Newlands Girls School Achievement for All

1. Newlands Girls School Achievement for All Miss W. Bennett 2012

2. At Newlands I chose to focus on: • Making every pupil part of the school community. • Helping our pupils aspire to achieve higher than their targets. • Working with parents to create a positive learning environment. “How well do pupils make progress relative to their starting points;how well are gaps narrowing between the performance of different groups of pupils at Newlands compared to all pupils nationally.” Miss W. Bennett 2012

3. Make every pupil part of the school community. • 50 % of FSM pupils appeared as causes for concern in the following categories: • Attendance • Achievement in reports • Effort in reports. • To combat this parents were contacted then I set personal attendance challenges rewarding with hot chocolate in the morning or a chocolate bar as well as motivational praise. • To achieve higher in reports they were given a chance to come on a reward trip to the cinema which 38% of the FSM group attended. Others are mentored by either, myself or matched with sixth form pupils. • To improve effort I have taken the time to get to know why they are not working well in some lessons. This is due to confidence and insecurity with the subject which we are now improving with parents and staff. • As a school we have an Extended Services Co-Ordinator who offers FSM pupils free activity passes to The Magnet, Urban strides, Horse riding, Longridge activities, music lesson, Hair and beauty courses. • This was not popular at the start of the year because letters were sent home and not read. So I met with the girls and talked them through the activities. Now every pupil takes part in one of the above mentioned activities. • Pupils were offered Team building with myself and a PE teacher, self esteem groups with an outside agency and 1:1 mentoring. • Next steps: Mentoring, analysis of achievement, analysis of attendance, continued communication with parents. Miss W. Bennett 2012

4. Helping our pupils aspire to achieve higher than their targets. In Y10 all pupils targeted an A and not achieving or targeted a B and not achieving it are being helped as part of a research group. The research group is made up of a team of eight staff from a range of subject areas. Pupils have been given a questionnaire asking why they feel they are not achieving higher. Next steps: The answers from the questionnaire will be analysed and pupils helped achieve their targets and beyond. In Y11 I have two groups that are achieving or over achieving their target. This is because I know each pupil individually and speak to everyone every lesson. They are comfortable to tell me if they have an issues in the lesson or outside of the lesson. If I can help them I will for example by offering my time, help and support with ingredients. I set them clear and manageable deadlines which I help them achieve by spending time after school helping them if they need it. Regular contact is made with parents. Pupils come back after school willingly to do more work. Next steps: Mentoring pupils. Miss W. Bennett 2012

5. Working with parents to create a positive learning environment. After analysing the reports the girls with the most concerns have parents that work long hours or are separated or have a low income. I have started mentoring three girls with the above concerns to see if I can see if I can make a difference. The plan: I speak to parents on a regular basis about positive and negative work and or situations at school. Every girl sees me at the start and the end of everyday and they tell me how they have got on during that day. Teachers of the girls give me regular feedback as to how they are doing. The success story: Girl 1 has now got 88% attendance which is the highest it has ever been. Her teachers are telling me how well she is doing. Girl 2 has achieved a postcard home from Geography which was one of her worst subjects Girl 3 has completed a week of excellent and good grades whilst on report. Next steps: To not be on the cause for concern list following the reports next month. Miss W. Bennett 2012