Context Summary of key findings from the Xxxxx Community School( copied from the school’ s final project report, see Appendix 2 for full report)
Whilst some of the data will show a decline in predicted grades, this does not mean the intensives have not had impact. There are many contributing factors within a child’ s school year that affect their performance, and it could be related to this that there has been a decline. Additionally, there are some cases where the decline may have been more without the intensive sessions.
It is noted by the school that teachers are often conservative with their final predictions as they would prefer to see the final results higher than what they have said rather than the opposite. However, it should be noted this doesn’ t correlate with what the difference between predicted an actual grades across all the programmes.
The sessions have allowed teachers to have targeted time with students and focus on their needs specifically rather than to a whole class. Using the niche groups allowed the sessions to be tailored and bespoke to the students in them.
Summary of key findings from Project Leader’ s interview with Assistant Headteacher
Student groups to target( underachieving boys, underachieving girls, underachieving shine and grades 3 / 4 borderline students) were identified by Heads of Departments and were thought to be the groups which needed attainment raising interventions the most.
Teaching staff were selected by Heads of Departments, based on their skillset i. e. who can motivate borderline students. All sessions were bespoke and centred around what students needed. Staff Identified the needs of each group and designed sessions based around addressing the gaps in their knowledge and / or skills.
Logistically, it is worth noting that students were missing lessons from other subjects to attend intensive sessions, and all the tutoring took place after school.
The feedback from the teachers is that students felt valued and listened to / were given attention, which upped their confidence and engagement and that the sessions concentrated on developing subject specific skills they previously lacked e. g. answering exam questions and exam techniques.
Some of the funding was used to purchase refreshments and rewards within the sessions to incentivise students and keep them engaged, which worked well.
Direct impact of the sessions has been difficult to prove, as some students’ performance went down, which may be due to external circumstances surrounding the child.