Can Summer Schools Help Disadvantaged Pupils Bounce Back from Covid?

Loic Menzies, Chief Executive, at The Centre for Education and Youth, suggests an idea for recovery of pupils who have fallen behind during the Lockdown.

As a trainee teacher, I often needed a bit of extra cash to pay for my rock climbing habit. Fortunately, I was training at the height of London Challenge so my schools’ pockets were rather deeper than they are at the moment. That meant I could opt to sacrifice a few days’ holiday and teach some lessons over the break in return for an extra payment. A few days of these payments easily funded a drive up to the Lake District and a pitch for my tent, with a few pounds left over for a pint or two of Wainwright Ale at the Old Dungeon Ghyll pub.

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      string(5753) "The Covid-19 Pandemic has created an unprecedented challenge for educators, parents and children with a key question: “How do we sustain children’s learning when they are away from school”. Every teacher knows that when children are off school in the summer their learning moves backwards. Where that learning was embedded and established it can be retrieved, though it does take time. However, where learning is not sufficiently embedded it is likely that it will be lost altogether and need to be retaught. The biggest losses will be for the most disadvantaged children who may not have access to books or support at home.In the US the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) research into Summer Learning Loss¹ based on a 10-week vacation period showed on average, students show a drop of between 3-5 RIT points, relative to gains of 4-16 RIT points during the school year. In effect students lose nearly 20 percent of their school-year gains in reading and 27 percent of their school-year gains in math. By the summer after seventh grade, students lose on average 36 percent of their school-year gains in reading and a whopping 50 percent of their school-year gains in math. In other words, summer learning loss increases with age through elementary and middle school. RIT scores use the Rasch Unit Scale to allow analysis across a range of different testing schemes and there is no equivalent system in the UK but teacher assessments show equivalent changes as evidence in my own research.Drawing on my own recent research into the development of reading skills, particularly what parents would understand as reading comprehension – not just what the words say and mean but the deeper meaning of stories and characters that bring books to life – it is clear that with a prolonged absence from school, without action at an individual local and national level, reading standards will decline and with it the life opportunities of a whole cohort of children will be damaged.Reading Gains Of Up to 35%The one-year research project undertaken in 8 schools in Slough from January 2019 was designed to improve these higher order skills and was highly effective, increasing the % of pupil achieving at or above the expected level by more than 35% in in Year 3 and 25% in Year 4 in just 5months. However, with the break over the summer holidays (7 weeks allowing for start and end of term loss), pupils achieving at or expected levels declined significantly. Despite their hard work and the commitment of their teachers by the end of November they were still performing less well than they had in Junein fact the percentage of pupils achieving the expected level or better was down by more than 20% in Year 4 and almost 15% in Year5 taking us back towards pre-project levels.If this can happen in 7 weeks how much learning and progress will be lost over 12 weeks or longer and for children in the most disadvantaged families where books, time and opportunity for reading with an adult are often missing to what extent will they stop engaging in reading all together beyond completing set tasks for school.In the current situation it is likely that children will be off school for a sustained period and we cannot fully predict the impact of this however we can be certain that it will have a negative impact.Some early predictions show a very challenging picture. Based on data from the US where summer holidays are usually longer than in the UK the following slide shows a predicted additional impact from the Covid-19 closures. ²Schools are doing all they can with teachers setting on-line lessons and signposting digital learning platforms but I believe that unless we highlight the importance of reading and help parents understand that reading is not an individual and private activity but one that requires discussion and reflection in order to acquire and sustain the skills of “being a reader”.Reading AccuratelyMany parents regard reading as the skill of decoding words and knowing what the words mean – this of course is central to the process of reading but being able to do this does not make a child a reader. When I was a headteacher I had to frequently remind parents that the reading we set for homework required them to listen to, read with and discuss books because once children could read independently they saw no reason to listen to them – they would say that they didn’t want to read aloud, that they liked to read in bed at night, all of which may be true but it leads to children reading inaccurately and skipping over things they don’t understand and missing the opportunity to draw on the deeper meaning in a book.The most crucial years for this are Year 3 to 6 when children should be gaining these higher order reading skills but this is exactly when parents see them as independent readers and spend less time reading with them.Children’s attitudes to reading and reading frequency is an important predictor of pupils’ proficiency as readers and there is a significant decline in pupils who value reading for fun between the ages of 8 and 9. 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Leadership

Huge Reading Gains With Structured Parental Involvement Could Counter Covid-19 Effect

17 Apr 2020

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      string(5865) "ResourceBUDGET 2006Original DocumentBudget 2006. Schools in England have been promised a £34bn increase in funding over the next five years by future Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, in his last Budget as Chancellor.KeywordsBudget, school fundingSummarySchools in England have been promised a £34bn increase in funding over the next five years by future Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, in his last Budget as Chancellor. Commitments announced:· To raise investment per state school pupil from £5,000 to £8,000 in five years, eradicating the funding gap and ensuring that state school pupils get the same standard of education as private school pupils.· Direct funding to head teachers to increase to £440m next year, targeted at the most deprived areas. A typical payment to secondary school heads would rise from £98,000 now to £150,000. By next year, heads are likely to receive nearly double their current funding levels, with direct payments of £190,000. Primary heads will also receive more in direct funds – from a typical £31,000 now to £44,000.· A £30.5m funding package over the next two years to help recruit 3000 extra science teachers and pay for after-school science clubs.· Science results to be benchmarked from 2007. Pupils will also be offered the chance to take all three science subjects at GCSE, spelling the end of the ‘double science’ GCSE, which is widely regarded as an insufficient basis for science A-levels· A £25 million package for Further Education colleges in England, to be backed by £11m worth of adult learning grants from next year, to help with living costs and to enable workers to go back to studyBudget breaks down:· Personalised Learning: £220m in 2006-07, and £365m in 2007-08, to be paid direct to schools to help them to provide greater personalisation of learning in and beyond the school day, especially for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. This increase is on top of funding for personalisation in the Dedicated Schools Grant of £220m in 2006-07, rising to £565m in 2007-08, announced last year; so that in 2007-08, schools will receive a total of £930m to deliver tailored support to meet children’s particular needs and interests.· Schools Capital: Further capital investment in school buildings and ICT, increasing by £1.6 billion to £8.035 billion by 2010-11. This new investment is on top of funding allocated to schools capital projects of £5.879 billion in 2006-07 and £6.435 billion in 2007-08. It builds on the Government’s existing long-term commitment to transform buildings and ICT and provide 21st-Century facilities for pupils across the country.· School Science: £18 million to support teaching and learning in school science, £9 million in 2006-07 and £9 million in 2007-08. This will be combined with funding already from existing DfES resources to create a £30.5 million package over the next two years to support achievement of the 10 year Science Framework. This investment will help us to increase the number of science teachers as well as the number of young people taking physics, chemistry and mathematics A-levels, and getting the top grades in science GCSEs.· Enterprise Education: confirming that £2 million announced at the PBR will be used to create 23 enterprise summer school pathfinders to be delivered by Young Enterprise to 1000 pupils across the UK in summer 2006. The summer schools will help young people build a range of key skills, develop stronger links between business and schools and give pupils and students a better understanding of their future role and responsibility in the economy.· ICT: £10 million (£5m in 2006-07 and £5m in 2007-08) for ICT to ensure access to the internet for the most disadvantaged secondary school pupils. The investment will ensure that pupils benefiting from the home computer scheme announced in Budget 2005 have access to the internet.· Youth Opportunities: £2million for the Youth Opportunities Challenge Fund. Through this competition we can recognise the achievement of young people and build on what they’ve achieved through the Youth Opportunity and Youth Capital Funds. This builds on the £115m already allocated over 2 years for the YOF/YCF – ensuring young people are at the heart of the decision making process to ensure they receive the services they want and will use.· Capital grants: £8.4 million of new capital grants in both 2006-07 and 2007-08 to help small and medium sized employers establish workplace nurseries. 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Leadership

Budget 2006

1 Jan 2005

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      string(3758) "Above: Pop-up tent concept trialled at Manorfield Primary School, London© Curl la Tourelle Head British architecture firm Curl la Tourelle Head has trialled its first pop-up school proposal at Manorfield Primary School in Tower Hamlets, London to optimise social distancing among pupils and staff. An original concept initiated by the London-based architects, the tent measures 6m x 18m and is supplied by Cumbria-based marquee specialist, Original Marquees. The temporary structure has been used to host classrooms and as a lunch area for pupils, delivering at least 25% more socially distanced capacity than what the school currently offers. The architects aim to demonstrate that under the constraints imposed by COVID-19, it is still possible to create an environment that can safely accommodate more pupils but also allow the social distancing rules to be observed. Paul Jackson, Headteacher, Manorfield Primary School, said, “Our children have been out of school for far too long. We want to bring as many children back to school in as safe a way as possible.“We won’t bring back more children than it is safe to and need to find creative solutions to enable the wider opening of schools.The creation of additional pop-up accommodation in our playground will support us in doing this and meeting the needs of our children.  We are very excited to see more of them returning to school.  Above: Proposed pop-up classroom and washing facility that enable social distancing © Curl la Tourelle Head Inspired by outdoor learning at schools in Denmark, Curl la Tourelle Head’s proposal directly addresses the most pressing issue that many schools are now facing across the UK–which is maintaining social distancing as pupils return to their classrooms. The concept focuses on utilising outdoor space to ease the circulation load in existing school buildings. It involves reusing resources including festival marquees, that would otherwise be dormant, to build temporary classrooms and portable facilities incorporated with the two-metre social distancing rules.Not only will the pop-up structures enable better spacing between individuals, they will also create more capacity to take on further pupils.As well as improving air-flow and wellbeing, the architects see this as an opportunity to utilise public or large outdoor spaces in unconventional ways that might not be thought of previously.Wayne Head, Director, Curl la Tourelle Head, said, “Our pop-up school initiative offers a robust and adaptable suite of temporary structure options, ranging from simple canvas marquees to fully operational, insulated and engineered facilities capable of servicing entire year groups through the planned ‘big summer of catch-up’ and autumn term beyond.“We are confident that we have the solution to help schools increase their capacity and bring back more pupils, while still following the social distancing rules and ensuring a safe environment for the children and staff.”  Above: Veldeman’s temporary structures at Universiteit Antwerpen, Wilrijk © Jeroen Willems Curl la Tourelle Head is currently in discussion with other schools across the country and overseas, with the aim of rolling out the concept further and wider. In addition to Original Marquees, the architects are partnering with global temporary structure provider, Veldeman, to produce pop-up accommodation that can cater for full year groups and be lit with lecture theatre equipment, heating and air conditioning.The pop-up tent at Manorfield Primary School is expected to stay until the end of the current school term"
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Learning Spaces

Socially Distanced Tents Go Up at London Primary

16 Jun 2020

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      string(5823) "76Vol 5.3School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileLeadershipResourcesRaising standards withthe pupil premiumIn view of the governmentdrive to get students‘secondary ready’ andthe increased levels ofaccountability for howteachers make use of theirpupil premium to do this,Jenny Townsend offers someadvice on what Ofsted will belooking for in primary schoolspending.Since the introduction of the pupil premiumfunding back in 2011, the coalition governmenthas made it clear that it expects schools to usethis funding specifically to help close the gap inachievement between their economically disadvantagedpupils (as defined by the pupil premium eligibilitycriteria) and the rest of their pupils.Clearly schools are continuing to struggle with thechallenge of raising standards of achievement becausethe gap between disadvantaged pupils and otherscontinues to be huge. According to the government,in 2012 only 68 per cent of all eleven-year-olds eligiblefor the pupil premium achieved their expected levelsin English and maths compared with the 84 per cent ofother pupils aged 11 who did.The government clearly wants this situation tochange. Their latest consultation, launched in July 2013,aims to raise standards even higher in primary schoolswith the requirement that by 2016, at least 85 per cent of77Vol 5.3School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileLeadershipResourcestheir pupils will be achieving higher standards and will be ‘secondary ready’.Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, made his intentions very clear when he said:‘Every primary school should strive to make its pupils ready for secondary school bythe time they leave. All the evidence shows that if you start behind, you stay behind. Abetter start at secondary school is a better start in life.’1Proposed changesTo assist schools with the achievement of these new targets, the government plans toraise the pupil premium funding for primary schools to £1,300 per disadvantaged pupilfrom 2014/15. (This represents an increase of £400 per pupil up from the £900 per childcompared with this current year).Linked to the higher expectations contained in the new curriculum, thegovernment will also be introducing updated tests for eleven-year-olds. These newtests will cover maths, reading, spelling, punctuation and grammar. There is to be anew scaled score (the same for all tests) that would remain the same over the yearslinked to the level that eleven-year-olds would be considered ‘secondary ready’. Theold system of levels (with level 4 being the expected level) is to be removed. Thegovernment considers these levels to be lacking in ambition, too generalised andfailing to give parents sufficient clarification about how their children are doing.In the future, schools will be encouraged to develop their own systems formeasuring pupil performance and to design improved ways of reporting to parents.The government plans to introduce a new reporting system which will enablecomparisons to be made between each individual pupil and their peers on a nationalbasis. All pupils will be placed within ten per cent bands(or deciles). Information collected through this newreporting system would only be made available toschools and parents.The government also wants to establish a newbenchmark that can be used to assess the progress thateleven-year-olds make. At this stage, the consultationmakes no recommendations about how this benchmarkmight be developed but it does encourage ‘interestedparties’ to make suggestions.Increased accountabilityDuring the summer of 2013, Ofsted published updatedversions of the School Inspection Handbook, theInspection Framework, and the SupplementaryGuidance. As anticipated, Ofsted has raised the levels ofaccountability that schools now need to have in terms oftheir spending of the pupil premium and its impact.From September 2013, to gain an outstandingjudgement for the achievement of pupils, schoolsmust, amongst other requirements, now take accountof the following grade descriptors which have specificrequirements relating to the Pupil Premium:‘From each different starting point (referring to specific levels in Key Stage 1 andKey Stage 2), the proportions of pupils making expected progress and the proportionsexceeding expected progress in English and in mathematics are high comparedwith national figures. For pupils for whom the pupil premium provides support, theproportions are similar to, or above those for other pupils in the school or are rapidlyapproaching them.’‘The achievement of pupils for whom the pupil premium provides support at leastmatches that of other pupils in the school or has risen rapidly, including in English andmathematics.’‘The learning of groups of pupils, particularly those who are disabled, those whohave special educational needs, those for whom the pupil premium provides support,and the most able is consistently good or better.’The importance of these descriptors is reiterated in the grade descriptorsrelating to the quality of leadership and management. In order for a school to get anoutstanding judgement in leadership and management, inspectors will want to seeevidence that ‘the school’s actions have secured improvement in achievement forAs anticipated, Ofstedhas raised the levels ofaccountability that schoolsnow need to have in termsof their spending of thepupil premium and itsimpact.“”www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/school-inspection-handbook78Vol 5.3School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileLeadershipResourcesthose supported by the pupil premium, which"
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Leadership

Raising standards with the pupil premium

25 Oct 2013