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“Raising Standards, Transforming Lives”. Overview Our school in context Our project Overcoming challenges Impact: Outcomes for our students Outcomes for our school community. Our School in Context Bellshill Academy serves the Bellshill and Mossend areas of North Lanarkshire.
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Overview Our school in context Our project Overcoming challenges Impact: • Outcomes for our students • Outcomes for our school community
Our School in Context Bellshill Academy serves the Bellshill and Mossend areas of North Lanarkshire. Our wider community has a proud industrial heritage and our school is positioned at the heart of this community on the Main Street of Bellshill. Almost 40% of our young people live in the most deprived 20% of datazones across Scotland. Challenges: falling roll; low attainment; low aspirations; poor image – social and economic deprivation.
Our Vision To ‘raise standards and transform lives’ Key successes: • Through partnership working, we have significantly raised the profile of our school in the community. • Across the school community, our young people are more confident, self assured and aspirational. They are proud of their school. • Our staff are committed to school improvement and are supported by rigorous self-evaluation and improvement planning processes.
Our Project • Established a Pathfinder Team • Developed our Aim: • To increase attainment in S5 to 1(or better) at level 6 to 70% of target group by August 2014. • We decided to focus on this particular group as: • Currently this is the only measure that Bellshill Academy falls below its comparator schools. • Bellshill Academy is below the North Lanarkshire average in this measure. • Raising attainment is a priority in our School Improvement Plan. • Developed our Driver Diagram
Planning – Driver Diagram Theory about activity Theories about what drives leadership for QI for leadership for QI Aim Primary Drivers Secondary Drivers Change ideas Develop and test a study guide aimed at assisting parents Parental workshop Initial information sharing about new process for pupil support Regular contact with parents and 2 way feedback on pupil progress Support material for parental involvement in supporting pupil study Building relationships and increased communication and liaison between parents and school staff Parental Involvement & Engagement Develop and test approaches to implement monitoring/reporting Test approaches to: Identify and agree priority study topics Plan weekly mentoring Identify supported study opportunities Continuous review of weekly activity To increase attainment in S5 to 1 (or better) at level 6 to 70% of target group by August 2014 Shared pupil/teacher/parent responsibility for planning and achieving weekly targets Progress template to enable planning and progress reporting Standardised process to monitor pupil progress Promotion of supported study opportunities with parents and pupils. Mentoring planning for 1:1 pupil support. Increasing awareness of attendance statistics among teachers, pupils, parents. Continuous monitoring and sharing data -school attendance and study attendance. Test approaches to increase pupil engagement in school activities: Identify and agree supported study plan on weekly progress template. Mentoring review including individual attendance at and in supported study sessions. High levels of attendance at school & increased engagement in supported study All teaching teams are informed and fully Aware of initial testing work Displaying data and stories of activity for Discussion and awareness Increase teacher involvement as testing Spreads to more pupils Information sharing at staff meeting Test as standing agenda item Quality Improvement board displayed In staff area to share project plan, run charts, survey results etc. Staff Involvement & Engagement
Documents used in testing • Pupil Progress Report • PDSA Sheets • Pupil and Teacher Evaluations • Study Skills Pack for Parents
Pupil Progress Report Progress Report
Tests carried out • The Pupil Progress Report was tested initially with 1 pupil. The project was scaled up to 5 pupils and then to 10 pupils. • Pupils engaged fully in the process and provided extremely informative and positive feedback. • Parents tested the Progress Report. • 10 Teachers tested the Pupil Progress Report, which was aimed at standardising the process teachers use to monitor pupil progress. • The Pupil Progress Report was tested and amended throughout the 2 cycles following feedback from pupils, parents and teachers. • Parents tested the Study Skills booklet. The response from the parents was exceptionally positive.
How did we know change was an Improvement? • The number of Highers our pupils achieved. (SQA Exam Results) • The number of Highers pupils were on track for in comparison to the predicted number of Highers based on individual UPS. (Pupil Tracking) • S5 Attendance rate. (Attendance Figures) • The percentage of students involved who complete a progress report each week. (Percentage Compliance Data) • Attendance rate at supported study sessions. (Supported Study Registers) • Percentage of students in the population receiving 1:1 mentoring sessions as planned. (Mentoring Registers) • Survey of personal pupil progress. (Pupil Evaluations) • Survey of parental satisfaction related to information sharing and engagement. (Parent Evaluations) • Survey of teachers related to experience of using the Progress Report. (Teacher Evaluations) • Number of teaching staff actively involved in mentoring/establishing progress reporting systems with students and parents. (Teacher Evaluations/Progress Reports)
Our Challenges • Resources – especially staff cover • Time • Staff and Student commitment/participation • Parent commitment When parents and schools work together, our young people do better.
Impact Anticipated outcomes for our students • To improve overall % of 1+ Higher awards • 5 students were in the original group • There were 26 pupils in our wider target 1+ Higher group • Our target was to increase attainment in S5 to 1 (or better) at level 6 to 70% of the target group by August 2014
4 out of 5 of the original group achieved 1 Higher • More than 70% of our wider target group of 26 achieved 1 Higher • Best ever whole school performance at 1 Higher
Significant improvement in S4 results with students using mentoring approach based on improvement science methodology.
“The Pathfinder lets me and my parents know how I am doing in school and what they can do to help me if I need it. It has also helped me focus in class. This will help improve my grades and allow me to achieve my dream of becoming a Paramedic.” (Katie Jamieson) “I feel much more involved helping my daughter with her school work. We have worked on mind mapping together and organised her study area at home. Now I can really help and support her through her exams.” David Jamieson (Parent)
Impact – whole school community • This session the project, based on student mentoring, has been rolled out to involve a larger number of pupils and teachers. All of S4-6 are involved (300 students, included in SIP) • Parents have attend Study Skills workshops led by our Home School Partnership Officer. (Included in School Calendar) • Parent Council have established a Parent Working Group and on line Parent Forum to support parents of students in S4 - 6. • Our Tutor Time programme, Lifeskills, has incorporated the Pupil Progress sheet, based on pupil self evaluation. This is currently being piloted with S4. • The Improvement Science methodology is currently being used in another whole school project aimed at improving learning experiences in the classroom. (Included in SIP)
Moving Forward – Next Steps • Our aims this session: • 60% of the S5 cohort capable of achieving 3+ Highers will achieve this target by August 2015. • 26% of the S4 cohort achieve 5+ National 5 awards by August 2015. • Pupil Monitoring and Tracking. • Study group mentoring programme. • Data Analysis. • Testing • Partnership working – Parental engagement/improved communication.
