To consider the above item to include:

·         Update from Foundations for Learning

·         Summer Active Camp (impact)

Members were told that Claire Murray and Helen Daniels had been leading the network meetings for Pupil Premium Champions. These focused on sharing research on quality first teaching strategies, sharing good practice, and sharing in-school Pupil Premium documents. Feedback had been very positive and up to 30 schools had been represented at meetings. The Forum was told that participants had submitted data for analysis, developed an understanding of barriers and how to address them and measure impact and used Specialist Leaders of Education to further develop classroom practice.

Lindsay O’Connell told the Forum that a Pupil Premium project based on the Early Years Foundation Stage was now into its fourth year. There had been an improvement in the level of development in the last academic year; the good level of development had risen from 46 per cent to 55 per cent. However the Forum was told that this level was still below the national average, despite the improvements. A total of 14 schools had engaged with the project and strong links had been made with 12 of them. It was noted that the schools that had not engaged with the programme tended to have smaller numbers of Pupil Premium children. It was also noted that the number of disadvantaged pupils was low, due to the Royal Borough being an area of low financial disadvantage.

The Director of Children’s Services stated it made sense for staff to go on training courses to learn about Pupil Premium management, and that a whole school approach was best. Tricia Opalko stated her belief that the main reason for being disadvantaged was thought to be poverty at home, and it was felt that whole school training was the most effective way to narrow the poverty gap. Sarah Cottle told the Forum that the focus had been on schools with larger numbers of Pupil Premium children rather than those with just one or two children. However it was noted that it had been difficult to get certain schools to engage with the programme.

The Chairman suggested that all headteachers should be written to, inviting them to the Pupil Premium training. Members agreed that this would be a sensible course of action. The Chairman stated his belief that a number of good ideas were being proposed at the programme working groups, but these were not always being conveyed to all of the schools.

Action: For all headteachers to be contacted and invited to Pupil Premium training.

The Schools Leadership Development Manager gave a short presentation about a Pupil Premium Summer Camp that had taken place at the start of the school summer holidays. He said that 84 children had attended the three-day camp, and they had been grouped according to where they would be transitioning to secondary school in September. Support had been provided in part by Sixth Form pupils. The Schools Leadership Development Manager said that many of the pupils who had attended would not have the opportunity of going away elsewhere during the summer break. Places on the camp had been paid for through sponsorship.

Members asked if it was possible for free passes for certain activities to be given to Pupil Premium families to use during the summer, and Cllr Del Campo asked if it was possible for the camps to be reconvened at the end of the summer. However the Forum was advised that unfortunately there was no resource for this, and in addition arranging transport to events was difficult.