Agenda item

(1)       The Chairman welcomed Rosemary Hafeez to the meeting and invited her to introduce herself.

(2)       Rosemary Hafeez said that she was the Associate Director for School Standards and Performance, Achieving for Children (AfC), which was a Community Interest Company owned by the London Boroughs of Kingston and Richmond since 2014.   This Company had been expanded during the summer of 2017 by the inclusion of Windsor and Maidenhead Council.

 (3)      The Company had been set up after Kingston had failed its Safeguarding Inspection. The two Boroughs’ combined budget was approximately £100m with some 1,000 members of staff.   School Improvement was in the region of 1% of these figures.  

(4)       Rosemary Hafeez said that most of AfC’s work took place in the Children’s Social Care field.  It also provided Education Services such as Early Years, Admissions and Commissioning as well as the “School Performance Alliance for Richmond and Kingston”, usually known as “SPA(RK).” 

(5)       Rosemary Hafeez that SPA(RK) provided Governor Services,  an assigned School Improvement Partner (SIP)  (which included support for the Pupil Premium) a wide range of networks and in-school bespoke support. 

(6)       Rosemary Hafeez then turned to the work undertaken on the Pupil Premium.  The strategy took the form of half-termly sessions with Head Teachers, focussing on school improvement rather than on budgets, buildings and safeguarding. She led the sessions on the School Improvement Forum which usually ran between 0830 and 1200 and usually included some schools presenting to the others. 

(7)       SPA(RK) aimed to support schools to improve provision, raise standards and narrow the attainment gap.  It offered premium membership, which was taken up by 85% of the schools.  This entitled them to receive four strands of support:  an assigned school improvement partner (SIP);  governor support; a wide range of Best Practice networks; and in-school bespoke support.   At least 90% of the schools bought onto at least one of these strands. 

(8)       Rosemary Hafeez provided graphs which set out SP{ARK)’s impact in both Kingston and Richmond Boroughs between 2014 and 2017.   These graphs tracked progress in a number of areas since the AfC’s creation, and demonstrated the gap in attainment between PPG and non-PPG pupils. Her analysis is set out below:

(a)       “Good level of development”:  In Kingston there was all round improvement, with the gap in attainment narrowing each year much smaller than the national average.  In Richmond the gap had narrowed significantly in 2016 and had remained constant in 2017.

(b)       “Phonics (Year 1)”:  The gap in attainment had narrowed in 2016 when there had been a strong focus in this area, but had widened again in 2017.   In consequence, there would be an increased focus in 2018.

(c)        “Expected Standard in Reading, Writing and Mathematics (RWM)”:  The attainment gap had narrowed in Kingston at KS1 and in Richmond at KS2.  

(d)       “English Baccalaureate”:  there was a small gap in both Kingston and Richmond which had grown slightly in the former in 2017.   The attainment gap in both areas was smaller than the national gap.

(9)       One concern that that had been raised by some Educationalists during the moderation process was that over-concentration on disadvantaged children could lead to the “Golem Effect” where lower expectations placed upon individuals by teachers or moderators could itself lead to poorer performance.   There had been a change to the moderation system in response to this concern. There was now a small team of Lead Moderators supported by a broader team of Team Moderators.

(10)     Rosemary Hafeez moved on to set out details of the AfC Strategies for Premium Pupils.  These were set year by year, adding to those which were already being progressed.    A very significant aspect of the 2014/15 Strategy was a project aimed at helping all schools to identify eligible children who had not registered for funding.   This had been supported by a local radio campaign. Schools had been encouraged to use the service provided by AfC to check for potential eligibility with the DWP.   Support had also been provided by the Education Endowment Foundation which provided funding to 300 schools in the UK in order to raise standards in the weakest schools and combat the attainment gap between PPG and non-PPG pupils.  Twenty four schools in the Boroughs of Richmond and Kingston were part of a current three year project. 

(11)    The Early Years Advisor worked with schools and settings to develop strategies focused on engaging hard to reach families.  This was part of an approach which sought to make accessibility to the service similar to the ease with which people could access a shop.  

(12)     Rosemary Hafeez said that she gave termly presentations to School Governors and that bespoke training was also made available to them. Head Teachers were invited to the half-termly School Improvement Forum meetings. 

(13)     SPA(RK) banded schools according to the proportion of FSM pupils attending.   The overall proportion of FSM children was between 19 and 20% in primary schools, with an even higher proportion in high schools.   The schools in each band with the highest achievement by FSM pupils constituted the yardstick against which all the other schools were compared.   These successful schools had also produced a report following a brainstorming session, which was shared with all schools.  At the lower end of the scale, those primary schools with the lowest PPG outcomes were offered the opportunity of a free audit.  

(14)     Rosemary Hafeez said that the 2015/16 Strategy had complemented its predecessor through the inclusion of PPG targets for Receptiojn, Y1 Phonics, KS1, KS2 and KS4 .  The audit tool was updated to include national successful practice.  Many schools began to use their SIP Partner to advise their Governors on management objectives.   Visits had also been organised to schools in deprived areas outside the two boroughs where PPG management was very effective.   One of these visits had been to a school in Hounslow.

(15)     Rosemary Hafeez said that the Strategy for 2016/17 had included an in-depth analysis of data on PPG exclusions and attendance.   This had revealed that children with special educational needs statements were over-represented to the extent that 100% of Year 6 absenteeism in the Spring and Summer Terms in 2015 had been disadvantaged children.   Meanwhile, those schools which did not buy into the SPA(RK) package continued to receive a risk-analysis audit whose outcome was reported to the Governors.

(16)     Rosemary Hafeez then said that 2016/17 had also seen the creation of professional development modules for 8 blocks, enabling updated audit and review. These were:

a) Whole school ethos of attainment for all;

b) Addressing behaviour and attendance;

c) High quality teaching for all;

d) Meeting individual learning needs;

e) Deploying staff effectively;

f)  Data driven response to evidence;

g) Clear responsive leadership; and

h) Engaging with parents and carers.

Schools were only asked to pick two or three of these blocks for the audit offered.   The preferred audit method was for a member of the SPA(RK) Team to talk to the parents (often informally outside the school gates) and also to school staff about professional development. They would also observe the pupils’ interaction in lessons and where they sat in lessons.  Typically, disadvantaged children found themselves either at the back of the class or around the edges.   These audits had also identified best Practice. One of the schools audited had won a Pupil Premium award because of the results it had achieved results by linking every single disadvantaged child to a senior pupil. 

(17)     A workshop for the most successful primary and secondary schools had been organised as part of the 2016/17 Strategy.   This had discussed the experience of the previous three years and identified 10 tips per block as well as weblinks to research that the other schools could access.  

(18)     Rosemary Hafeez then described the most recent developments that had taken place as part of the 2017/18 Strategy.  An attempt had been made to recruit a Lead PPG Champion.   She wanted this role to be filled by someone from within the boroughs. There had been no takers for this role during the Autumn Term, so she would undertake a further trawl in January 2018.  The Lead Champion would be tasked with the creation of a PPG Champion network.    Meanwhile, funding was being sought in partnership with the Secondary School Alliance for a project to reduce the attainment gap at KS4. 

(19)     Rosemary Hafeez concluded her presentation by addressing the question of the best way to ensure that effective strategies and interventions were undertaken.  She said that the greatest impact came from taking an unrelenting approach.   If this happened, it only needed a small number of staff to achieve success.   Every stratagem had aimed to help all schools to be good for all the pupils by supporting all their pupils’ weaknesses.  Richmond had seen a higher number of outstanding schools whilst Kingston had seen a higher number achieving judged good by Ofsted.   There had also been strong early progress in supporting English as an additional language Pupils, aiming to overcome the problem where statistically Afro-Caribbean pupils had underachieved on a year-by-year basis.   Another essential component was that the Strategy created a professional development environment which enabled school staff to have the opportunity to flourish.

(20)     In response to questions, Rosemary Hafeez said that:-

(a)        There were only 5 primary academies in the two boroughs, whilst only 3 secondary schools were non-academies.  The Academies nearly all bought into the service.

(b)       Attendance strategies had been developed using the carrot and stick approach.  Attendance awards were given (either to the pupils or the parents). The most successful work consisted of changing mind sets through the use of nurture teams.  Support staff made contact with and related to the children and their families, often using post cards to stay in touch.   This helped to develop a relationship which was essential if the family needed to be contacted in order to respond effectively to a problem that had arisen.

(c)        Headteachers and classteachers had often been unaware of the identities of PPG pupils before 2014, despite the funding that was available for both PPG and SEN pupils (double if they qualified for both).   This had been corrected using a number of tools.

(d)       Teachers were encouraged to mark the homework of disadvantaged pupils before the others.  Those teachers who had initially shown reluctance to engage with the pupils had received a spur through having their success in this field recorded in their performance management record.  Further encouragement was offered by the Lead Practitioners convincing their colleagues of the importance of this work. 

(e)       Virtual School pupils were supported by a Lead Headteacher who had three Assistant Headteachers below her.   Outreach Workers also played a crucial role by for example, on one occasion accompanying a pupil to school.  The student had been embarrassed by this experience and had quickly taken steps to ensure that he attended school without support.   The Headteacher had targeted the completion of Personal Education Plans (PEPs) before moving on to develop their quality.  Richmond’s Virtual School had recognised as an example of best practice in the recent safeguarding inspection.

(f)        One school had successfully linked every disadvantaged child to a senior leader, as their mentor. If the number of disadvantaged pupils had been higher in this school, it would be impossible to provide support in the same way. At one stage, Richmond and Kingston had experienced one of the largest KS4 attainment gaps in London.  To counter this, AfC had used the Fisher Family Trust package for schools, and had encouraged schools to aim for the high targets within it.  Funding support had also been provided by the EU to reduce the number of LAC and disadvantaged pupils who were not in education, employment or training after the age of 16.  AfC was also involved with the London South Aimhigher programme. 

(g)       In order to achieve a successful partnership, it was essential to have a good relationship between officers and schools and also between the schools themselves.