Agenda item

Richard Hawkins (Headteacher, Green Park Community Primary School) was in attendance.

 

The Chair welcomed the guests to the Committee and a short introduction was given my Members.

 

Q – Please introduce yourself and provide an overview of the roles and responsibilities that your post involves.

 

Richard introduced himself as the Headteacher of Green Park Community Primary School, Dover. He said that the school was a 2 form entry school located on a large, deprived social-housing estate. He said that he took over the school when it was formed from the amalgamation of the Powell and Melbourne schools and was appointed to oversee the process. Richard also worked for Kent Leaders of Education (KLE), supporting other local primary schools and other Headteachers in their roles and worked with a national agency called PiXL (Partners in Excellence) and was a member of the PiXL Associate Team.

 

Q – In which area in Dover is the School based?

 

Richard said that the school was located in an area with large amount of social-housing and was the most deprived town in Dover.

 

 

 

Q – Could you explain the ‘Erasmus Plus’ project in more detail?

 

Richard said that the Erasmus Plus project was funded by British Councils and founded through the European Union. He said the project allowed Green Park Community Primary School to celebrate the growing diversity within schools and look at ways to engage and support migrant pupils with their integration into a new country and education system.

 

Q – Are there many children in the School where English is not their first language?

 

Richard explained that there were a much smaller number of migrant children at Green Park Community Primary School than there were in schools located closer to the Dover town, he said that roughly 10% of children in the school were migrant children. He added that it was not as big an issue for the school as it was located on an estate outside of the town, but said he thought it would be more of an issue for migrant children in schools that were closer to the town centre.

 

Q – What are the different languages spoken by migrant children at the School?

 

Richard said the majority of migrant children in the school were from Slovakia, Poland and Lithuania.

 

Q – Do language barriers make it difficult to engage with migrant children’s parents?

 

Richard said that the school tended to use other parents that speak the same language which can make this much easier.

 

Q – Since the Pupil Premium has been introduced, have there been any different results?

 

Richard said that when Green Park Community Primary School was formed in 2008, the Pupil Premium did not exist, and therefore understanding the children had been different to how perhaps the now older children were understood previously. Richard said that he did not agree with ‘labelling’ the children as ‘Pupil Premium Children’ and ‘Rich Children’ as the school did not have that diversity. He said that since the Pupil Premium was introduced, the school had consistently achieved outstanding results through Ofsted reports and in the last 3 years the outcomes for the Pupil Premium at the end of year 6 have become significantly above those without Pupil Premiums nationally.

 

 

Q – In your opinion, what do you think the 3 most significant strategies were that the School used to provide excellent results?

 

Richard said that the following 3 strategies used within the school had had the biggest impact:

 

1.         Providing additional support for children and work would be required in order to allow children to get the best results.

2.         Pupil Premium funding allowed the school to do things that wouldn’t have been possible without it, but said these things were only valuable if they sit in a bed of excellent quality first teaching and provision for those children.

3.         As a school, the issues around disadvantaged children needed to be understood as they were not simple; the school must have the ability to understand every child’s issue separately to be able to meet their needs individually.

 

Q – Is there any flexibility around including children into Pupil Premium that are not entitled but are disadvantaged at home?

 

Richard said that the school would not allow the Pupil Premium funding to be portioned equally to each child. He said that that would not be the best use of practice and that the school needed to assess where the needs were, why ways of teaching were not working for certain children and how best to meet those needs. He said that the school had identified that all of the children needed to be given additional opportunities’ whether they received Pupil Premium funding or not. The majority of the money spent was spent on excellent staff to be used well ensuring that the children had the best resources to enable them to learn. The school had made the decision to invest in an additional teacher for every phase; he said that the additional teachers were not just introduced for the Pupil Premium children, but to raise overall attainment for all children. He added that additional Teaching Assistants were invested in particularly in Early Years. He said that children needed to be engaged in school and that it was important to ensure they had the best start in life otherwise it could become difficult to re-engage the children.

 

Q – What issues do the School face around Recruiting staff?

 

Richard said that recruitment issues were difficult nationally. He said that there were not many people keen to start a career in teaching. He said that the school had Teaching Assistants who had the desire to be Teachers and therefore were funded to complete foundation degrees and do on-the-job training. He said that the school welcomed keen school leavers who wanted to pursue a career in teaching. The school worked hard to ensure that there was always a member of staff available to fill gaps when a staff member left to ensure minimal disruption for the children.

 

Q – Please provide an outline of Pupil Premium allocation in your school. How do you track what Pupil Premium funding is spent on? How do you evaluate the impact of Pupil Premium funding in your school?

 

Richard said that the Pupil Premium allocation was £225,280.00 for the current financial year. He said that the money was spent on experiences for the children, such as school trips and exciting activities to engage them in learning. He said that speech and language was a major problem within the local schools and thought that this was not just a monetary disadvantage. He said that families were talking and interacting with each other less and less meaning that children suffer and experience difficulties in terms of education and attainment. He said that many of the children in the school did not know how to do undertake basic tasks as they had never had the experience in doing these things. He talked about an experience in particular where Early Years children were taken swimming and said that 90% of the children had never been in a swimming pool before.

 

Q – How is the allocation of Pupil Premium funding shown on your website?

 

Richard said that there was a Pupil Premium statement on the schools’ website which highlighted issues, and showed what had been introduced, how much had been spent and how it had been spent, what the outcomes were and what the impact was. He said that his views on how the money was spent would be very different if the Pupil Premium funding that the school were allocated had been a lot less.

 

Q – Would the School consider jointly purchasing expertise?

 

Richard said that the school would benefit from working with other schools to share resources but said that the schools would have to have a shared view with regards to what the resource would need to be. He said that the quality provision for children was the most important thing, not schemes of work.

Q – In what ways –if any – do you encourage parents and carers to apply for Free School Meals if they are eligible?

 

Richard said that school staff had to act as the instigators of parents applying for Free School Meals, as sometimes children were eligible but perhaps the child did not like school dinners so the parent would not apply even if it meant helping them financially. He said that as a school, it was important to ensure that parents understood that if they were to apply for Free School Meals for their child/children, more funding would be allocated for their child and in turn would benefit the family in the long run. He said that the school regularly communicated with parents to inform them on what they needed to do in order for their child to qualify for Free School Meals. He said that sometimes parents make it difficult for schools as they often do not have the documents required in order to complete the Free School Meals application. He said that parents used to be notified of Free School Meals by post, but the notifications were now sent via e-mail, therefore parents without technology could not access these easily .

 

Q – Are the Free School Meals included in the Pupil Premium funding?

 

Richard said that when the budget is set for the Pupil Premium funding, the amount of children that were entitled to Free School Meals would be entered onto a spreadsheet which formulates into the schools budget for the following year and would then be incorporated into the school census. He said that the school received the entire £2.20 per day for each child that was on universal Free School Meals, but for the children on Free School Meals only, the school only received £1.85 per meal. The school were given this money for 190 days per year which means that the school were at a disadvantage as they encouraged the children to attend school every day, therefore the budget would have to allow for the extra 35p per child per day which proved as a loss financially.

 

 

Richard said that the number of Free School Meals were submitted through the school census and that there was a standard budget, services which the authority provided get that money and then we pay it back into those services.

 

Q – As a School, do you think Pupil Premium and Free School Meals are the right method to use?

 

Richard said that he was unsure of other methods that were available to use but said that the Pupil Premium was one of the most effective systems that the school had used before overall. He referred particularly to children in year six and said that they had been disadvantaged in previous years without the Pupil Premium method and said that it was important that children of all ages in the school were getting good results and that the funding was being used in a way that did not isolate the Pupil Premium children from children that were not receiving the funding. He added that it was important as a school to be discreet and ensure that the Pupil Premium children did not feel that they were different or disadvantaged.

Q – What are your thoughts on the Kent Virtual School?

 

Richard said that he was not impressed with Kent Virtual Schools and felt that the school were ‘jumping through hoops’. He said that Kent Virtual Schools were set up in terms of funding with the pre judgement that schools were going to waste the money that was allocated to the children. He said that having to apply for the money and make a formal list of what the school would be doing with the money limited flexibility to meet the needs of the children. He said that there could be a number of schools who missed out on funding due to the lack of staff available to apply for the funding. He said that he had looked after children from Buckingham as well as Kent and Buckinghamshire allocated £1,900 for each child and the school received the money straight away. Richard explained that the school kept in regular contact with Buckinghamshire and had certain arrangements with them.

 

Q – Are we saying that it helps those schools that are not good enough in their own practice?

 

Richard said that increase in focus through the application process was the reason for improvement and that that focus needed to be encouraged. He said for every school he had worked with the pupil processes were analysed for every single vulnerable group. He said that the communication between the teachers and himself was good and said that it was important to make sure that disadvantaged children are not placed into one group. He said that teachers needed to understand that the majority of children were coming from deprived households. He said that the data had to be refined to highlight what the school were actually looking at and trying to achieve.

 

Q – What is the key to improving practice in poorly performing school?

 

Richard said that ensuring well-trained staff were in the right roles within the school was key. He said that a major issue was if there was a member of staff that was failing and needed to improve rapidly. He said it was important to share strengths. Richard discussed working with other schools to share resources and said that if the school was grouped with another school, the Governors may want to know why a Green Park Community Primary School teacher is moving to another school to help children and whether this was free. He said that there was a cost element to lending teachers to other schools and replacing them and needed to analyse this.

 

Q – Do you, as a School, keep in touch with the children after they have left the School? What is the outcome when they reach 16?

 

Richard said that there were special provisions for all year groups such as holiday clubs, working groups during lunchtime etc. He said that children needed extra out of their school day because school alone was not enough for them because of gaps in the rest of their lives. He said that secondary schools unfortunately did not support the children in this way. He said he was regularly disappointed to hear that children that have left the school to move onto secondary school and were not making good progress because they were not supported as well. He said that the majority of year six leavers at the school had moved onto Dover Christ Church Academy which was the local secondary school, and the children were not getting to where they needed to get to, therefore Green Park Community Primary School teachers for years five and six were working with Dover Christ Church Academy’s year seven and eight teachers. He said it was all about working as a team to support the children and ensure that they learn as thoroughly as possible to give them the best start in life.

 

Q – Are you finding an increase in neediness regarding speech and language?

 

Richard said that speech and language was an ever growing issue. He said that assessments were undertaken for each child to understand where they currently sit with regards to their understanding of sounds, language and linking sounds. He said that this academic year, 65% of children failed the assessment.

 

Q – What can KCC do, if anything, to improve the effectiveness of the Pupil Premium in closing the attainment gap between vulnerable children and their peers?

 

Richard said that although schools had different views, he believed that the majority of views would be based around currency, character and culture. He said that it was important to get children into school in the morning and make education fun and something that they looked forward to being a part of. He said it was important to ensure that everything the children were a part of was meeting their needs. He said that a focus group had been formed within the school but was not for low ability or disadvantaged children, it was created to change what the school were doing with the children in order to allow them to learn. He talked about the creation of a ‘Forest School’, where children had the opportunity to go on an adventure whilst learning and do something different. He said that two young boys that struggled with their writing made up a story that one of the school’s teachers lived in the forest, so Richard played along and told them that it was a very serious matter and asked them to write a full report and give it to him. This captured the boys’ interest and they spent time writing a report to present to him which focused on improving their writing skills. He said that most children only came to school to meet their friends and to play. Therefore, if that was what the children wanted to do, it was the school’s duty to make it the best possible place for them to learn, have fun, play and grow together. He said that the school had recently adopted two schools dogs, to give children the chance to become engaged, face fears and take responsibility. He said that children had started coming in early to take part in the school’s breakfast club and were enjoying being at school. He said that some children were coming from a disadvantaged home with no heating, lack of food and a lack of social interaction which is why the school opened their doors at every opportunity to these children. Richard added that in terms of Kent County Council’s reports, progress should be measured and presented in the reports as well as attainment, he said it was important to understand a child’s starting point and level of progress made just as much as the attainment.