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Shine @ Buxton
Saturday School – November 5th 2011
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Shine 2012 Promotion | Student Application Form
The Saturday School 2011 (Shine @ Buxton) seeks to provide high quality learning experiences disadvantaged pupils in key stages 2, 3 & 4.
The programme addresses underachievement in GCSE results and seeks to narrow the gap between disadvantaged groups and the rest of the cohort, particularly pupils for whom English is an additional language (EAL) and those on Free School Meals (FSM). This project, at its core, is the acquisition of English, especially writing and reading, to raise achievement and increase opportunities
The main aim is to increase aspirations of EAL and FSM pupils in both phases (including mid term entry pupils) to enhance their opportunities to gain 5 x A* to C GCSE’s (including English and Maths). The population of EAL pupils currently accounts for 405 pupils from years 6 to 11 – equating to 56% of the entire school population (1124 pupils). Currently the ratio of those EAL pupils gaining 5 A – C GCSE’s is at 48% (based on a total of 155 year 11 pupils).
 
At Shine we target pupils who are underachieving in literacy and numeracy, as demonstrated by KS2, KS3 and KS4 results, target grades and reading ages. Whilst there is a clear target group, we have learned that older pupils respond much better if they feel that the programme is open to all. Only Year 6 pupils, who are staying at Buxton into KS3, meeting this criteria are offered a place on the project and will remain open to pupils from Buxton primary phase, Jenny Hammond primary and other primary feeder schools (Downsell, Mayville etc…)
We ensure that target pupils take up their place by working very hard with their parents. This year we were able to work with the Parent Support Advisor to invite parents of every target pupil into school specifically to tell them about Shine and why this programme is of such value to their child. We also offer up to 20 places for parents to attend ESOL classes which will support the needs of the entire family.
This additional outreach has meant that 68 % of the Shine cohort for this year are over a year behind in reading age, 35% are on SEN register as school action or school action plus and 45% are EAL.
To ensure the retention of pupils in our Saturday School we put in place a range of measures to address this which we will maintain:
- Ensure that staff understood the importance of “fun” in the sessions
- 15 pupils per class x 4 classes (75 in total)
- 20 places for parents to attend ESOL classes
- 1 “Fast Track” group who require specific support in 1 area (writing/reading/oral)
- Include Mid-Term entry pupils from years entering in years 6 to 10
- Engage 4 Peer Mentors form year 10, 11 or 12 as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award.
- Engage parental support - effective and was a good use of our Parent Support Advisor.
- Create a “club” atmosphere – name badges with lanyards, stickers, reward cards
- Incentivise attendance – including a chance to win an IPod for 100% attendance at the end of the year
- Educational trips every half term and introduce group public travel to imbed life skills ethos into Shine for both pupil and parent. We will go to The British Museum, The Commonwealth Institute, The British Library and London Bus Tours in the summer.
- Introduce a £3 charge per week £15 per half term (£1/£5 for FSM)
The programme runs for 25 weeks in the year, broken into 5 projects of five weeks each.
5 Groups will comprise of KS2/3, KS3/4 and fast track pupils together with 1 group of 20/25 parents studying ESOL.
The day comprises of mixed teaching times between 9.30 and 2.30pm according to the groups needs and will focus on reading, writing and oral skills. Reading and writing will be delivered in coherence with the English faculty syllabus and offer pupils related creative learning projects to increase their attainment within the formal curriculum.
Oral English will be delivered largely via Philosophy for Children which benefits pupils by:
- Opening up children’s learning through enquiry and the exploration of ideas.
- Offering the possibility of seeing that their ideas have value, and that others have different ideas that have value too.
- They realise that they don’t always have to be right.
- They have the confidence to ask questions and learn through discussion.
- All learners (including teachers) have opportunities to genuinely enquire.
- A chance to speak and be heard without fear of getting an answer wrong.
- Intelligence growth.
- Gives children who are not considered “academic” a voice and a chance to flourish.
- Gives the “academic” children a chance to think outside the box and to see that the non-academic have inspiring ideas.
- Gives all children value.
We will also include International Film screenings – with subtitles in mother tongue – and engage in group discussions around cultural, social and political context/content.
Every 5 weeks, we take pupils and parents on a trip, to support the enrichment of key skills within the programme.
The curriculum is based on careful planning and establishing clear learning objectives for each group. Teachers are encouraged to be innovative and creative in achieving learning objectives than may be possible with the larger groups in mainstream lessons. Having the resources of the whole school available as well as the support of teaching assistants and peer mentors allows for great freedom. We have access to 4 ICT rooms as well as a drama studio, Food Technology classrooms, a community garden, sports facilities and a main assembly hall.
There are also opportunities to link learning to life outside school including educational trips, travelling by public transport and access to the tours within the Olympic Village.
Shine and Spark are delivered, where possible, by staff at Buxton School
Shine team
- 1 Lead Tutor – EAL specialist ensuring programme is planned.
- 4 tutors deliver sessions each week.
- 1 ESOL tutor – for class of 20/25 parents.
- Learning Support Assistants – 2 LSAs to support Tutors.
- 4 Year 11 Peer Mentors – help teachers and with organising activities at break and at lunchtime.
- All staff take responsibility for managing pupils during break and lunchtime.
- Administrator - 1 administrator based in reception will support the teaching team and take responsibility for logging attendance, organising trip letters and sending out pupil reminders.
Management – Shine and Spark are managed by the Extended School Project Manager at Buxton School. This is an SLT role, ensuring that the Saturday School has high level support. The Extended School Manager oversees the financial management, staffing, and overall co-ordination, including the risk-assessments for the trips. Shine features in the school SEF. The Head Teachers take an active interest in the programme and attend the Launch event at the beginning of the year and the end of year celebration.
Governance – school governors receive reports about Shine as part of the Head Teachers report. Governors are invited to celebration events.
The Lead Tutor works with tutors and Faculty Head to plan the sessions at the beginning of term, and monitor teachers’ lesson plans. We plan to introduce more formal lesson monitoring, by bringing in a teachers once a term to enable Lead Tutors to monitor lessons, working with senior staff in to evaluate the quality of learning and teaching on Saturdays, and link back to the identified criteria for each targeted pupils. Impact will be demonstrated through the school tracking system which monitors pupil progress each half term
We will monitor attendance weekly and aim for a target of 80% throughout the year, Some modifications to longevity of membership will need to be taken into account for mid term entry pupils who join mid year, but still achieve progress through fast track class.
Monitoring impact and progress will be done via measuring termly reading age tests in addition to measuring progress against targets. Progress levels will be also evaluated on an individual basis taking into account pupils reading age levels upon entry to Shine together with KS2 test results (if available).
Monitoring of progress will also be executed via the schools existing evaluation process where teachers evaluate each other on the standard of teaching and learning according to the Ofsted framework and will provide training opportunities for teachers involved.
We will also produce 10 case studies on pupils who attend Shine. This will record pupils formal progress together with more softer outcomes such as increased confidence, social and leadership skills.
Introduce pupil friendly level descriptors (as used by each faculty) each half term (every 5 weeks) to record how pupils feel they have progressed themselves and adapt MALS model for pupil self assessment.
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