Edgbarrow School From an 8 to a 3

Edgbarrow School From an 8 to a 3: A rapid turnaround in value-added performance

Context/School background • • 70% GCSE A*-C 210 year group Largely middle class Upper Sixth year groups of approximately 70 • Farnborough Sixth Form College and the loss of our best students. This affects the academic standards and the way in which we treat and discipline the students.

Value added performance

ALPS PERFORMANCE 2002 -2005

From AS to A 2 • 2004 AS results • A 31 B 43 C 48 D 44 E 32 U 52 (!) • 2005 A 2 results • A 35 B 40 C 48 D 48 E 17 U 2 • I was quite pleased about the change!

Problems • • Things had been allowed to slide An awful set of AS Results- See previous slide A culture of mediocrity amongst the students Middle ability students made up the majority of the year group • ‘Blaming the students’ culture from some teachers • A number of departments who seemed unable to achieve at A level • Push too hard and the next year group will all go somewhere else

Plan a strategic path • Visits to other successful Sixth Forms. Little Heath in Reading, Katherine Lady Berkley in Gloucestershire • A day off timetable to work on plans and ideas- to understand plot what I wanted to do -41 ideas/ possibilities. • To get policies and documentation finalised before the summer holidays

Strategies for success • • • Get hold of the A 2 students straight away. Students with an ‘E’ grade(s) got a letter and appointment before term began 2 Us at AS and the students were asked to leave. (My first official job as Head of Sixth Form! 7 were asked to depart on results day. ) Any under achieving students were quickly identified and parents were seen Go in hard- not popular, but with all the other strategies the students saw I was working for them.

Strengths • The only was up! • A large number of experienced professional teachers who were performing well at KS 3 and GCSE. • A group of very malleable students • A blank page to work with • The support (although not always the understanding) of the SLT

Get Sixth Form teaching moved up the staff’s agenda • • • Key Stage Five Working Party. Meeting number 1. Watchword- sensitivity (‘not another meeting!’). Aim-progress. Outlined my aims and why I felt that it was necessary for Heads of Department to meet and discuss the Sixth Form. • Tips for successful teaching in the Sixth Form. • Those that attended felt very positive about everything and I left feeling there was a common sense of purpose ( those that didn’t attend were the departments who needed to!).

Moving the Sixth Form up the agenda • Meeting 2 of the Key Stage 5 working party • Showcasing hot departments and new ideas. 4 departments- English Literature, Drama, Business and Graphics all did 10/15 minutes on what has made them successful. • Sociology/Psychology also contributed on a session about the use of questionnaires for students both as a tool for identifying their weaknesses as learners but also the weaknesses of the way the syllabus is delivered. • Was this divisive? • I thought it raised the bar and gave everyone something to think about.

Beacon school • Used our beacon school partnership as a point for debate. Drayton Manor School in Ealing. A very high performing school in an area of social deprivation. I visited the Sixth Form to discuss their approach to success- a lot of that success came from an investment in time, staffing and SLT support.

Getting the less experienced teachers familiar with what is expected of them • Inset for teachers new to teaching or new to the Sixth Form teaching-what makes a good lesson, what makes a good teacher and what to do when things are going wrong both in terms of your lessons and in terms of departmental performance.

Meet the parents…… • • Parents Evenings. We increased the number to two per year. Previously there was only one parents evening for both Year 12 and 13. This was too busy for staff and for the Year 12 s it occurred too early in the year. The new idea was to have Year 13 in November and Year 12 in February. However underachievers, poor attendees etc from the other year group were sent letters inviting their attendance to the other parents evening 3 Grade reports instead of 2 meant every student was able to be monitored accurately against their target grades. Students were able to set themselves frequent short term targets from this. Newsletters- A half-termly Sixth Form newsletter is sent by post to parents outlining achievements, important dates, future events and ‘hot topics’ Website information. Meetings-Getting parents in is used as frequently as possible to resolve issues of not working or underachievement. Parents don’t like it, students hate it and things tend to resolve themselves ASAP. Phone calls-For the good things and the bad things that little bit of contact is appreciated.

Think positive • Prizes • Using PTA money we were able to award prizes to those students who helped out around school, who performed school service to an impressive level, who had put the most effort into each academic subject. Prizes were often obscure or jokey –pork scratchings, Thomas the Tank engine advent calendars, magazines or were WHSmith vouchers. • Year book • Letters were sent home for a good grade report or for helping out at a school event like open evening.

Big re-sit programme • Study leave • Paying for those students who struggle to afford basic costs! • Results

Group hugs • • • PE Quiz competitions Interform football/basketball Year book Leavers t-shirts/ boxer shorts Barbecues and parties

High visibility • Popping in • Information sheets looking for praise or criticisms from various teachers • Weekly assembly for each year group with SLT presence. • Daily tutorial with me dropping in as much as possible

The whole child • PSHE-Alcoholics Anonymous, Blood Donors, Gap, Pre-driver training, Financial awareness, UCAS support, Job applications, Amnesty International • A chance to get everyone together in a timetabled exercise.

Any factors that helped us? • We had a set of students that were good at their chosen subjects at A-Level but they performed less effectively in their GCSEs as a package ( therefore their target grades were easier to achieve ).

The future? • There are still several departments who have not embraced change and remain cold or on the brink of it. Long-term trends indicate a consistently indifferent performance. • Increasing lesson observation and monitoring from a Sixth Form management perspective. • To inculcate the students with a greater sense of drive!!! ( Any ideas? ) • To put in a biometric attendance monitoring package that will allow us to have a greater overview of students working patterns • To get Sixth Form issues further up the agenda with SLT.