the low ability children from high socio-economic groups have overtaken the high ability children from lower socio-economic groups. (Feinstein 2003)  The Millennium Cohort Study found that at the age of 5 children from the most advantaged groups were over a year ahead in vocabulary compared to those from disadvantaged backgrounds (Hansen and Joshi 2007).  And a previous study found that by the age of 3, children from privileged families have heard 30 million more words than children from underprivileged backgrounds. (Hart and Riseley 2003)  What parents do is more important than who parents are. Parental interest in their child’s education has four times more influence on attainment by age 16 than socio-economic background (Feinstein and Symons 1999).  And parental involvement in their child’s reading has been found to be the most important determinant of language and emergent literacy. (National Literacy Trust 2007)

11. …generations of low and middle-income young people will miss out unless we do more to close the educational attainment gap… For reasons of economic progress, we need a second wave of mobility. But, more than that, this is a question of basic justice. A talent unfulfilled is not just an opportunity cost. It is an opportunity lost. (Alan Milburn MP, chair of the Government’s panel on social mobility, July 2009)

12.  Children entitled to free school meals (FSM) encompass the full spectrum of needs and backgrounds in the school community, including white and minority ethnic pupils, looked after children, gifted and talented (G&T) children and those with special educational needs (SEN).

13.  Each child in this diverse group is an individual; they need adults who take the time to understand and personalise provision, through quality first teaching (QFT), to help them to overcome barriers to learning through the systematic application of what works well.

14.  Many do well but too many do not; there is an urgent national priority to unlock the potential of these children and to narrow gaps between those entitled to FSM and their peers.

15. The Ofsted report Twelve outstanding secondary schools – excelling against the odds provides an important insight into further factors that can help to narrow gaps. ’The outstanding schools in the sample succeed for the following reasons: They excel at what they do, not just occasionally but for a high proportion of the time. They prove constantly that disadvantage need not be a barrier to achievement, that speaking English as an additional language can support academic success and that schools really can be learning communities. They put students first, invest in their staff and nurture their communities. They have strong values and high expectations that are applied consistently and never relaxed. They fulfil individual potential through providing outstanding teaching, rich opportunities for learning, and encouragement and support for each student. They are highly inclusive, having complete regard for the educational progress, personal development and well-being of every student. Their achievements do not happen by chance, but by highly reflective, carefully planned and implemented strategies which serve these schools well in meeting the many challenges which obstruct the path to success. They operate with a very high degree of internal consistency. They are constantly looking for ways to improve further. They have outstanding and well-distributed leadership.’1

20. FSM has particular value because it is a longstanding measure (its definition has barely changed over two decades); it is available at school as well as system level; it links objective and checked information about family income to the child’s full school record including attainment; and being binary, it focuses on a relatively small group, roughly the bottom 15% by family income. The weaknesses of FSM include the following: not all children eligible for FSM are registered accordingly, either for administrative reasons or reluctance of parents to claim; a few children are ineligible who are in fact equally poor; and there is variability in local practice concerning encouraging parental applications and in registering and recording eligibility. Acknowledging all these weaknesses, the Department’s view is that assessments based on FSM have a fairly high level of credibility, so long as it is remembered that FSM is a proxy for deprivation and not a definition of it. This means that, especially at school level, professionals within the education service should look also at the deprivation-related needs of a broader group of vulnerable children. This group should include most or all FSM children, but also others known or believed to be in comparable circumstances.

21. “Schools will be able to provide a wider, more engaging curriculum offer and will be able to access more specialist teaching through working together in partnership and sharing resources. And, similarly, pupils will benefit from school staff engaging in high quality collaborative professional development, which will enable them to extend and exchange expertise and effective practice, including strategies for narrowing gaps.”

22. Leadership for Impact [2009] BREAKING THE LINK between disadvantage and low attainment: EVERYONE’S BUSINESS [2009]

33. Cohort Value Added MeasureCohortIncludedShrinkageConfidence IntervalValue AddedUpper LimitLower LimitOutcome Best 81411270.93111.17 1021.6 1032.81010.4Significantly Above English1411270.9461.203 1001.8 10031000.6Significantly Above Mathematics1411270.9381.162 1001.8 10031000.6Significantly Above Science79650.9371.294 996.7 998995.4Significantly Below Humanities65510.8892.098 1001.7 1003.8999.6Not Significantly Different Languages58440.9222.147 1003.9 10061001.8Significantly Above

38. Using the Pupil Premium to making ‘raising aspiration’ work

40. A Federation that is on the cusp of ‘transformation’ after years of change. A Federation that is only now being to really grapple with what the implications of what that joining together means or can mean.

41. Percentage of students attaining 5+A* to C inc E/M. in 2013 79% gained 5+ including E/M, this is an increase of 12% since 2012

42. “The advent of the pupil premium has, for us, given impetus to face up to how we bring proper change to our federation not just glossing over the cracks or gaming the system.”

43. “The Pupil Premium, while not replacing the lost money & funding elsewhere, brings potentially greater accountability for what we do with everyone, not just the C/D borderline pupils. This is no more evident than how PP works alongside the new best8 progress measure.”

44. “The Pupil Premium nudged us to make strategic change in leadership structures, as well as changes in how we ‘do’ CPD and professional development; and in how widely we systematised our challenge and support networks for all pupils, not the most easy to move 20 or so pupils.”

45. Three Schools in One Location & Context UK’s first Federation [2001] Existing Girls’ School [rated good] New Boys’ School Latter replaced a failing and closed school

50.  Focus on improving teaching quality  Promote ethos of learning Use the federation to achieve standard operating procedures. Use the federation to ensure consistency of practice across our schools, and have shared professional development sessions.

51. Problem 1. Failure to attract and retain good teachers How are you responding? How did we respond?

52. “there is a strong view that poor standards of literacy are the biggest single factor leading to low attainment, with difficulties surrounding the transition between primary and secondary school also seen as very significant.”

53. Build a Reading Recovery Programme using:  Repeated filtering and testing of R.A./S.A./dyslexia…  Specialist Year 5/6 teachers  Ruth Miskin  Lexia  Systematic reading mentoring scheme  Vertical tutoring  University students

54.  More & better range of texts in the library  Better use of libraries …  Master classes in English and Maths taught by experts  Use of Pupil Premium to fund Kindle scheme for Boys’ School and Year 11 across the school  Use of Pupil Premium to fund a novel for each child in the school.

55. “a determination that every child will learn to read, together with a very rigorous and sequential approach to developing speaking and listening and teaching reading, writing and spelling through systematic phonics.”

56. Mirroring Mossbourne’s Year 7 dedicated building to facilitate transition arrangements from primary school. Our Year 7 have their own dedicated space in the first year of secondary education. This allows staff to focus intensely on the needs of the transferring year group and ensure that they do not have as much movement around the academy as other year groups. PP funding has meant smaller class sizes here.

57. We have, like many, built an intensive preparation scheme for our secondary school sharing specialist teaching in areas like sport &PE, music, literacy, languages and science with primary pupils… Our Year 7 playground provides much needed stability at a time when many pupils see their learning suffer and ‘big school’ traumatic.

58. A dedicated non-teacher year leader for Year 7 Pupil Premium Transition Summer School Extended taster weeks around themes such as:  Creative writing masterclass  Parent and child food club  Barbican Young Film Producers  Wigmore Hall Project  Cambridge Chorister Scheme  Prefect system  Sports Leaders into Primary Schools  Meet the Head visits to Primaries.  TweetCamp for teachers

59. “Sutton Trust has shown that English schools could improve their low position in international league tables in Reading and Mathematics and become one of the top five education performers in the world within ten years if the performance of the country’s least effective teachers was brought up to the national average.” “A review of evidence by education economists at the London School of Economics and Stanford University showed that for poor pupils, in particular, the difference between having a highly effective teacher and a poorly performing teacher is a whole year’s learning.27 So, spreading effective practice is essential.” What would be the impact of appointment of super-numeracy professional leaders of learning in Mathematics, Science & English? Can you do it?

60. “Half of teachers said that any new initiatives would have most impact if they focused on improving literacy and numeracy. They rated this much higher than, for example, social and emotional aspects of learning or any other curriculum subjects” Problem 2. What could you do? What did we do? Downsized a substantial internal counselling service: time spent focusing on increasing teacher quality

61. …in-school variation – differences in standards between departments within schools – is often greater than the variation between schools. As Federation this is our greatest problem to address…the girls’ school has the best teaching and the best teachers. How to change this?

62. Personalised CPD – pilot project with TDT Teach First – Sutton Trust/EEF research has found that “benefit is greater where there are more Teach First teachers.” Can we unpick this? Why? Suspect correlation not causation, but…

63.  Strong careers advice and guidance  Inspiring the Future/Speakers for Schools  The virtual portal – text messaging if late for lesson  Beginning a PFA; Summer Fun Day, Parental Literacy and Numeracy classes; ICT & enterprise courses Why? “fewer conduct or peer problems, were more attentive at school and were more likely to behave well”.

64.  10% of GCSE-level FSM students are hard core truants  Mobility and erratic returns home to South America, Eastern Europe or Asian – huge impact on target group at GCSE

65. The more FSM pupils you have the fewer aspirational pupils and parents you have and ultimately the fewer cultural architects you have in your school. The more FSM pupils you have the more funding a school receives, but not exponentially so….what does this mean for you when the FSM pupils bring deeper and more complex problems.

67.  Complex evidence- no clear link with class size and achievement  Experimental trials suggest  Classes need to be less than 17  And teachers need to change the way they teach  But teaching assistants NOT as effective  The maths:  £430 x 20 pupils x 3 classes = £25,800  70%+ on fsm = 1 extra teacher per 3 classes  Class size reduction from 30 to 23

68. Overview of value for money Cost per pupil Effect Size (months gain) £0£0 0 10 £1000 Feedback Meta-cognitive Peer tutoring Pre-school 1-1 tutoring Homework ICT AfL Parental involvement Sports Summer schools After school Individualised learning Learning styles Arts Performance pay Teaching assistants Smaller classes Ability grouping Promising May be worth it Not worth it

69. Teacher provides the best ‘leverage’ in the system Implications for the teacher’s role in learning from this dataset Central importance of feedback to learners and to the teacher (formative feedback) Active role for the teacher Assessment and feedback tools to support teachers in moving students on

70. Clear learning intentions Challenging success criteria Range of learning strategies Know when students are not progressing Providing feedback Actively learn themselves

71. It is a new landscape out there, but… What won’t go away is the Pupil Premium which has broad political appeal and for schools like ours it will mean upwards of £1.5 million in additional funding by 2015 so we need to get it right. A huge amount. Make it central to all you do: but use the funding to lead you to help all teachers and all pupils to improve.