Agenda item

Sue Beauchamp (Head Teacher, Two Bridges Pupil Referral Unit (PRU)) was in attendance for this item.

The Chair welcomed Sue to the Committee and declared an interest as her grandchild attended a Pupil Referral Unit. 

Sue began by explaining that she was the Head Teacher of Two Bridges Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) which served Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells and South Sevenoaks; she had previously been a Senior Leader in three secondary schools in London and the North West Kent PRU.  She reported that she had been the Head Teacher of the Two Bridges PRU since 2014 and had brought together Key Stages 3 & 4 and moved the unit to a temporary and then permanent purpose-built site which was fit for purpose and made the students feel valued.

She stated that Two Bridges ran a primary intervention programme for students in Key Stage 1 & 2 across 75 primary schools which the unit charged for. Two Bridges also supported all local secondary schools and worked with Key Stage 3 students, who spent 14 weeks at the unit, before reintegrating to mainstream school which the unit did not charge for. The school also supported up to 40 Key Stage 4 students in Years 10 & 11 whilst they completed their GCSEs before transitioning to college or apprenticeships; the unit invoiced the schools of the Key Stage 4 students for the £575 and £900 Pupil Premium. The unit had an average of 105 – 110 students over the academic year but only had 60 students on dual roll at any one time.

Q – If a student is eligible for pupil premium, does the unit receive it directly?

Sue explained that the unit had a dual roll with the school from which the student had been referred from. The school received the pupil premium funding and the unit invoiced the school.

Q – How do you spend the pupil premium?

Sue reported that 47% of students were eligible for Free School Meals; from the students who attracted pupil premium funding, the unit received approximately £12,000 a year. She provided the Committee with a report which detailed the interventions to support pupil premium students. The interventions included:

§  the use of the pastoral manager to provide additional tutoring and transition support;

§  the provision of attendance support to help students settle in by collecting them from home during their induction period and providing early morning calls;

§  the use of Alfiesoft to identify gaps in learning on arrival to the unit

§  the use of resources to support SEND students;

§  the purchase of sports equipment and food tech resources to promote a healthy lifestyle;

§  visits to socially related experiences such as the Globe Theatre London, Tonbridge castle, Art Galleries and most recently Tonbridge School for a Harry Potter experience.

Sue stated that in terms of impact, the provision of attendance support and engagement with students and their families had improved the attendance of Free School Meals students from 67-70% in a mainstream school to over 80% in the unit; the unit’s overall attendance had been 90.2% in the previous academic year. She reported that all Year 11 students in the previous academic year had moved onto a college or apprenticeship after completing their GCSEs with the unit. She noted that 88% of students received 5 passes in GCSEs grades A –G. The unit was working to reduce the attainment gap between its students and their mainstream peers; there was currently a two grade gap but the unit was aiming to reduce it to 1.5 by the end of the year and ambitiously down to a single grade gap going forward.

Q – Do you use the pupil premium funding as a whole?

Sue explained that if the funding was used as a whole and allocated proportionally. If the unit bought a resource used by all students and 40% of those students attracted pupil premium funding then 40% of the cost of the resource would be paid through the pupil premium funding. She noted that there was a risk of missing opportunities or not achieving best value if the funding was individually targeted.

Q – Should the criteria for Free School Meals be broadened?

Sue stated that the students of families who did not quite qualify for Free School Meals were the most challenging; often one or both of the parents/stepparents were in work and had minimal contact with the student. She reported that whilst it was difficult for the unit to develop a relationship with these parents, staff were happy to meet them later in the day if more convenient. She noted that students from affluent families where both parents worked long hours, and were not always available to support them, faced similar difficulties.

Q – How do you support your students to get them into college or apprenticeships?

Sue noted that in addition to the strategies outlined in the pack, students used the Lexia programme to improve their reading skills; students required a reading age of 14 for GCSEs. The programme demonstrated to students that by doing tasks little and often made a difference to their learning. Students grades improved from 1-3 to 5 which enable them then to go onto college.  Sue explained that all the courses that students do at Two Bridges School have a pathway into college.  She would not allow a course to go ahead if it does not have both progression and transition possibilities into college or work.

Q – Are schools doing enough to support students to stay in mainstream education?

Sue highlighted the West Kent Learning Federation which provided a positive forum for schools to discuss potential referrals and creative ways of making learning engaging for students. She noted that the unit’s primary outreach programme had been very successful and enabled school staff to implement effective strategies, such as Forest School, within their own mainstream schools.

Sue noted that when she first started at Two Bridges, there was only one female student in Key Stage 4 in comparison to 45 boys; 40% of the students are now girls.

She stated that schools were invited to come and visit the unit and see the interventions provided which had resulted in an improvement to the referrals made by Head Teachers.  In addition the mainstream schools are represented on the management committee of Two Bridges which ensures the school understand which students are most appropriate to refer for this support.

Q – What issues bring students from grammar schools to the unit?

Sue explained that students from grammar schools were high ability but often had drug, rather than family, issues. The unit worked with charities such as the Kenward Trust and Addaction to support them and, where appropriate, encourage students to make a contract with the unit about their drug usage.

Q – Do you work with Challenger Troop?

Sue stated that the unit had previously worked with Challenger Troop but had decided to end the contract as the military ethos did not always work with students especially where Primary Head Teachers had identified that the military ethos could not be applied in their schools.

Q - How do you support students to transition?

Sue reported that staff help students to find a course and assist them with their application form. The unit only provided subjects which had a pathway for further study at college such as food tech, sport and small animal care. Most Year 11 students left with 5 – 7 GSCEs. and all had September guarentees and took up those places.

Q - How have you made your school outstanding?

Sue noted that an Ofsted inspection was due; in advance of this the unit’s management team had confirmed her judgement that the unit was outstanding. She gave three key reasons for this judgement. The first was her passion and drive for improvement. The second was the staff who were the most hardworking that she had ever worked with; candidates were invited to a trial day at the unit before being invited to interview. Thirdly the premises were fit for purpose and created a welcoming environment for students.

Q – What can KCC do to improve the effectiveness of the pupil premium?

Sue highlighted a successful scheme whereby new teachers from Bennett and Mascalls Schools visited the unit for the day which had been positively received; it made staff aware of the unit and challenged their preconceptions. She stated that it was important that interventions to enable children to remain in school should be built into training programmes. She noted the societal impact of students going onto college and the work market. 

She suggested that KCC should open up apprenticeships specifically for pupil premium students; it was even more difficult for students who had not followed a traditional education path to access these. She noted that she had employed a former student to work with younger students before they started an apprenticeship.  She reported that the unit helped students prepare for work experience and apprenticeships by providing clothes or information about what to wear and taking them on visits in advance so that they knew where to go.

Q – How do you encourage schools, particularly academies, not to make inappropriate referrals?

Sue stated the importance of schools working together in a forum to consider referrals and carrying out strategic planning. She noted that her staff were working with the pastoral team at Hayesbrook School to suggest interventions to be implemented and tested over six –eight weeks before a referral was considered. She noted that a number of areas, such as Swale and Maidstone, had moved away from such collaborative forums to a different system where each school was allocated a number of places at a PRU each year and allocated students to these places as and when they felt appropriate.