Raising the achievement of GRT pupils - Large village case study

Date of issue: Jan. 2008

Theme: Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils

Focus: Curriculum development, transition and working with parents

Background

This primary school has 210 children on roll. It includes a Foundation Stage unit which offers 52 part-time places for three-year-olds and 55 full-time places for four-year-olds. A children's centre facility is being built on the school site. The school serves a relatively deprived catchment area and there is an above average number of children with special educational needs. Within the catchment area, there are a large number of Gypsy families who have lived in houses near the school for several generations. Many of the families are proud of their Gypsy background and continue to follow their cultural traditions. It is estimated that over 50% of children in the school are from a Traveller background, although only 32% ascribe themselves as Gypsy/Roma on the annual school census. There is a Traveller site situated in the local area and at present two Travellers of Irish heritage attend the school.

The November 2007 Ofsted report acknowledged the school's good links with parents and their understanding of the cultural background of families in their catchment area:

'There is a strong understanding of the cultural heritages of the children and the school makes significant efforts to ensure that all children feel valued, safe and secure.' (Ofsted, 2007)

What is being done?

The vision of the school is to provide an inclusive education where every child feels welcomed and valued. The headteacher is committed to building strong and lasting partnerships with the community. A key focus is to provide a supportive ethos where parents feel able to approach any member of staff with concerns or issues; families are encouraged to feel full participants in the life of the school. There is recognition by the senior leadership team (SLT) of the importance of a culturally-inclusive curriculum and an environment that reflects and celebrates the diversity of the school population.

The headteacher leads initiatives to build good relationships with the families. These have included activities that support and value Traveller culture and recently have included the following:

A Gypsy artist worked with the children and parents delivering art workshops, modelling good practice in raising aspirations and celebrating Traveller culture.
The parents and children took part in developing a DVD. It traced the family history of Travellers in Surrey and was shown at the local community centre.
A Traveller storyteller worked with families and children using cultural stories to enhance knowledge and improve literacy skills.

Further initiatives supporting children and families have been implemented in order to increase attendance, self-ascription of GRT pupils and raise attainment. These include the following:

A rigorous self-assessment process (based on the Ofsted self-assessment process) in relation to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) children to develop whole-school policies and approaches to raise GRT achievement.
Data has been analysed and pupil progress has been tracked in order to inform teaching and learning and introduce appropriate intervention programmes to improve literacy, numeracy and science.
The school improvement partner (SIP) includes discussion on progress and tracking of the GRT cohort during the termly progress visit.
SLT has liaised with the neighbouring secondary school and transition intervention programmes have been introduced which target those vulnerable at the transfer stage. Additional visits have been arranged and a buddy system is in place.
SLT has worked with link primary schools in the area disseminating effective practice.
The introduction of a breakfast club where Year 6 boys from Traveller backgrounds were targeted with personalised intervention programmes for literacy, numeracy and revision classes for national tests in English and mathematics.
A parent group was established to support adult and family learning.
Parents were invited to a meeting to discuss the issue of ascription to Gypsy/Roma and Irish Traveller categories and express their concerns.
The local authority Traveller education service (TES) and SLT have worked in partnership to improve self-ascription to Gypsy/Roma and Irish Traveller ethnic categories focusing on the new intake and communicating with parents to address concerns.
The school family link worker targeted the non-attendance of families and supported them with preventative strategies.
The TES has supported the school with advice and cultural materials to develop schemes of work which highlight the history and background of Travellers. This is now embedded in the curriculum.
Engagement with parents, including home–school liaison, has increased enrolment of Early Years GRT children and ensured a smooth transition from the Foundation Stage to Year 1.

Outcomes

The school has a clear understanding of the need for strategic management of the progress of GRT children.
The school has clear mechanisms in place to track the progress of GRT children at individual pupil level and group level as well as tracking attainment in terms of gender.
There was 100% attendance by GRT children for the 2007 national tests with some parents altering travelling commitments to ensure their children stayed at school to sit the national tests.
The school has forged active and productive links to share good practice and focus on Key Stage 2 to 3 transition.
The school has developed excellent and often innovative practice in parental engagement.
The school has actively sought both parental and pupil voice in order to gain better understanding of the aspirations and values of the GRT community.
There has been strong parental commitment to the breakfast club and high attendance of GRT children.
Traveller children are actively involved in the school council.
There is improved GRT attendance. At the school's presentation evening 50% of attendance prizes were presented to Traveller children.
During the period of a year the number of children being ascribed as Gypsy/Roma has more than doubled, indicating greater confidence on the part of families to acknowledge their Traveller status.
TES and mainstream staff work collaboratively to embed Gypsy and Irish Traveller culture in the curriculum and in schemes of work.

Feedback

'I feel strongly about being able to engage with parents even though it takes a long time to build up trust with them. It is important to see where they are coming from and take that on board. It is really important to see the whole child and care for the whole child.' (Headteacher)

'I always make sure that we value diversity by explicitly teaching about difference and tolerance, for example some members of the class were intolerant of a new boy and I felt that this would be a good opportunity to do some work on Traveller culture, so we are doing a scheme of work which is a differentiated programme and celebrates the Gypsy heritage.' (Year 6 teacher )

'We really home in on language as a priority in the first half of the school term. Many of the children coming in to school are not used to sharing their parents or resources or even time to speak; they tend to speak over each other. Many have not been away from their parents at all or key members of their family. We work within small groups so the adult can focus on the language skills of the individual child.' (Foundation Stage teacher)

'We have used the self-evaluation form for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children in this particular school; this has enabled the headteacher to look at her practice and see what is going well for GRT children and build on that and feed it into the Ofsted SEF. This has ensured that the school asks very important questions of their practice in order to see how they can raise the achievement and close the gaps for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children.' (Traveller Education Service manager)

'The strategies we use to ensure transition to secondary school are very much about partnerships with primary schools starting in Year 5 and continuing in Year 6. We also work very closely with families and with the young people themselves. Our aim is to identify any barriers that might make transition not so smooth then together we encourage the transition to be as successful as possible. We also work with other agencies, Traveller Education and the Youth Service. We have an extensive programme that supports the families at this time of transition.' (Head of extended learning – secondary school)

'The LA identifies the underachieving cohorts by centrally held data and supports schools with advice on planning, implementing and evaluating provision for GRT children. What this school does particularly well is develop excellent relationships between the headteacher and the Gypsy, Traveller and Roma community and enables them to do a lot more. Equally, the school is conscious of the aspirations of all groups and they make sure the challenge and support is right for all vulnerable groups.' (LA school improvement partner)